Reformation Day and John Calvin

Tomorrow is Reformation Day ... and it means something to me ... because history means something to me ... the stories told by the past, and the stories we tell about the past ... to try to figure out who we are, and if there’s something worth standing for (dangling participle, I know!).


I’ve read Calvin’s “Institutes,” in their entirety, at least 5 times, in preparation for teaching a one-year course on them ... in bits and pieces, countless times, since my first selective reading at, where else, “Calvin College.”


At one point, while working on my D. Min, I wrote to a half-dozen or so Calvin scholars and asked for some sense of what they thought his genius might be, and each replied with a slightly different take on him.


Which is to say, Calvin was about as multifaceted as anyone of us can be.


His “Institutes,” of course, a theological distillation of years worth of work ... combined with his letters, often deeply pastoral, his pissy attitude toward those who challenged him, his endurance in the face of criticism and threat, his openness to science, his affirmation of politics as a high calling, his concern for education, and a decent sewer system in Geneva - make Calvin fully human, and a man worthy study.


But more than anything else, his regard for God ... yes, a sovereign God whose love prevails in all matters, a love that will see this world through all sorts of travail and sorrow to bring it to the place where it belongs.


Double-predestination and all (take a deep breath here), which is nothing more than Calvin’s affirmation of God’s hand upon us all, in such a way, as to insure, and to assure, this business of salvation, and, for Calvin, this business of damnation.


For me, omit the damnation part, and we’ve got something worth while.


In a world of change, where things often go upside down, full of misery and war and hate, the love of God prevails.


Rob Bell says it well, Love Wins!


That’s about as Calvinistic a thing as any writer could offer.


Which is to say, I like Calvin - always have and always will, likely.


Did he make mistakes?


Indeed - when he should have kept his mouth shut, he didn’t. He spoke of things in a loud voice when hushed whispers would have been better.


But who hasn’t screwed up on this score?


But screw-ups and all, Calvin loved God, and understood that God’s love for us was a powerful love, an effective love, that would see us through, and the world with us, to the appropriate end.


I like that kind of faith.


It’s all about courage to keep on keepin’ on ... because love wins. So don’t give up, don’t retreat, don’t run away.


Stay the course, because God stays the course.


Of course.And on this score, Calvin was right, and if that’s only thing he was ever right about, that’s enough, to insure his place in the pantheon of Christian Thinkers who yet deserve our attention and our gratitude.