Presbyterians across the church have had July 2009 marked on their calendars for years, in eager anticipation of the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. Or perhaps not.
Lutherans adore Martin Luther. Methodist hearts are strangely warmed by John Wesley. Anglicans even have a sardonic fondness for Henry VIII. But Presbyterians are uncertain at best about John Calvin and his legacy. Calvin is not a Reformed idol.
Our reluctance to venerate John Calvin would have pleased him. Calvin did not want the reverence of future generations. Among other safeguards against idolization, he specified that he be buried in Geneva’s common cemetery in an unmarked grave. Although there is a Rue Calvin in Geneva today, his house no longer stands, and no one knows quite where it was.
Contemporary Presbyterian ambivalence about Calvin is largely the result of a reputation shaped by his adversaries, particularly seventeenth century opponents of Reformed churches. Myths were created that persist to this day in the popular mind — that the bleak doctrine of double predestination was the core and focal point of his theology, that Calvin instituted a reign of moral terror in Geneva, and that he relished burning heretics at the stake. Contemporary scholars present a far more balanced picture, but the caricature persists.
At the conclusion of an admittedly laudatory biography of Calvin, Theodore Beza, his successor in Geneva, wrote, “Since it has pleased God that Calvin should continue to speak to us through his writings, which are so scholarly and full of godliness, it is up to future generations to go on listening to him. … “ Future generations have continued to listen, not passively, but with a lively engagement that sometimes learns from Calvin, sometimes argues with him, and sometimes discovers that contemporary questions and answers are revised by their contact with his questions and answers.
As the Calvin Jubilee approaches, it is worth recalling some of the ways his thinking has shaped the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the ways in which a recovery of Calvin’s vision might help to renew our faith and life.
First, Calvin broke down the medieval church distinction between “clergy” and “laity.” The two-tiered system that divided the church into the clergy, consisting of deacon, priest, and bishop, and the laity — consisting of all the rest — was dismantled. In its place, Calvin created three ordered ministries within the vocation of the whole people of God. The rest of Christendom called two of these ordered ministries “laity,” but Calvin established the offices of elder and deacon as full ministries in partnership with the pastoral office; each had its own function within the unified ministry of the church.
Sadly, Calvin’s vision has faded among contemporary Presbyterians. Too many congregations devalue deacons (if they even have them) and reduce elders to a mere board of directors for an ecclesiastical organization. The ease with which we Presbyterians refer to “clergy and lay” (even in our official documents!) is symptomatic of the very un-Reformed “clericalization” of our church. Calvin may remind us of what we’ve lost, and lead us to a recovery of the full ordered ministries of elders and deacons.
Second, matters of social and economic life were at the heart of Calvin’s theology. He did not see them as footnotes to the gospel or addenda to the nature of the church, but integral to knowledge and service of God who is Creator and Redeemer of all of life. He would have been puzzled by the contemporary distinction between compassion and justice. Any separation of theology and ethics would have been foreign to his comprehensive thinking about Christian faith and life.
The PC(USA) continues to engage social and economic issues, working for justice while engaging in ministries of compassion. Yet our uncertain grasp of the deeply theological quality of our commitments too often leads to their politicization. Calvin may help us to retrieve a fuller appreciation of the gospel’s social and economic character, and a more inclusive understanding of the theological character of social and economic issues.
Third, Scripture was central to all that Calvin said and did. We may mistakenly think of the Institutes of the Christian Religion as a scholastic work of systematic theology, but Calvin saw as its purpose, “to prepare and instruct candidates in sacred theology for the reading of the divine Word, in order that they may be able both to have easy access to it and to advance in it without stumbling.” Calvin’s preaching and writing shared a thorough, lively engagement with Scripture as God’s present, living word to the church.
Contemporary use of the Bible is oddly constricted. Much congregational Bible study appears to be about what people used to believe long ago and far away, rather than about God’s self-revelation to us. Theological and ethical studies often restrict Scripture to hasty service as a “biblical basis” for what is to follow. Discussion of pressing, contentious issues in the church reduce the full biblical witness to small bits of useful data in the debate. Calvin might help the contemporary church restore Scripture to its ecclesial place as “the word of God written,” by which the church’s “faith and obedience are nourished and regulated.”
Much more could be said, of course, and the Jubilee year, 2009, presents the PC(USA) with a marvelous opportunity to listen to our forebear John Calvin. Our attention to Calvin is not an antiquarian endeavor or an exercise in hagiography. Instead, it is a chance to enlist his help in probing the depths of our faith and faithfulness.
Mark 2009 on your calendar. Mark especially July 8-11, 2009, the dates of a Calvin Jubilee Conference at Montreat that will open the PC(USA) to fresh winds of the Spirit blowing from sixteenth century Geneva!
Joseph D. Small is director of Theology Worship and Education Ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a core member of Re-Forming Ministry.
