Calvinism & Protestantism

Reformation (~1517-1648)

 * Die Reformation wurde in Deutschland überwiegend von Martin Luther, in der Schweiz von Huldrych Zwingli und Johannes Calvin angestoßen. Ihr Beginn wird allgemein auf 1517 datiert, als Martin Luther seine 95 Thesen an die Tür der Schlosskirche zu Wittenberg geschlagen haben soll, aber ihre Ursachen und Vorläufer reichen weiter zurück. Als Abschluss wird allgemein der Westfälische Frieden von 1648 betrachtet
 * Martin Luther (1483-1546)
 * Luther reformed the idea of sainthood: While in medieval times asceticism the essence of life was after-life (you were a saint when you withdraw from your life, only fast) → with Luther the essence was to be active in this life, in your occupation, that’s when you’re a saint! Fulfill your duty in this life is what God wants! You have to perform in the job and social position that you have! Work is good. Regular productive work is as good as being a priest or nun. In the book of Genesis, work was a punishment for in Garden of Eden.
 * Martin Luther also emphasized individuality – no more intercession of saints. No more group membership like the catholic church emphasized, but rather individual and direct contact with God
 * This is not a theory of change; it is a theory of the reproduction of the status quo! Luther actually sided with political conservatives → the Lutheran “calling” remained traditional!
 * Now to rationalize you have to get rid of magic this is what Calvinism brought! (no more saints pictures in churches)  the idea of predestination → God helps those who help themselves
 * Beforehand, corrupt priests made you buy your way into haven. Not anymore with Calvin: you can’t do anything in this life! You’re predestined! So where does the protestant work ethic come from?
 * Early Christianity taught that it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. The rich came to Christ and said “I’ve done everything I did. How can I get into heaven” and Christ said: “Give away all your stuff” BUT how did we get to “God wants you to have prosperity”? → “The God of Calvinists demanded of the them not a single good works but a life of good works combined into a unified system” + the idea of the necessity of proving one’s faith in worldly activities
 * Uncertainty of whether you are predestined and in the Book of Life created an existential quandary. If you want to know whether you go to heaven or hell, work hard and you will see whether your work will be rewarded. This will be a sign of whether God loves you! Thus, you don’t work your way into heaven but to get the sign of God that you are on the right track!

Theology

 * Johannes Calvin (1509-1564)


 * Salvation by grace alone


 * Predestination:
 * Reformed theologians teach that sin so affects human nature that they are unable even to exercise faith in Christ by their own will
 * Reformed theologians believe that God communicates knowledge of himself to people through the Word of God. People are not able to know anything about God except through this self-revelation
 * God’s self-revelation is through the mediator Christ alone
 * God predestined some people to be saved. This choice by God to save some is held to be unconditional and not based on any characteristic or action on the part of the person chosen. This view is opposed to the Arminian view that God's choice of whom to save is conditional or based on his foreknowledge of who would respond positively to God


 * The Five points of Calvin
 * Main point: God saves every person upon whom he has mercy, and that his efforts are not frustrated by the unrighteousness or inability of humans
 * 1) "Total depravity/inability/Original Sin": as a consequence of the fall of man into sin, every person is enslaved to sin. People are not by nature inclined to love God but rather to serve their own interests and to reject the rule of God  "totally depraved" and "utterly perverse" were used by Calvin
 * 2) "Unconditional election" asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, his choice is unconditionally grounded in his mercy alone
 * 3) "Limited atonement": Jesus’ substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its purpose and in what it accomplished. This implies that only the sins of the elect were atoned for by Jesus’ death. All Calvinists would affirm that the blood of Christ was sufficient to pay for every single human being IF it were God's intention to save every single human being. But Calvinists are also quick to point out that Jesus did not spill a drop of blood in vain, and therefore, we can only be sure that His blood sufficed for those for whom it was intended. The controversy centered on whether this limited efficacy was based on God's election (the view of the Synod and of later Reformed theologians) or on the choice of each person and God's foreknowledge of that choice (the view of Arminius).
 * 4) "Irresistible grace/efficacious grace": asserts that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith. This means that when God sovereignly purposes to save someone, that individual certainly will be saved. The doctrine holds that this purposeful influence of God's Holy Spirit cannot be resisted, but that the Holy Spirit, "graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ."
 * 5) "Perseverance of the saints2 (i.e. those who are set apart by God): since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with (1 John 2:19), or, if they are saved but not presently walking in the Spirit, they will be divinely chastened (Hebrews 12:5–11) and will repent (1 John 3:6–9).


 * Covenant theology:
 * This framework orders God's life with people primarily in two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is made with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
 * Through the influence of Karl Barth, many contemporary Reformed theologians have discarded the covenant of works, along with other concepts of federal theology. Barth rejected the idea that God works with people in this way. Instead, Barth argued that God always interacts with people under the covenant of grace, and that the covenant of grace is free of all conditions whatsoever.


 * Sin, Salvation & Sanctification:
 * People are created good and in the image of God but have become corrupted by sin, which causes them to be imperfect and self-interested
 * While people continue to bear God's image and may do things that are outwardly good, their sinful intentions affect all of their nature and actions so that they are not wholly pleasing to God
 * Reformed theologians, along with other Protestants, believe salvation from punishment for sin to be given to all those who have faith in Christ. Faith is not purely intellectual, but involves trust in God's promise to save. Protestants do not hold there to be any other requirement for salvation, but that faith alone is sufficient
 * Sanctification is the part of salvation in which God makes the believer holy, by enabling them to exercise greater love for God and for other people. The good works accomplished by believers as they are sanctified are considered to be the necessary outworking of the believer's salvation, though they do not cause the believer to be saved

Spread of Calvinism

 * Missionary work in France, ultimately reaching the Netherlands


 * During the English Civil War, the Calvinistic Puritans produced the Westminster Confession, which became the confessional standard for Presbyterians in the English-speaking world.


 * Calvinism became the theological system of the majority in Scotland (see John Knox), the Netherlands (see William Ames, Frelinghuysen & Brakel) and parts of Germany (those adjacent to the Netherlands)


 * In Hungary and then independent Transylvania Calvinism was a significant religion. In the 16th century the Reformation gained many supporters especially in Eastern Hungary, Hungarian populated regions in Transylvania. In these parts the Reformed nobles protected the faith. Almost all transylvanian dukes were Reformed


 * Most settlers in the American Mid-Atlantic and New England were Calvinists, including the English Puritans, the French Huguenot and Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (New York), and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Appalachian back country. Dutch Calvinist settlers were also the first successful European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th century, who became known as Boers or Afrikaners


 * Sierra Leone was largely colonized by Calvinist settlers from Nova Scotia, who were largely Black Loyalists, blacks who had fought for the British during the American War of Independence.


 * Some of the largest Calvinist communions were started by 19th and 20th century missionaries. Especially large are those in Indonesia, Korea and Nigeria. In South Korea there are 20,000 Presbyterian congregations in about 9–10 million church members, scattered in more than 100 Presbyterian denominations. In Korea Presbyterianism is the largest Christian denomination


 * Members of Presbyterian or Reformed churches make up 7% of the 801 million Protestants globally, or approximately 56 million people

Presbyterianism (~1560-1800)

 * John Knox (1513-1572): spent time studying under Calvin in Geneva, returned to Scotland and urged his countrymen to reform the Church in line with Calvinist doctrines


 * Part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism


 * Presbyterian churches derive their name from the presbyterian form of church government, which is governed by representative assemblies of elders


 * Emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures, and the necessity of grace through faith in Christ


 * Presbyterian church government was ensured in Scotland by the Acts of Union in 1707 which created the kingdom of Great Britain


 * The Presbyterians (“presby” = elders + “eria” = organization) come along: Be frugal with your money and don’t spend it on yourself! Reinvest in business and give to charity.


 * The Presbyterian denominations in Scotland hold to the theology of John Calvin

Pietism

 * Pietism was an (or the most) influential movement within Lutheranism that combined 17th-century Lutheran principles with the Reformed emphasis on individual piety and living a vigorous Christian life. Im deutschsprachigen Raum entwickelte sich nach dem Trauma des Dreißigjährigen Krieges der Pietismus, der sich unter anderem durch Hinwendung auf den persönlichen Glauben und eine Neuorientierung auf die Bibel auszeichnete. Eine große Rolle spielten kleinere Konventikel (heute: Hauskreise).
 * Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705): known as the "Father of Pietism"
 * Some of its theological tenets influenced Protestantism generally, inspiring the Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement
 * Though Pietism shares an emphasis on personal behavior with the Puritan movement, and the two are often confused, there are important differences, particularly in the concept of the role of religion in government
 * The pious (=fromm) subject is the center of focus of the pietist movement while pure teachings and unity of the church drift to the background

Erweckungsbewegungen

 * 17. Jahrhundert: Puritaner, Pietismus und Quäker:
 * Die ersten Erweckungen werden schon im 16. Jahrhundert in England und Schottland berichtet, wo puritanische Prediger unter dem Einfluss von Calvin um die Erneuerung der Staatskirche bemüht waren. Die ersten Prediger hielten schon vor 1550 Freiversammlungen ab und riefen Menschen zu Bekehrungen auf, die sich dann teilweise schon recht spektakulär ereigneten. In England war im 17. Jahrhundert die Universität von Cambridge zeitweilig in fester Hand der Puritaner, welche eine Schule von Predigern ausbildete, die in den kommenden Jahrzehnten in England, Schottland und Irland zahlreiche regionale Erweckungen auslösten.


 * Im 18. Jahrhundert: Methodisten und Great Awakening:
 * Nach der puritanischen Ära war die Erweckungsbewegung geprägt vom wesleyanischen Methodismus, initiiert von John und Charles Wesley im anglikanischen Kontext in Großbritannien, und das Great Awakening in den amerikanischen Kolonien unter der theologischen Führung von Jonathan Edwards und George Whitefield im reformiert-kongregationalistischen Umfeld. Trotz der unterschiedlichen Ausgangssituationen hatten beide Bewegungen viel gemeinsam: öffentliche Predigten, oft unter freiem Himmel, persönliche Bekehrung der Einzelnen, Integration der Bekehrten in übersichtliche Gruppen, Reform des persönlichen und sozialen Lebens.


 * 19. Jahrhundert: Baptisten, Methodisten, Heiligungsbewegung, Neupietismus:
 * In den Vereinigten Staaten war das 19. Jahrhundert eine Abfolge von Erweckungsbewegungen. Anfänglich dominierten im Norden die Methodisten mit ihrem Circuit-Riders-System, wobei ein Prediger die Gemeinden eines ganzen Distrikts betreute, im Süden die Baptisten mit unabhängigen kongregationalistischen Gemeinden. In Baden leitet Aloys Hennhöfer eine Erweckung ein.


 * 20. Jahrhundert: Evangelikale, Pfingstbewegung und Charismatische Bewegung:
 * Am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts kam es in den Vereinigten Staaten zu einer überkonfessionellen Strömung konservativer Christen, die insbesondere ihre Sicht der biblischen Lehre betonten. Diese Bewegung teilte sich in den 1930er Jahren in die Fundamentalisten und die Evangelikalen, die um die Mitte des Jahrhunderts durch Prediger wie Billy Graham starken Zuwachs fanden. In den Erweckungen der Pfingstbewegung wurde der Heilige Geist, die Erfüllung eines Gläubigen mit dem Heiligen Geist und die Gaben des Heiligen Geistes wiederentdeckt.

The Puritans (~1600-1700)

 * The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed.
 * Richard Baxter, Thomas Gouge, William Bridge, Thomas Manton, John Flavel, Richard Sibbes, Stephen Charnock, William Bates, John Owen, John Howe
 * “Puritan” = against pleasure
 * A group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices; their beliefs emigrated to England (e.g. Cambridge, Netherlands, New England and Ireland
 * The puritans wanted to work hard; we are forced to do so. This order is now bound to the technological and economic conditions of machine production
 * Benjamin Franklin and the Puritans: get up early and go to bed late so you don’t have to waste the candle
 * Puritans, by definition, were dissatisfied with the limited extent of the English Reformation, and the Church of England's tolerance of practices which they associated with the Catholic Church. They formed, and identified with, various religious groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety
 * Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in that sense, were Calvinists
 * Pietism: a movement within Lutheranism;; emphasis on individual piety and living a vigorous Christian life; shares an emphasis on personal behavior with the Puritan movement
 * In alliance with the growing commercial world, the parliamentary opposition to the royal prerogative, and in the late 1630s with the Scottish Presbyterians (today the Church of Scotland) with whom they had much in common, the Puritans became a major political force in England and came to power as a result of the First English Civil War (1642–46).

Methodism

 * [John Wesley] (1703-1791) & Charles Wesley (1707-1788)


 * Inspired by Pietism


 * (1703-1793): "Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can"


 * Travel, preach, discipleship


 * Because of vigorous missionary activity, the movement spread throughout the British Empire, the United States, and beyond, today claiming approximately 80 million adherents worldwide


 * Distinguishing Methodist doctrines include Christian perfection, an assurance of salvation, the priesthood of all believers, the primacy of scripture and works of piety

Works of piety

 * = spiritual disciplines that along with the Works of Mercy, serve as a means of grace, and are necessary for Christian perfection; the 5 works are: prayer, searching the scripture, holy communion (Abendmahl), fasting, Christian community, healthy living


 * Prayer, be it in the congregation, in the family, or in one's closet, was typically listed as the first "work of piety," among which also figured searching the Scriptures (by hearing, reading, and meditating upon them), reception of the Lord's Supper, fasting or abstinence, and "conversation with the children of God." These "ordinances" were understood to be the instituted and usual means by which God's grace was channeled to the church; and all Methodists, but especially the lay leadership and (after the ordinations of 1784) the ministers, were expected to diligently to employ them


 * Wesley argued for the notion of Christian perfection and against Calvinism – and, in particular, against its doctrine of predestination


 * John Wesley insisted that the Works of Piety were important because they "further ensconced believers in a spiritual world of conflict in which humans needed to pursue holiness with the same vigor with which they sought their justification in this life, Christians could achieve a state where the love of God "reigned supreme in their hearts", giving them outward holiness


 * Emphasizes to experience Jesus Christ personally, "social holiness", missionary zeal, charity and service to the poor and vulnerable  These ideals are put into practice by the establishment of hospitals, universities, orphanages, soup kitchens, and schools to follow Jesus Christ's command to spread the Good News and serve all people


 * They teach that Christ died for all of humanity (deny predestination), not just for a limited group, and thus everyone is entitled to God's grace and protection; in theology, this view is known as Arminianism


 * Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including prison reform and the abolition of slavery (in the US, it became the religion of many slaves; later forming black churches in the Methodist tradition)


 * Early Methodists were drawn from all levels of society, including the aristocracy, but the Methodist preachers took the message to labourers and criminals who tended to be left outside organized religion at that time. In Britain, the Methodist Church had a major impact in the early decades of the making of the working class (1760–1820)


 * Methodism: God loves your life to have a plan and be organized, to plan ahead, to live life with a method. God wants somebody who has a goal in mind. You should be methodical in your life, in your work, in your savings

Summary

 * First Luther said that work is holy, now Calvin says that business shows that God loves you. Next, the Methodism kick in. Thus, people who behave on the basis of these beliefs:
 * 1) Work harder
 * 2) Who prove by succeed in business as a sign that they are going to heaven
 * 3) Are more planful
 * 4) Are more frugal and reinvest their money


 * 1867 Marx: Religion is the opium of the masses that induces a passive acceptance of the horrors of capitalism. If people are happily poor and dream of the rewards they get in heaven, they’re not as likely to revolt/demand their fair share of the pie here on earth


 * 1904 Weber: The protestant catalytic ingredients for capitalism
 * Weber: people didn’t tolerate capitalism because of religion, they only became capitalists because of religion
 * 1. Protestantism makes you feel guilty (Catholics just confess their transgressions, protestants live under constant heightened anxiety of a God whose intentions you can’t know as well as lifelong guilty desire to prove their virtue to a severe, all-seeing but silent God)
 * 2. God likes hard work (heightened feelings of fear are diverted into hard work “The protestant work ethic”; the original sin of Adam could only be expunged through toil – God doesn’t like time off)
 * 3. All work is holy (before only priests, nuns etc.; now also the professional’s work in the name of God)
 * 4. It’s the community, not the family, that counts (catholics: the family is everything; protestants: the family can be a haven of selfish/egoistic motives  direct your selfless energy to the community as a whole)
 * 5. There aren’t miracles (disenchantment of the world: prosperity isn’t sth. mysterious or dained by God, only through industrious work and sensibly over many years  without miracles people turn to science for explanations and changes


 * To spread capitalism, one has to work at the level of ideas (the modern equivalent of religion is culture)


 * Es ist die Eigenheit des Protestantismus, seine Schäfchen zu fleißiger und lustfeindlicher Arbeit anzuspornen, was modernen Kapitalismus erst zur Blüte getrieben und den Typus des modernen Berufsmenschen herausgebildet hat


 * Weber argued that theologies of predestination looked at idleness as a sign of negative predestination, and insisted that «losing time is the most capital of capital sins»; Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution kept alive the Protestant urgency by secularizing it. Losing time was no longer a sin against God but against the moral order of capitalism  Time was reorganized based on the notion of «working time» in the factory


 * Weber: “The greatest historic process in the development of religion is the elimination of magic from the world” (magic=people have means with which they can make God do sth. for us)


 * Weber is not suggesting the substitution of a one-sided spiritualist explanation for a one-sided materialist explanation; merely that the independent change in theological change from medieval Catholicism to reformation, a rationalization (i.e. replacing traditional & emotional thought with reason and practicality) of religious thinking, the loss of magic, the rationalization, the predestination. And if this would not have happened, capitalist institutions would not have been able to develop (not a cause!).


 * Of course, there was also an evolution of the economic systems. There is an elective affinity between the two: if you have the proper ideas and economic institutions  BINGO: then you have capitalism!


 * In the 12th century China everything was ready for capitalism but the ideas of Confucianism did not give the ideological framing which would have helped capitalism. Thus, the idea of elective affinity:


 * Weber rejects the simple causal relationships between idea and material conditions and substitutes it with an interactive effect.


 * You got your hard-working, abstinent people, saving money, planning ahead, tightening to others, told their not supposed to spend it on themselves (which we have changed in later years). They’re reinvesting in business. Capitalism means that people sell their labor and goods for as much as they can get. They buy their business items for as cheap as possible. The purpose is to make profit.


 * Whereas Marx had argued that religion served only to keep the rich in power, Weber said that religion can also be the source of throwing people out of power. A religious ideology/belief system can cause social change!

Neo-Protestantism

 * Neo-Protestantism are proud of their lives of constant exhaustion minutely structured around 'the compatibility of job and family'

Further materials

 * Extensive reading list on Calvinism & Capitalism/Weber etc.