Evangelicalism is in the midst of a Calvinist revival. Increasing numbers of preachers and professors teach the views of the 16th-century French reformer. Mark Driscoll, John Piper and Tim Keller ”” megachurch preachers and important evangelical authors ”” are all Calvinist. Attendance at Calvin-influenced worship conferences and churches is up, particularly among worshipers in their 20s and 30s.
In the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, the rise of Calvinism has provoked discord. In a 2012 poll of 1,066 Southern Baptist pastors conducted by LifeWay Research, a nonprofit group associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, 30 percent considered their churches Calvinist ”” while twice as many were concerned “about the impact of Calvinism.”
Calvinism is a theological orientation, not a denomination or organization. The Puritans were Calvinist. Presbyterians descend from Scottish Calvinists. Many early Baptists were Calvinist. But in the 19th century, Protestantism moved toward the non-Calvinist belief that humans must consent to their own salvation ”” an optimistic, quintessentially American belief. In the United States today, one large denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, is unapologetically Calvinist.
How quickly we forget that the most popular cur dog name in Geneva in the years of John Calvin were “John” and “Calvin.”
Huh? I just wasted 7 minutes of my life reading this entire article. I have no,idea what it is about. I know some woman professor doesn’t like Calvin because he didn’t think women should be in ministry (unlike all those other 16th and 17th century theologians who were advocating for women’s ordination?). I am open to lovely debate but I’d like some inkling of what these folks are against. If I were totally ignorant of theology after having read this article, I would assume Calvinism had something to do with communicable diseases. My personal view is the Devil really loves it when we argue about “isms” rather than using that same energy to tell people about the living Jesus.
This is what passes for coverage of religious news by the New York Times. They can’t be bothered to understand it either.
Archer, Mike McManus told a group of us that he was working in the news room of a newspaper (I think it was the Times but I’m not sure about that) and the news editor came into the news room and said “does anybody here ever go to church?” He was the only one, so they made him the religion editor. Today, at the Times, nobody has ever been to church. I guess the sole qualification now is walking and breathing.
Calvin was brilliant but his writings, after masterfully expostulating on a Bible verse, take so many swipes at Catholicism that I think he needs to be read with care today. I would hope that both classic Protestantism and Catholicism have matured in the intervening years.