John Calvin

1. John Calvin

2. Martin Luther (1483-1546) • “I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

3. John Calvin (1509-1564) • “If Luther sounded the trumpet for reform, Calvin orchestrated the score by which the Reformation became a part of Western civilization.”

4. Institutes of the Christian Religion • “It is a book that has few rivals in the enormity of its impact on Western history and ecclesiastical and political theory.”

5. Geneva Academy • “The crowning achievement of Calvin was the establishment in 1559 of the Geneva Academy.”

6. Absolute Sovereignty of God • The Roman Catholic God “could be summoned at clerical command, localized and dismissed by the chemistry of stomach acids.”

7. Calvin’s Birthplace • The deeper mystics would agree that everything is grace, but they would not limit it to a few chosen ones.

8. Abuse of Sacraments • Calvin did not want the sacraments turned into “quasi-magical and mechanical” means of receiving grace. The faith of the recipient is crucial.

9. Summary • Christians can still meditate with profit on what Calvin has to say about the transcendence of God, the absolute freedom of grace, and the call to a deep interior response of faith.

10. The Paradox of the Reformation • In the end, we see a profoundly spiritual impulse and movement create, ironically, many of the forces that would lead to the modern, secular world.