Some surprises started unfolding when a team of Calvin Theological Seminary professors and graduate students recently launched the Post-Reformation Digital Library.
Chief eye-openers included successfully tracking down rare Reformed theologians’ manuscripts once thought lost.
Another revelation: 16th-18th century theologians and philosophers were brutally honest about their doctrinal positions and emotions, including the well-known Reformer John Calvin, who pushed the boundaries of good taste in a sermon about rowdy adolescents.
“We’ve got things coming out of the woodwork that (were) lost for centuries,” said Todd Rester, a doctoral student who served on the project’s six-member editorial board.
I doesn’t appear the theologians were overly concerned with “civil discourse.” Maybe it makes sense sometimes to call a spade a spade. I wonder why there’s no link to the digital library? Must be a private repository. I don’t see one on the seminary’s website, but I may have missed it.
Actually, I admire the plain-spokenness of so many of the Reformers, however polarizing and inflammatory it may have been. We need a lot more such plain and unambiguous language today, especially in a cynical age weary of spin doctors.
But Calvin and Knox, Bucer and Bullinger, Zwingli and Vermigli, could never compare with the bluntness and “earthiness” (not to say, crudity) of Martin Luther. That’s one of the reasons why I find Luther so fun to read. Sometimes infuriating, but always stimulating and even fun.
I often wish I could get my fellow Anglicans (understandably weary of strike) to heed this cheeky little admonition of mine:
[i]Say what you mean. Mean what you say.
Then let the chips, fall where they may.[/i]
I’m delighted that some long-lost manuscripts are unexpectedly coming to light and are now becoming available for scholars to study. That’s always a good thing.
David Handy+
RE: “I often wish I could get my fellow Anglicans (understandably weary of strike) to heed this cheeky little admonition of mine: . . . ”
But what about people just tuning out such rhetoric and moving on, indifferent to the message?
Good point Sarah. I think if there’s no substance to go along with the biting words, people will tune them out. And we are reminded to “outdo one another in showing honor” in Romans. But, I don’t think it shows honor to pretend ideas that are truly abhorrent are credible and worthy to be disseminated to our children.