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Yet “Calvinism” has become a curse word in the vocabulary of many people, and the name of John Calvin carries unpleasant baggage. Far from being inclined to celebrate his quincentennial, people are inclined to hate John Calvin without ever having read his books or learned anything about him. Marilynne Robinson, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel Gilead, lamented this rough treatment of Calvin in an essay she published in her 1998 bookThe Death of Adam. In her essay, Robinson referred to the reformer by his French name, “Jean Cauvin,” just to “free the discussion of the almost comically negative associations of ‘John Calvin,’ which anglicizes the Latin name under which he wrote, Ioannes Calvinus.” She calls him Cauvin because “the name Calvin …is so burdened that I choose to depart from custom.”
These are words worth hearing from one of our greatest living novelists. Marilynne Robinson is an artist whose imagination has been honed and polished by her Reformed theology. But Calvin does not belong only to the Calvinists; his contribution to all thoughtful Christians is too great to belong only to those who confess themselves to be Reformed. Speaking for myself, I am a Wesleyan theologian, and I dissent from the theology of Calvin at three or four (or maybe five) crucial points. But I have learned more from John Calvin than from any other theologian, especially about the great, central doctrines of the Christian faith.
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?
I'm not sure if you meant this rhetorically or not, but I think it is an interesting question. If Calvin has become a theologian that you must pretend to like, even though you reject his theology, then oh how the tables have turned in the last 50 years!
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?
I'm not sure if you meant this rhetorically or not, but I think it is an interesting question. If Calvin has become a theologian that you must pretend to like, even though you reject his theology, then oh how the tables have turned in the last 50 years!
Maybe I live in a bubble or something, but Calvin seems to be a pretty popular guy. He seems to be more poplular than his theology.