TEACHINGS OF CALVIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

TEACHINGS OF CALVIN

WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE.

(By S.)

Tt is 400 years ago last August since Calvin published his "Institutes of the Christian Religion"—his systematic statement of theology based on the teaching of Scripture. I wrote on the occasion of that anniversary two column articles on Calvin and his work, which appeared in another part of the magazine section. In view of the fact that it is 400 years this August since he entered on his ministry in Geneva, an epoch making event that is being celebrated by Presbyterians and others, here and in every part of the rlobe, I am making a brief reference to him.

It has been said that, as a reformer, he ranks second only to Luther. That is true; it is also true that as a statesman and a creative theologian, he was superior to Luther. It was he, along with Luther and some others whose lot was cast in the sixteenth century, who gave shape to the imagination of the Europe of their day, and to its future practice. It is true that same of the things ho wrote are hard to l>elicve, that he was stern and unbending, and that his rule in Geneva was harsh. But as to rule in Geneva, it was harsh before he ever entered, it, and there are socalled. Christian and civilised countries to-day where it is harsher still. He was iike all the reformers in his overemphasising of the sovereignty of God, and his share in the death of Servetus is, admittedly, a blot on his reputation, but the only blot on it as far as we know, s And, as Coleridge asserted, and as unbiased students of the time will agree, it was not his guilt only; it was the common opprobrium of all European Christendom. His brilliant countryman, Theodore Beza, who was his colleague and biographer, paid this tribute to him: "I have been a witness of Calvin for 10 years, and I think I am fully entitled, to say that, in this man, there 'was exhibited to all an example of the life and death of the Christian as it will not bo easy to depreciate, and such as it will be difficult to emulate."

Calvin's influence radiated throughout the whole of Christendom, and even those who traduce his memory owe him a debt of gratitude for the political and other liberties he made possible. As Green says in his "History of the English People," it is in Calvinism that the modern world strikes its roots; for it was Calvinism that first revealed the worth and dignity of man. It has been chiefly the Huguenots of France, the Protestants of Holland and Belgium, the Presbyterians of Scotland and throughout the world, and the Puritans and Independents of England and America, on whom he most left the impress of his genius, and it is not so long since a prominent Congregationalist divine in England declared, amid applause, to a crowded gathering of clergymen and laymen:—"We are the children of Geneva." It is worthy of note < that a deepened interest is being taken, even in unlikely quarters, in Calvin and his teaching, due, ill no small part, to the influence on their students, and on the readers of their writings, of such outstanding exponents of Calvinism as Barth and Br miner, both of whom arc Presbyterians.