4. John Calvin Flashcards
What was Calvin’s first successful work which contributed towards a systematization of the protestant reformation?
Institutes of the Christian religion
Who was John Calvin and how did he contribute to the reformation?
- Born in 1509, converted in 1532-1534
- wanted to study theology, did so initially, but father forced him into law, after his father died he returned to theology.
- Humanist education
- Responsible for the success of the reformation outside Germany and Scandinavia
- calvin drew up a church order, a set of rules for governing the church
- established the academy at Geneva, the first protestant university (Geneva academy, 1559)
- Calvin’s theology is stern, often referred to as reformed
Discuss the significance of the institutes of the Christian religion?
Calvin wrote it hoping to convince king Francis I that Protestantism posed no threat to his rule. However the treatise did not have the intended result and calvin was forced to leave France. It served to systematize protestant beliefs
Who was king Francois I?
- felt threatened by protestant reformation and started hunting them down
Discuss Geneva?
- Geneva became the city of refuge for Protestants
- calvin established a holy city in Geneva
- elders of there Calvinist church governed the city and imposed strict discipline in dress, sexual mores, church attendance etc.
- both catholic and Protestants who disagreed with calvin were persecuted.
- calvin writes “Defense of orthodox faith” to justify severe treatment of those opposing Calvinism
- calvin became the leader of the reformed and evangelical movement in Geneva
- Geneva became the center of international Protestantism
- calvin trained a new generation of protestant reformers of many nationalities who carried his message back to their homelands.
- Calvin’s institutes became the leading textbook of the new theology
Explain Calvin’s tulip doctrine?
T- total depravity U- unconditional election L- limited atonement I- irresistible grace P- perseverance and preservation of the saints
Explains Calvin’s theology of predestination?
Calvin explained salvation in terms of oredestination. God grants grace for his own inscrutable reasons and knows in advance who will be saved and who will be condemned to hell. Although people are predestined to salvation or damnation, they can never know their fate with certainty.
Calvin’s theology?
For Calvinists, obedience to Christian law became the dominating principle of life
Who was Michael Servetus?
- Hold to anti trinitarian views of the godhead
- Calvinists severely punished irreligious and sinful behavior
- resulted in the notorious trial and burning of Servetus, effectively putting an and to Calvin’s opposition.
What were the effects of Calvinism on the protestant movement?
Started in Switzerland: Calvinists England: puritans Scotland: Presbyterians Holland: Dutch reform France: Huguenots Germany: reformed church
