My impression of John Calvin as a Bible nerd, a heady theologian, and the brains of the Reformation remained unchanged after I read the majority of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in seminary.
But as xenophobic rhetoric has taken off in the public square in recent years, I was taken aback by how frequently respected Reformed teachers like Tim Keller and Nicholas Wolterstorff cited Calvin as an authority for learning how to love refugees and immigrants as ourselves. I wondered, “Where was this side of Calvin when I was in seminary?”
This question set me on a journey to rediscovering John Calvin, an endeavor that’s produced a newfound appreciation for the great reformer and his pastoral heart for “the other.” As an immigrant myself, it’s difficult to describe the validation I experienced as I read Calvin, the most respected theologian of the Reformation, defend the newly arrived Protestant refugees and immigrants flooding into the city of Geneva against xenophobic, native Genevans and their elite. Consequently, what Calvin has to say about refugees and immigrants is more relevant than ever for Christians in America today.
How Did We Get Here?
According to the late Canadian Presbyterian theologian, Allan Farris, conservative North American Calvinists have largely been influenced by the doctrinalist stream (emphasizing the mind) of Reformed theology while liberal North American Calvinists have been more influenced by the sacramentalist/Barthian stream (emphasizing experience).
Yet, both seem to have largely overlooked the third stream of Reformed theology: the culturalist stream (emphasizing the body), which finds its greatest proponents in the French, Dutch, and Swiss Reformed. This trifurcation partly explains why American Christians tend to have a negative perception of Calvin as a stuffy, heady theologian.
This third stream attempts to appreciate Calvin’s contributions to sociopolitical and economic thought within the Reformed tradition, a topic that’s of increasingly greater importance within our communities.
If these three streams, or pillars, buttress Calvin’s theological worldview, then Calvin would’ve considered this last stream as evidence for the biblical faithfulness of his two other streams of thought. Without the third, there would be no way to put his theology to the test (Matt 7:15-20).
Who is John Calvin?
History hasn’t been kind to John Calvin. He was a pastor and Protestant Reformer who lived out most of his life in Geneva, Switzerland, as a refugee, having been granted citizenship only six years before his death. If truth be told, the stereotype of Calvin being a mean-spirited, dogmatic tyrant with an unhealthy obsession over the doctrine of predestination while depriving his church of the pleasures of life couldn’t be further from the truth.
According to Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, one of Christianity’s greatest systematic treatments of the Bible, whether one enjoys the fruits of one’s labor (3.10.1) or indulges in laughter, music, or wine (3.19.9), everything is to be done with a clear conscience, in moderation, and with mindfulness of one’s poor and oppressed neighbors (e.g., 3.7.5, 3.7.6, and 3.10.5). In fact, the last principle — with mindfulness of one’s poor and the oppressed neighbors — was central to much of Calvin’s preaching and teaching.
As a poor refugee himself, Calvin had a keen understanding of the plight of those fleeing religious persecution from all over Europe. Geneva had become a haven for Protestants who had lost everything for the sake of following Christ. As these refugees arrived at the gates of Geneva, the city council and native Genevans wrestled with job shortages, wage decreases, and xenophobic attacks against these new arrivals.
As a pastor, it was under such dire circumstances that Calvin courageously preached, on many occasions at the risk of his own life, against the Genevan elite for hoarding their money instead of donating to the needy or providing low-interest loans to refugees to start their own businesses (e.g., 3.7.5, 3.10.3, and 3.20.44). He and the Consistory (similar to elder boards in most of our churches today) even disciplined native Genevans for public xenophobic outbursts.
As a reformer, Calvin used his influence over the city council to sentence to death (at least on one occasion) those found guilty of randomly assaulting refugees on the streets, depending on the severity of the pain inflicted. To some, Calvin’s high view of justice may seem unreasonably harsh. But to others, even to the majority of native Genevans at the time, there was simply no place for racism or xenophobia for Reformed Christians.
Calvin’s Theology of the Whole Person
What was most surprising about rediscovering Calvin was his refusal to dichotomize ministry to the body and ministry to the soul. In commenting on Galatians 5:14, Calvin lays out a harsh warning against so-called “Christians” who are interested in the salvation of their souls and spiritual-pietistic practices at the neglect of loving their neighbors. This lack of concern for works of mercy and exclusive prioritization for the ministry of the soul is for Calvin an expression of self-love that produces great social injustices, including cruelty, violence, and “all kindred vices” — which include xenophobia and ethnocentrism. According to Calvin, “Such people are asses.” The true test of genuine salvation is determined less by individual piety and more by social ethics.
In the Institutes, he even argues that suffering for defending the gospel and suffering for standing up against injustices are equally honorable. He writes, “Whether, therefore, in maintaining the truth of God against the lies of Satan, or defending the good and innocent against the injuries of the bad, we are obliged to incur the offence and hatred of the world” (3.8.7).
In the end, what most impresses me about Calvin’s theology is his doctrine of humanity. He emphasized the infinite value of individuals and the unity of the human race (see his sermon on Luke 10:30) because we are all created in the image of God. In his sermon on Galatians 6:9-11, he reminds his congregation, “We cannot but behold our own face as it were in a glass in the person that is poor and despised…though he were the furthest stranger in the world. Let a [Muslim] or a barbarian come among us, and yet inasmuch as he is a man, he brings with him a looking glass wherein we may see that he is our brother and neighbor” (see also Institutes 3.7.6).
Much more could be said about Calvin’s teachings on loving “the other” and his doctrine of humanity on this month commemorating the anniversary of the Reformation. In writing this essay, however, my hope is that we may learn to appreciate a much-neglected aspect of Reformed theology, one that the North American church could greatly benefit from as we seek to demonstrate to the world the meaning of 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.”