Calvinism

John Calvin was born in Noyon, France, in 1509, and originally trained as a lawyer before turning to theology. 

In 1536 he published The Institutes of the Christian Religion, his personal testament of faith written to put an end to the divisions within the expanding Protestant movement. This introduced Calvin's doctrine of predestination, under which God predestines certain souls (the elect) through the sacrifice of Jesus to salvation, and the others whose fate is damnation. He emphasised the utter sinfulness of mankind that cannot be saved unless they are one of the elect, one of the chosen ones to be saved. 

The five points of Calvinism are summarised by the acronym TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. These were formally codified at the Synod of Dort (Netherlands, 1618–19). 

Calvin believed there are three tests that constitute a good yardstick by which to judge who is God's chosen, the elect and therefore saved. Firstly participation in baptism and the Lord's Supper, secondly, a public declaration of one's faith and lastly a righteous moral life. 

Calvin settled in Geneva, which became known as the "Protestant Rome" under his influence. In 1541 he established the Genevan Consistory — a body of pastors and elders — to oversee church discipline and moral life in the city, making it a model of Reformed governance for the wider Reformation. 

Calvinism was adopted in Scotland, parts of Switzerland, and the Netherlands; by the Puritans in England and New England, USA; and by the subsequent Congregational and Presbyterian churches in the USA. 

1661 portrait of the interior of the Oude Kerk, a Reformed (Calvinist) church in Amsterdam

French Calvinists were known as Huguenots. In the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of August 24, 1572, thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and across France in a wave of Catholic mob violence.

Sociologist Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–5), argued that Calvinist theology — particularly the doctrine of predestination — helped create the conditions for the rise of modern capitalism, as believers sought outward signs of being among the elect through hard work and thrift. 

Although Calvinism is rarely accepted today in its strictest interpretation, the 20th century has seen a neo-Calvinist revival through the work of Karl Barth. 

 Source Encyclopedia of Trivia © RM 2013. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.