Calvin on War

Ecclesiology, 2008

In 1992, Douglas F. Kelly published Th e Emergency of Liberty in the Modern World. In this book, Kelly described the infl uence of Calvin's thought within fi ve governments in fi ve countries (Switzerland, France, Scotland, England, and America) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Kelly focused on liberty in the sense of democracy and stated that the democracy which developed in these countries was inspired by Calvin's thought. Since then John Witte Jr. wrote Th e Reformation of Rights, a more widespread book than Kelly's. He describes how the debates about rights developed in certain areas of the Western tradition: in Geneva, Holland, England, and New England. He argues that the debates about rights in these areas were inspired by the teaching of the Genevan Reformer, John Calvin. For Witte, Calvin developed arresting new teachings on authority and liberty, duties and rights, and church and state that had an enduring infl uence in Protestant countries. Calvin's infl uence can be traced in certain persons such as Th eodore Beza in Geneva, Johannes Althusius in Holland, John Milton in England, and the Puritans in New England. According to Witte, Calvin-and later his followers-developed a distinct theology and jurisprudence of human rights and gradually cast the teachings of these rights into enduring institutional and constitutional forms in early modern Europe and America (2). Th erefore, for early modern Calvinists, the fi rst and the most essential rights were religious rights; namely, the rights of the individual believer to enjoy liberty of conscience and free exercise of religion, and the rights of religious groups to enjoy freedom of worship and autonomy of governance. Witte begins his book with a description of Calvin's early formulation of liberty. According to Witte, Calvin based his theological framework on two kingdoms (43-45). He distinguished two kinds of liberty: (1) "spiritual liberty" and (2) "political liberty." With this concept as a point of departure, Calvin then related liberty to moral law, state law, and church law. In all these laws, Calvin urged adherence to democratic processes and respect for liberty within the church, and not only in the state (79). Calvin's followers applied this concept and practiced it in the context of their own lives during the period of early modern Calvinism. Emerging in Geneva, Th eodore Beza faced the crisis of St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 in which some 10,000 to 100,000 French Calvinists were slaughtered in the course of a month of barbarism instigated by French Catholic authorities (106). Johannes Althusius-a German born, Calvinist juristtried to apply Calvin's and Beza's political and legal teachings to the war which was fought

Ecclesiology, 2010

Often caricatured for its rigidity, harshness and hostility to the arts, Calvinism has suffered from frequent misrepresentation, not least in Scotland. In particular, the identification of Calvin's theology with double predestination and religious intolerance present formidable difficulties for a contemporary appropriation of his work. While adopting a critical approach to key aspects of Calvin's thought, this essay nevertheless seeks to understand and to recover other important features of his life and work including his rhetorical strategy, the concept of divine accommodation, and his approach to church, sacraments and ministry which remains an important ecumenical resource.

2008

Barth delivered the lectures that form the basis of this commentary in Basel during the winter of 1940-41, five years after he had been banned from his teaching post in Bonn for his criticism of the Nazi regime. The historical context gives added interest to his reflection on Rom 9-11. While Barth does little to mitigate what he takes to be an account of Israel's disobedience in those chapters, he forcefully refutes the idea that the Jews have been finally rejected by God, calling anti-Semitism the "most potent form of disobedience." God wills the "disobedient Synagogue," according to Barth, in order to extend mercy to the world. However, if the Jews' "rejection" is the Gentiles' gain, the latter's ultimate hope depends on the inclusion of Israel-and the last word has not been spoken on those whom God has "hardened." More broadly, this commentary is presented as an explication of Paul's claim in Rom 1 : 17 that the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God. Although it is the "power of God for salvation," the Gospel initially confronts humanity with God's wrath, the object of which is the sinner's mistaken selfconfidence. Salvation, the "good centre in the hard shell," lies in the acceptance of the guilty verdict borne by Jesus Christ. The believer is not made righteous in appearance only, but "seriously," and his task is to live according to the "new order" of which he is a part-or, as Barth puts it, the "imperative" is explained by the "indicative." The current volume is a reprint of the original English translation from 1959.

Reviews in religion and theology, 2010

Roland Boer has given us an important interpretation of John Calvin's political theology. Political Grace is a provocative account by a rebellious child of the Reformed tradition, one who writes with an informality that makes him feel like an old friend. His friendly tone also hints at his purpose with Calvin, which is nothing less than to re-make the old Reformer into a fellow traveler in the way of revolution. Boer does so with a writing style that is crisp and accessible, even when he considers intricate points of Reformed theology, Marxist philosophy, Straussian theory, and biblical hermeneutics. This combination of clarity and broad learning is one of the real strengths of the book. More impressive still is the book's clear argument. Taking a literary approach, Boer focuses on Calvin's Institutes. Calvin's theology, we are told, pushes toward a revolutionary politics only to be repeatedly interrupted by his own countervailing conservatism. Or as Boer states, 'John Calvin let the radical political cat peek out of the theological bag only to try his hardest to push it back in and tie the bag up again' (p. xv). Boer supports his thesis with chapters on the Bible, sin and grace, freedom, and politics. He explains that Calvin's elevated view of the Bible may challenge oppression, but it may also suppress dissent. A universal doctrine of sin may be egalitarian, but a doctrine of double predestination is aristocratic in the extreme. Gospel freedom may liberate the conscience, but the distinction of kingdoms preserves the status quo. Ironically, it is only in his politics that the radical Calvin finally breaks free to offer a clear challenge to the status quo-evil commands should not be obeyed. The final steps of Boer's argument are to track the source of this tension and then to suggest a way forward. He shows Calvin to be a close student of Paul, whose work exhibits many of the same tensions as Calvin's. Drawing on Claude Lévi-Strauss, Boer argues that both

2016

This essay consists essentially of an Identikit of Calvin and his mentality. Presented will be something of himself, how others have viewed him, and select areas of controversy in his work and thought. The intention is to illustrate chiefly that in approaching ‘Calvin’, one needs to be both circumspect and ready for surprises. Calvin’s vision of the interim cosmos ‘All the world’s a stage’, says Jaques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. It is an axiom that Calvin could assent to – ‘God has set us on a stage’, he once remarked.1 For although he had little time for theatre as box-office entertainment, Calvin did compare his concept of the divine-human relationship to ‘theatre’. He took his cue both from biblical literature and Renaissance notions of cosmic drama played out in human lives. On another occasion Calvin remarked that ‘we are spectators in the beautiful theatre of the world’.2 Note that he uses the word ‘beautiful ’ – but was not Calvin supposed to have detested the