Pillars of the church
This is part of a short series about some of the key features of Christian tradition and their relationship to neurodiversity.
John Calvin
Reformer, Theologian
Further Reading
Pillars of the church 2
Reformed Meat
- The introduction of the printing press made widespread communication much easier.
- Increasing literacy, especially among the emerging middle classes meant that more people could (or wanted to be able to) read the Bible for themselves.
- Improving scholarship meant that people could study the original text of the Bible for themselves, rather than relying on official church translations. (And yes, that was partly caused by the Fall of Constantinople in 1453).
- The official Roman Catholic church still held to the authority of the Pope, but now had a clear statement of faith from the Council of Trent, which lent heavily on the works of Thomas Aquinas.
- A large group with the broad label “Reformed”, including presbyterians, congregationalists and many Anglicans, held to views clearly expressed in documents like Calvin’s /Institutes of Religion/ and /The Westminster Confession of Faith/.
- Lutheranism, dominant in Germanic and Nordic countries, with the Augsburg Confession of Faith.
… for Irenaeus there is no interest or value in “saving information” divorced from the human experience of the Saviour. To make salvation a matter of “saving truths” is to yield the pass to the gnostic, sidestepping entirely the process of healing and integrating the whole of the human person. Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge
2. It can lead to unnecessary division from those who hold the same faith but express it using slightly different words. There’s a wonderful example of this in Charles Simeon’s conversation with John Wesley about Calvinism and Arminianism. Here’s a helpful quote from Simeon about this danger.
It is a great evil… when the advocates of different systems anathematize each other.… Mutual kindness and concession are far better than vehement argumentation and uncharitable discussion.
3. It’s only as good as the statements of faith that are used; those aren’t infallible, are often the product of just one subculture, and are often themselves subject to misinterpretation. Some statements of faith are great – the Nicene Creed has clearly stood the test of time. Others have glaring holes. For example, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is still widely seen as the benchmark for statements of that type, yet has glaring holes. (Someone could say that all the accounts of the Resurrection were written as midrash, and that Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, and still agree with everything in the statement.)
4. Blind group loyalty can take hold, with all of its attendant dangers. You can start to think that X must be good because he’s on the same side as you on this key issue, even though his lifestyle is obviously wrong. Or the statement can elevate minor issues to major ones, with the result that you write off people from who you could learnt a lot just because they disagree with you on one minor issue. People end up saying “it’s what Tom believes, so it must be right”, and they don’t realise that means that Tom has become their priest or god. It’s precisely this danger that John warned his readers against.
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:27, NIV
What matters is that we remain in Jesus and connected to him, not that we keep on agreeing with whatever flawed human summaries of God other people have come up with.
John Allister
John Allister is the vicar of St Jude’s Church in Nottingham, England.
He is autistic, and has degrees in Theology and Experimental & Theoretical Physics.