But the nearly 300 participants in the Calvin Jubilee on July 8-11 gathered mostly to think. To think deeply.
Thirteen lectures by world-class scholars presented topics ranging from “Calvin’s Doctrine of Providence” to “Calvin and Empire.”
The conference was co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Theology and Worship, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the Montreat Conference Center in western N.C., which hosted it. Austin Seminary President Ted Wardlaw kicked off the event in worship with a sermon, “Remembering Who We Are.”
Wardlaw didn’t resist the temptation to rehearse the common perception of Calvin’s dour personality. “The term ‘Calvin Jubilee’ is probably an oxymoron,” he said with a laugh. He quickly refuted that, insisting that the reformer was fun-loving, pastoral, and intensely caring.
Calvin’s theology outlined both beliefs central to the faith and beliefs precluded by the faith, Wardlaw pointed out. Introducing the theme of empire, and its role throughout Christian history, he said, “To believe, for example, in God’s sovereignty is to disbelieve in any absolute claims made by civil government.” In other words, he added, “Radical dependence upon God means radical independence from anything that is not God.”
Wardlaw’s Austin colleague, Cynthia Rigby, the W. C. Brown Professor of Theology, followed with a passionate explication of Calvin’s vision of “the wondrous glory of God.”
“There is no spot in the universe where you cannot discern even some spots of God’s glory,” she declared. Of course, human depravity has so clouded our sight that we miss seeing that glory, which should be obvious. “Our only hope is that we are assisted: we’ve been assisted, we’ve been elected. We’ve been claimed before the foundation of the world [by] the one mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ.”
The amazing thing, she said, is: “The creator, by Calvin’s reckoning, has created all that is, and was and will be; and, this same creator, the one who is sovereign, has elected me – Cindy Rigby – before the creation of the world,” she exclaimed. “How is it that we believe that God who made the earth and everything in it calls us by name? How is it that the Lord of all who has no need of any of us, refuses to leave any one of us behind?”
W. Stacy Johnson, the Arthur M. Adams Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, asked, “John Calvin – What’s not to like?” While admitting having a love-hate relationship with the Reformer, Johnson commended his insights on Scripture, salvation, the sacraments, and society.
Johnson outlined how advocates for contending positions on the authority and use of Scripture all cite passages from Calvin’s writing. But one thing is for sure, he said. “Today we associate the authority of Scripture with maintaining the status quo. In the 16th century, the opposite was the case. … It is time to put aside the notion that the Bible is a book for people trying to keep the world from changing. When Calvin read the Bible, the earth shook. And still it does.”
Serene Jones, president and Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary, helped re-contextualize Calvin, reminding conferees about the cosmopolitan nature of 16th century Geneva — “ … a global city marked by the tides and forces of immigration … a cacophony of classes and races coming together … the force of a massive technological revolution” (it was the book publishing capital of Europe at the time). In that context Calvin inspired more than the spread of gospel proclamation focusing upon the atonement, Biblical inspiration, and personal piety. He inspired the liberal vision that is head-focused and promotes social righteousness. He even inspired the secular humanism that “gives up all idols in favor of the search for real truth.”
For believers, she said, “What we see again and again in Calvin’s first book of the Institutes, is the centrality of the aesthetic: that desire matters; that we are called as people of faith to love God and not simply out of obligation … but because we passionately and with our whole being simply do desire God.”
John Thompson, professor of historical theology and Gaylen and Susan Byker Professor of Reformed Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, lifted up Calvin’s use of Scripture through the prism of his commentaries on the Psalms of cursing and lament. He said with a laugh that lectionary writers’ selective neglect of such texts suggests an approach that paraphrases Jesus’ words: “If a verse offends you, cut it out.”
Instead, Thompson expounded on such texts as windows into both Calvin’s enormous vision of God — especially of God’s care for injustice and suffering — and the psalmists’ profound grasp of the intersection between the holy God and the damaged-and-damaging world.
Among academics and increasingly among pastors of our day, some of the most current debates regarding God’s intersection with the world surround that word “empire.” Stephen Ray, the Neal F. and Ila Fisher Professor of Systematic Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Seminary, addressed the matter through the lens of slave trading in the U.S. in which reformed Christians were actively engaged. Tragically, Calvin’s own thought about the sovereignty of God was misappropriated and distorted — “colonized,” as Ray said — to “describe the fortunes of the Calvinists’ themselves but also [as] a prism through which to interpret the ‘other’.”
John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, explained the Trinitarian character of worship in Calvin’s Geneva. In stark contrast to services in many churches of our day, he said that Calvin spoke of worship that “ravish[es] with astonishment and wonder.” Calvin’s language of worship was “full of affective zeal.” Witvliet warned that about 80% of the work being done to improve worship these days attends only to what goes on in the chancel. “Wise is the church,” he said, “that focuses its efforts on liturgical renewal by encouraging and building up the participation of ordinary people.” He added a second proverb: “Wise is the church that not only forms people for church participation but prayerfully aims to get at the interior heart of worship and forms it around the beauty and glory of God.”
Calvin’s doctrine of providence in the care of creation was outlined by Randall Zachman, professor of Reformation studies at the University of Notre Dame. “Christians are the biggest whiners in the world,” said Zachman. “Say something positive and you’ll be overwhelmed by Christians saying, ‘But what about this?’ or ‘What about that?’ … But Calvin thinks … that the fact that a child emerges from the womb alive should render us speechless, … should bowl us over.” Even suffering — if it leads us to cry, “My God, why have you forsaken me,” points to God’s providence.
Michael Jinkins, academic dean of Austin Seminary, outlined one unintended consequence of Calvin’s reforming efforts: schism. Jinkins’ opening statement summarized his thesis: “John Calvin viewed schism as a violation of the one Body of Christ.” Ironically, “Calvinists have at the same time endured a history of contentious church splits while explicitly portraying schism as a sin. … The dissonance between our convictions as Reformed Christians and our church practices has troubled us for centuries.”
Of course, Calvin railed against heresy as well as schism. “Heresy may be described … as a transgression against truth. Schism, on the other hand, is a failure to love with that love revealed in Jesus Christ and given by the Spirit of God. … schism is based on the mistaken view that a lack of respect for others somehow reflects greater reverence for God.”
Jane Dempsey Douglas, the Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Historical Theology, emeriti, at Princeton Theological Seminary reflected on Calvin and women. She, along with Martha Moore-Keish, assistant professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, Cynthia Rigby, and Randall Zachman, all acknowledged that Calvin in most respects reflected the views of women that were typical of his day. However, in some respects, he was ahead of his time, and his thought opened up, and continues to open up, new possibilities for full appreciation and inclusion of women in church and society.
Joseph Small, director of the Office of Theology and Worship, took the conference back to the basic matter of the church. Outlining Calvin’s formulation — “Word and Sacrament” — he prodded: “Remember Calvin’s formulation. A true church is where the word is purely preached and heard. Congregations are active participants in proclamation, for hearing the Word requires discernment, response, and faithful action.”
That church does not stand alone, however. “As communion, the church cannot take comfort in so-called invisible unity while devolving into a juxtaposition of self-sufficient congregations and denominations. There is one Christ and so there is one body of Christ and so there is one holy catholic apostolic church, yet the church’s unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity are fully expressed only in communion among churches.”
Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of World Alliance of Reformed Churches and professor of ecumenical studies at Louisville Theological seminary, wrapped up the event by preaching a sermon that reveled in the thrill of the celebration. This birthday of Calvin is being celebrated with pitched enthusiasm by sister churches worldwide, and so the joy and excitement – as well as deep thinking – shared at Montreat, is but a sample of the great jubilee and learning going on all through the church in this birthday year.
