What is Calvinism?

Clearness of presentation demands that in this first lecture I begin by fixing the conception of Calvinism historically. To prevent misunderstanding we must first know what we should not, and what we should, understand by it. Starting therefore from the current use of the term, I find that this is by no means the same in different countries and in different spheres of life. 

1. The name Calvinist is used in our times first as a sectarian name. This is not the case in Protestant, but in Roman Catholic countries, especially in Hungary and France. In Hungary the Reformed Churches have a membership of some two and a half millions, and in both the Romish and Jewish press of that country her members are constantly stigmatized by the non-official name of "Calvinists," a derisive name applied even to those who have divested themselves of all traces of sympathy with the faith of their fathers. The same phenomenon presents itself in France, especially in the Southern parts, where "Calviniste" is equally, and even more emphatically, a sectarian stigma, which does not refer to the faith or confession of the stigmatized person, but is simply put upon every member of the Reformed Churches, even though he be an atheist. George Thiebaud, known for his anti-Semitic propaganda, has at the same time revived the anti-Calvinistic spirit in France, and even in the Dreyfus-case, "Jews and Calvinists" were arraigned by him as the two anti-national forces, prejudicial to the "esprit gaulois." pp. 12-13

2. Directly opposed to this is the second use of the word Calvinism, and this I call the confessional one In this sense, a Calvinist is represented exclusively as the out-spoken subscriber to the dogma of fore-ordination. They who disapprove of this strong attachment to the doctrine of predestination cooperate with the Romish polemists, in that by calling you "Calvinist," they represent you as a victim of dogmatic narrowness; and what is worse still, as being dangerous to the real seriousness of moral life. This is a stigma so conspicuously offensive that theologians like Hodge, who from fulness of conviction were open defenders of Predestination, and counted it an honor to be Calvinists, were nevertheless so deeply impressed with the disfavor attached to the "Calvinistic name," that for the sake of commending their conviction, they preferred to speak rather of Augustinianism than of Calvinism.

3. The denominational title of some Baptists and Methodists indicates a third use of the name Calvinist. No less a man than Spurgeon belonged to a class of Baptists who in England call themselves "Calvinistic Baptists," and the Whitefield Methodists in Wales to this day bear the name of "Calvinistic Methodists." Thus here also it indicates in some way a confessional difference, but is applied as the name for special church denominations. Without doubt this practice would have been most severely criticized by Calvin himself. During his life-time, no Reformed Church ever dreamed of naming the Church of Christ after any man. The Lutherans have done this, the Reformed Churches never.

4. As a scientific name, either in a historical, philosophical or political sense. Historically, the name of Calvinism indicates the channel in which the Reformation moved, so far as it was neither Lutheran, nor Anabaptist nor Socinian. In the philosophical sense, we understand by it that system of conceptions which, under the influence of the master-mind of Calvin, raised itself to dominance in the several spheres of life. And as a political name, Calvinism indicates that political movement which has guaranteed the liberty of nations in constitutional statesmanship; first in Holland, then in England, and since the close of the last century in the United States.

In this scientific sense, the name of Calvinism is especially current among German scholars. And the fact that this not only is the opinion of those who are themselves of Calvinistic sympathies, but that also scholars who have abandoned every confessional standard of Christianity, nevertheless assign this profound significance to Calvinism. This appears from the testimony borne by three of our best men of science, the first of whom, Dr. Robert Fruin, declares that: "Calvinism came into the Netherlands consisting of a logical system of divinity, of a democratic Church-order of its own, impelled by a severely moral sense, and as enthusiastic for the moral as for the religious reformation of mankind." Another historian, who was even more outspoken in his rationalistic sympathies, writes : "Calvinism is the highest form of development reached by the religious and political principle in the 16th century." And a third authority acknowledges that Calvinism has liberated Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England, and in the Pilgrim Fathers has provided the impulse to the prosperity of the United States.' Similarly Bancroft, among you, acknowledged that Calvinism "has a theory of ontology, of ethics, of social happiness, and of human liberty, all derived from God."

Excerpt from Lectures on Calvinism

Biographical Notes of Dr. Abraham Kuyper

For handy reference about the man:

". . . in 1907, when his seventieth birthday was made the occasion of a national celebration, it was said: 'The history of The Netherlands, in Church, in State, in Society, in Press, in School, and in the Sciences of the last forty years, cannot be written without the mention of his name on almost every page, for during this period the biography of Dr. Kuyper is to a considerable extent the history of The Netherlands.'"

"During all these years his work was many-sided to an astounding degree. As has been said: 'No department of human knowledge was foreign to him.' And whether we take him as student, pastor or preacher; as linguist, theologian or university professor; as party leader, organizer or statesman; as philosopher, scientist, publicist, critic or philanthropist — there is always 'something incomprehensible in the mighty labors of this indefatigable wrestler; always something as incomprehensible as genius always is.' Even they who differed with him, and they were many, honored him as 'an opponent of ten heads and a hundred hands.' They who shared his vision and his ideals prized and loved him 'as a gift of God to our age.'"

"In 1897, at the twenty-fifth anniversary of his editorship of De Standaard, Dr. Kuyper said: 'One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. And sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God.'"

"In his early years the religious life in his country was at a low ebb. 'Church life was cold and formal. Religion was almost dead. There was no Bible in the schools. There was no life in the nation,"

"But intimations of better things to come were not wanting. As far back as 1830, Groen van Prinsterer, a member of Parliament, began to protest against the spirit of the times. 'This brought about a revival of Gospel preaching — that by nature all men are sinners in need of the atoning blood of Christ. Great offense was taken at this. It was not long before Evangelicals could not be tolerated. It was not irreligion that was wanted, but religion such as would please every one, Jews included.'"

"Looking back upon this experience he writes: 'What my soul went through in that moment, I have only later fully understood; but yet in that hour, nay, from that very moment, I learned to despise what formerly I admired, and to seek what formerly I spurned. But enough. You know the lasting character of the impression of such an experience; what the soul encounters in such a conflict belongs to that eternal something, which presents itself to the soul years afterward, strongly and sharply defined, as though it happened but yesterday.'"

"But, under God, it was the simple country folk of his first parish that were instrumental in leading him into that fullness of spiritual life toward which his former experiences had pointed. As he ministered to them, they admired his talents; and soon they learned to love him for what he was; but they set themselves earnestly to united and individual prayer for his entire conversion to Christ. "And," as Kuyper writes afterward, "their faithful loyalty became a blessing to my heart, the rise of the morning star of my life. I had been apprehended, but I had not yet found the Word of reconciliation. In their simple language they brought me this in the absolute form in which alone my soul can rest. I discovered that the Holy Scripture does not only cause us to find justification by faith, but also discloses the foundation of all human life, the holy ordinances which must govern all human existence in Society and State."

"Thus began his Christian life. At the Cross he made the great surrender of himself to his Savior and to His service. 'To bear witness for Christ' became the passion of his life. That Christ is King in every department of human life and activity was the keynote which he kept ringing in all his writings, addresses and labors, whether as theologian or as statesman, as a leader in politics, as president of the Christian labor union, as promoter of Christian education, it was all done from the burning conviction, that: "Christ rules not merely by the tradition of what He once was, spake, did and endured; but by a living power which even now, seated as He is at the right hand of God, He exercises over lands and nations, generations, families and individuals."

"Thus the finding of some lost books, the reading of a novel, the teaching of uncultured folk, were experiences which explain in part Dr. Kuyper's great work."

"The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality, in the full and vigorous prosecution of our life. It must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."

"In pursuit of this ideal, Dr. Kuyper took time to add to his gigantic labors the writing of a devotional meditation every week. He wrote more than two thousand of them. They are entirely unique in character. They are well said to form a literature by themselves, and are in line with the best works by Dutch mystics, such as Johannes Ruysbroek, Cornelius Jansinius, and Thomas a Kempis."

Source: Excerpt from Lectures on Calvinism

Calvinism as a Life-System

"In 1789 the turning point was reached. VOLTAIRE'S MAD CRY, 'DOWN WITH THE SCOUNDREL,' WAS AIMED AT CHRIST HIMSELF, but this cry was merely the expression of the most hidden thought from which the French Revolution sprang. The fanatic outcry of another philosopher, 'We no more need a God,' and the odious shibboleth, 'No God, no Master,' of the Convention;—THESE WERE THE SACRILEGIOUS WATCHWORDS WHICH AT THAT TIME HERALDED THE LIBERATION OF MAN AS AN EMANCIPATION FROM ALL DIVINE AUTHORITY. And if, in His impenetrable wisdom, God employed the Revolution as a means by which to overthrow the tyranny of the Bourbons, and to bring a judgment on the princes who abused His nations as their footstool, nevertheless THE PRINCIPLE OF THAT REVOLUTION REMAINS THOROUGHLY ANTI-CHRISTIAN, AND HAS SINCE SPREAD LIKE A CANCER, dissolving and undermining all that stood firm and consistent before our Christian faith." 

"There is no doubt then that Christianity is imperilled by great and serious dangers. TWO LIFE SYSTEMS ARE WRESTLING WITH ONE ANOTHER, IN MORTAL COMBAT. MODERNISM IS BOUND TO BUILD A WORLD OF ITS OWN FROM THE DATA OF THE NATURAL MAN, AND TO CONSTRUCT MAN HIMSELF FROM THE DATA OF NATURE; while, on the other hand, all those who reverently bend the knee to Christ and worship Him as the Son of the living God, and God himself, are bent upon saving the 'Christian Heritage.' THIS IS THE STRUGGLE IN EUROPE, THIS IS THE STRUGGLE IN AMERICA, and this also, is the struggle for principles in which my own country is engaged, and in which I myself have been spending all my energy for nearly forty years. " 

"From the first, therefore, I have always said to myself,—'IF THE BATTLE IS TO BE FOUGHT WITH HONOR AND WITH HOPE OF VICTORY, THEN PRINCIPLE MUST BE ARRAYED AGAINST PRINCIPLE; then it must be felt that IN MODERNISM THE VAST ENERGY OF AN ALL-EMBRACING LIFE-SYSTEM ASSAILS US, then also it must be understood that WE HAVE TO TAKE OUR STAND IN A LIFE-SYSTEM OF EQUALLY COMPREHENSIVE AND FAR-REACHING POWER. And this powerful life-system is not to be invented nor formulated by ourselves, but is to be taken and applied as it presents itself in history. When thus taken, I found and confessed, and I STILL HOLD, THAT THIS MANIFESTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE IS GIVEN US IN CALVINISM. In CALVINISM MY HEART HAS FOUND REST. From Calvinism have I drawn the inspiration firmly and resolutely to take my stand in the thick of this great conflict of principles.

Source: An Excerpt from Abraham Kuyper's "Lectures on Calvinism", pp. 10-12