John Calvin

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John Calvin
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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.

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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.

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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.

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Geneva Academy

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

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Absolute Sovereignty of God

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

7
Calvins Birthplace

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

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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.

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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.

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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.