9 Things About John Calvin I Wish Everybody Knew!

As many of you know, I’m a Calvinist, but a deviant one, as I try to be a nice Calvinist. I even did a Q&A on Calvinism if you care to watch. There is a clear Calvinist flavour in my Evangelical Theology, which I explain here.

Here are the biggest misconceptions and hidden facts about John Calvin that you might have missed, ignored, or never heard of!

# 1 Calvin was a pastor and Bible teacher above all.

Although we normally think of John Calvin as a theologian, he was a pastor and teacher in the towns where he served. He organized collections for the poor and helped places like Geneva deal with outbreaks of plague. Remember too that Calvin called his masterpiece Institutes of the Christian Religion, not Institutes of Christian Theology. Calvin wasn’t interested in theology for its own sake, rather, he was interested in “religion,” i.e., the life of faith, piety, and devotion to God.

# 2 Calvinism is not TULIP

Calvinism is normally reduced to a system of salvation summarized as TULIP, which stands for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. However, these nodes of Calvinism emerged principally as a response to Arminianism at the Synod of Dort, and Calvin’s articulation of them differed in substance and emphasis compared to much later Protestant scholasticism. In other words, some Calvinists were more Calvinistic than Calvin himself!

# 3 There is no section on the Holy Spirit in Calvin’s Institutes.

I play a trick on my students as I ask them, “In which book of the Institutes does Calvin cover the doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit?” The answer is “none,” because there is no section on the Holy Spirit in the Institutes. That is because the Holy Spirit is everywhere for Calvin: Doctrines on incarnation, sacraments, church, Trinity, Scripture, and salvation, all of it is suffused with the Holy Spirit. This is why Calvin is called the “theologian of the Holy Spirit.” In Calvin’s system, the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting in works normally attributed to the sacraments and moral synergism of the medieval Catholic church.

# 4 Calvin’s biggest doctrine was not predestination, but union with Christ.

What I think is truly distinctive of Calvin’s system of theology is not his articulation of predestination, since similar constructions can be found in Augustine and Aquinas. Instead, I think Calvin’s real contribution is his doctrine of union with Christ. For Calvin, union Christ is a duplex gratia, a two-fold grace, which brings us both a forensic righteousness and regeneration/transformation. It is only in union with Christ that we attain the benefits of Christ.

# 5 Nobody reads Book 4 of Calvin’s Institutes.

While book 3 of Calvin’s Institutes is easily his most popular section, people very rarely get into book 4, because it is a manual on how to run a Protestant city! That said, Calvin was no theocrat, and he was allergic to the notion of regicide and revolution. Calvin tried to separate church and state, to render the state free from state control (i.e., Erastianism) and the state free from church control (Papism). He believed that a city’s council and clergy worked cooperatively for the good of a city.

# 6 Calvin was not the only Reformer.

Calvin was not the only Reformer. Before him there was Luther, but also other important figures like Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, and Heinrich Bullinger, who also deserve recognition for their contributions to the European Reformation.

# 7 Calvin did not have Servetus executed.

The Michael Servetus execution was a low-point of the Reformation. That said, in such a context, killing heretics, whether Anabaptists or Unitarians, was not uncommon for the times, among Protestants and Catholics. Plus, Calvin was not a citizen of Geneva and he had no authority to have anyone put to death. He also did a great deal to urge Servetus to recant his heretical views.

# 8 Calvin reinvented church ministry to include lay people in his fourfold order.

Calvin believed in a system of elders in a church, though he expressed toleration for episcopal governance too. Perhaps one of his lasting contributions was his belief in lay ministry and his conviction God’s Spirit also operated through the entire people of God.

# 9 Calvin was pro-immigrant.

Many Protestant refugees from England, Scotland, and other places fled to Geneva for refuge. Despite the strain put on the city’s finances and the sheer problem of finding space for them, Calvin was always adamant that nobody should be turned away, and everything done to help those in need.

HT: Thanks to Rhys Bezzant and Scott Harrower for helping me think through this list!

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