Calvinism Essay

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Recommended: John Calvin contributions in reformation

“John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism” (CCEL). A prominent theologian during the Protestant Reformation, his Institutes of the Christian Religion is still widely regarded today, and Calvinism continues to retain an enthusiastic following.
To know how he Calvinism came to be to be we need to start at the beginning, Calvin was born in France, and raised in a staunch Roman Catholic family. Due to his family’s nobility and societal standing, it made a strong cultural influential in his early life. Calvin never was ordained in the Catholic Church; his training was chiefly in law and the …show more content…

He also believed that the civil and church authorities were separate and should not interfere with each other. Calvin’s contribution to the Reformation cause did not end with the Institutes alone. He is also known for his another mammoth-lifetime work, namely, his bible expositional commentaries on the whole Bible.
In times between pastoring and preaching, Calvin “produced commentaries on almost every book of the Bible. He wrote dozens of devotional and doctrinal pamphlets, carried on vast correspondence, and trained and sent out scores of missionaries” (Curtis).
Calvin 's theology was not without controversy; Calvin had to defend his beliefs on the Trinity, scholars have also debated Calvin 's view of the Jews and Judaism, Calvin did not differentiate between God 's covenant with Israel and the New Covenant. He believed that all the children of the promise, reborn of God, who obeyed the commands by faith working through love, belonged to the New …show more content…

This emphasis on doing, on acting to transform a sinful world, became one of the chief characteristics of Calvinism. “In emphasizing God 's sovereignty, Calvin 's Institutes lead the reader to believe that no person, king, bishop, or anyone else can demand our ultimate loyalty” (Curtis).
Calvin had a high view of preaching, but he also encouraged Christians to have a high regard for those called to preach. Calvin alluded the preachers to be “the very mouth of God.” “He said: Those who think the authority of the Word is dragged down by the baseness of the men called to teach it disclose their own ungratefulness. For, among the many excellent gifts with which God has adored the human race, it is a singular privilege that he deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and tongues of men in order that his voice may resound in them”

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