I just received a new T-shirt for my birthday. On the front it says Columbia Theological Seminary (my alma mater) and on the back is a LARGE picture of John Calvin. Probably only a Presbyterian would ever wear this shirt, but why would anyone (including Presbyterians) really care about a French Protestant born exactly 500 years ago this July?
As our PCUSA web site asserts: “Lutherans adore Martin Luther. Methodist hearts are strangely warmed by John Wesley. Anglicans even have a sardonic fondness for Henry VIII. But Presbyterians are uncertain about John Calvin and his legacy. Calvin is not a Reformed idol. John Calvin would have been pleased by our reluctance to revere him. He did not want to be idolized by future generations. In order to discourage veneration, he specified that he be buried in Geneva’s common cemetery in an unmarked grave.”
Yet we cannot help but be grateful for Calvin’s influence on the Protestant Church in general and the Presbyterian Church in particular. Calvin placed highest value on education in the church, on teaching all Christians to read and understand scripture, not just as material to be memorized, but as a lens through which to understand the world in which we find ourselves.
Calvin saw economic justice, social compassion, and education to be central to our mission as Christians, and he established hospitals, schools, governmental support for the poor and weak. He insisted that theology could not be separated from life, and that Jesus Christ is Lord in every sphere of existence. We are who we are in many ways because of his leadership and influence. So Happy Birthday, John Calvin!
