Posted on 06/21/2009 6:34:36 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
As George III called the American Revolution, “That Presbyterian rebellion.”
We were always destined to honor John Calvin’s 500th birthday.
Plus the Walloons and the Huguenots who had a great impact on the beginnings of America...
I have treasured my studies in Calvimism in seminary. The man was an absolute genius.
Luther and Calvin served their purpose.
Thank you for posting this. It has admittedly sparked an interest in me to study Calvin a bit more deeply.
Calvinism. Sorry about the typo. Letters are worn off.
America owes a huge debt to Calvin. Most of the Founders were out of some reformed religious background.
The huge majority were Christian reformers, and even the very few who were “deists” were “Christian deists.”
It’s a verifiable fact of history.
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: If they make a mistake, I dont want them punished with a baby.
Thanks, I’ll be sure to check that out.
I have no problem with honoring Calvin on his 500th anniversary. But I do have some problems with the historicity of the “Protestant work ethic.”
I have done quite a lot of research and writing in that area, and I would say that it is, rather, a “Christian work ethic” that developed in Europe and the West, not a specificially Protestant movement.
Yes, it’s true that for whatever reason, England was central to the development of science, technology, and the agricultural and industrial revolutions. But you can find a work ethic in the Middle Ages as well as after the Reformation. And you can also trace it back to a very clear expression in Virgil’s “Georgics.” The Virgilian triad, also well known in the middle ages, involved three styles of life: pastoral leisure, georgic labor, and epic warfare.
Also, FWIW, “vocation” is not solely a Calvinist or a Protestant phenomenon. It was well established earlier in the Catholic Church that everyone has a calling. The Parable of the Talents would suffice to develop that idea.
This is what is truth in how society should operate
Oh good grief.
Anton La Vey used psychology to formulate his ideas. Your intolerance for views that differ from your own is like to that of Ahmadinejad.
Calvin did the same because his pride psychologically convinced himself that he was doing the work of God just like Ahmadinejad.
Calvin denies free will thus making God the creator of evil
Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical “Libertas” may or may not be how a society should operate, but that hardly makes Calvin’s writings, which focus on the all-encompassing sovereignty and power of God, equivalent to the Satanic Bible.
Coming from a Catholic backgroud, I admittedly have never been particularly fond of Calvin, with his doctrines of double predestination and whatnot. I will say that I have not given him a fair hearing, however, and that this article has inspired me to at least learn a bit more about his side of things.
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