Exiles and Calvinist Identity

Historians tend to agree that the experience of exile had a decisive impact on the organizational structures of Calvinism, and on its theology and identity, encouraging the development of independent church structures, and a strong Reformed confessional culture. Meanwhile, the decision to go into exile is considered a catalyst for wider radicalization among Calvinists. But this consensus is problematic. So many refugees were ready to negotiate their beliefs that it raises the question of whether the notion of radicalized exiles really matches the experiences of sixteenth-century believers. Like other Protestants, Reformed theologians were inclined to identify their church as a suffering church. This chapter argues that exile did not contribute to the development of orthodox Calvinism.

Calvinism and Theater in Early Modern England and the Dutch Republic

The effect of Calvinism on European literary culture was powerful and long-lasting, creating a highly mobile, dynamic, transnational community of writers, publishers, translators, and readers. Many of these readers of Calvin had an interest in the stage. After all, the Institutes of the Christian Religion was translated into English in 1561 by Thomas Norton, coauthor of the blank verse, political tragedy Gorboduc. Calvin’s ideas and imagery were appropriated by English and Dutch playwrights from across the confessional spectrum. This chapter argues that there is a distinctiveness to this literature, often itself the product of the experience of religious war, persecution, and exile: a militant, combative providentialism, combined with a pronounced dualism, often shading over into apocalypticism; a preoccupation with, and fear of, the dangers of idolatry; and an inclination to a rigorous, frequently punishing, form of religious introspection and self-examination.

Calvin, Calvinism, and Philosophy

Although John Calvin was not a philosopher by profession, he was educated in the subject; although Calvin became a theologian par excellence, he had no formal theological education. One might expect such a person to be a philosopher first and a theologian second. But Calvin subordinated his philosophy to his theology, without anesthetizing the philosophy. Calvin’s attitude to philosophy was to use it warily, as a tool for the conceptual elaboration of doctrine, and in polemics, with a resistance to speculation. His use of the philosophers of the ancient world was rather eclectic. This chapter argues that Calvin does not follow any one ancient school in appealing to philosophical insights or distinctions from various quarters where he thought they helped his argument, and he introduced these unselfconsciously, but in a way that shows familiarity with them.

Calvinism and War

Reformed Protestants found themselves involved in some of the bloodiest conflicts of sixteenth-century Europe. The Reformed criticism and rejection of the old Church made peaceful coexistence unlikely, and when Reformed movements found themselves increasingly under pressure to conform, they grew less and less willing to do so. A life “under the cross” grew less palatable in Calvinist minds, especially since Calvin himself had warned against the spiritual dangers of “Nicodemism,” that is, pretending not to be a dissenter to preserve one’s safety. This chapter argues that one of the major intellectual projects of sixteenth-century Calvinism was to provide a theological rationale for what seemed to most people to be politically unthinkable: war against established government. The leading thinkers of the Reformed movement, in their writings at least, were certainly not reluctant to confront, provoke, and fight back for the sake of the gospel.

Calvinism and Literature

Calvinists wrote indefatigably, flooding early modern Europe with sermons and commentaries, theological treatises and works of polemic. But for some critics, early modern Calvinism has seemed fundamentally inimical to the production of literature in any form. These views have retreated in the face of recent work, which has highlighted—or, at any rate, acknowledged—the Calvinism of some significant authors. These efforts have been most sustained where the poetry of John Donne and George Herbert is concerned. The critical history of these two poets provides us with an excellent, if not altogether encouraging, case study in the search for a Calvinist poetic.

Introduction

Calvinism did not develop as a uniform Christian tradition across early modern Europe. Nor did Calvinism make a discrete, standalone impact on the development of European culture. This introduction does not seek to establish or to reinforce a set of unambiguous arguments about what Calvinist culture was, is, or ought to be, nor is it concerned with outlining how, in some linear fashion, Calvinism shaped European and global cultures or contributed to the cultures of modernity. Instead, this introduction offers a portrait of Calvinism and Reformed religion, understood as a sociocultural phenomenon as well as an expression of truth claims about God and the world, to examine how this form of Christian religion developed in different cultural settings. This introduction also supports an analysis of the ways in which Calvinism related to the multi-confessional cultural environment that prevailed in Europe after the Reformation.

Calvinism and Moral Discipline

The exercise of discipline was a central feature of Reformed religious life. A culture of moral discipline was not simply imposed from above by clergy and elders on passive or resentful communities. Especially in areas where joining a church was not merely a matter of obeying state laws, we need to account for the enduring popular appeal of Reformed ideals of moral renewal. Synods, clergy, and elders certainly held much greater power than ordinary church members in determining the culture of moral discipline in Reformed societies. However, in the work of consistories we find informal processes of negotiation over the limits of acceptable behavior and appropriate sanctions against offenders. This chapter explores evidence from one French community to examine the role of clergy, consistories, and congregations in the culture of Reformed moral discipline.

Calvinism and Education

Calvinists left their stamp on different academic institutions with consequences that neither they nor their disciples could control. Reformed Protestants adapted to specific circumstances to carry out their efforts of ecclesiastical reform. From questions about the control of institutions of advanced learning and the purposes of university education, to ones about the actual content of the curriculum and the difficulty of balancing theology, the arts, and natural science, Calvinists struggled to retain theological orthodoxy at the center of the educational enterprise. This challenge continued even when Calvinists started institutions from scratch. This is illustrated in case studies of the universities of Geneva, Leiden, and St. Andrews.

Calvinism and Visual Culture: The Art of Evasion

This chapter considers the seeming impossibility of reconciling Reformed interdictions with a burgeoning of the arts. Pictures proliferated in post-Reformation Europe. In spite—or perhaps because—of Reformed Protestant prohibitions, the visual arts flourished even in places that embraced Calvinism, with its noted distrust of the image. In the Dutch Republic, for instance, the Reformed faith was adopted as the public confession, yet a lively and prosperous art market was a dominant feature of the so-called Golden Age of cultural and economic vibrancy. The central claim of this chapter is that Calvinism generated an art of evasion and, in so doing, it brought about significant—and often unanticipated—changes to cultural life.

Calvinism, Conversion, and the Science of the Self

Rather than laying out an unambiguous account of his experience of regeneration, or of the assurance of salvation, Calvin allowed his spare moments of self-reflection to support narratives of both lysis and crisis conversion. While these tropes had an extended pedigree, their juxtaposition in his description of conversion provided an unstable foundation for the “true and sound wisdom” that made possible the “knowledge of God,” and introduced or identified an ambiguity in the science of the self that would create acute psychological and spiritual concern for future generations of his followers about the experience of new birth and the assurance of salvation that, Calvin believed, was its normal accompaniment. As Calvin’s Institutes began to circulate within the English-speaking world, this ambiguity would resonate in the other kinds of Calvinist life writing in which they developed their understanding of conversion and the science of the self.