John Calvin

Martin Luther ( ) “I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

John Calvin ( ) “If Luther sounded the trumpet for reform, Calvin orchestrated the score by which the Reformation became a part of Western civilization.”

Institutes of the Christian Religion “It is a book that has few rivals in the enormity of its impact on Western history and ecclesiastical and political theory.”

Geneva Academy “The crowning achievement of Calvin was the establishment in 1559 of the Geneva Academy.”

Absolute Sovereignty of God The Roman Catholic God “could be summoned at clerical command, localized and dismissed by the chemistry of stomach acids.”

Calvin’s Birthplace The deeper mystics would agree that everything is grace, but they would not limit it to a few chosen ones.

Abuse of Sacraments Calvin did not want the sacraments turned into “quasi- magical and mechanical” means of receiving grace. The faith of the recipient is crucial.

Summary Christians can still meditate with profit on what Calvin has to say about the transcendence of God, the absolute freedom of grace, and the call to a deep interior response of faith.

The Paradox of the Reformation In the end, we see a profoundly spiritual impulse and movement create, ironically, many of the forces that would lead to the modern, secular world.