The Dogmatism of Calvin

Frank Viola has posted on his blog a list of shocking beliefs held by John Calvin. You can read the entire entry here. It is a very damning list. Calvin's issues were manifold: a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship of the old covenant and the new, an overwhelmingly and surprisingly graceless religion (for a guy who talked so much of grace, there was precious little grace in praxis), and the establishment of a new, Protestant and arguably more despotic Christendom in Geneva. A list like this serves as a healthy reminder for Protestants of all stripes (Reformed or not) that we should be careful about whom we idealize in our popular imagination. This also serves as a cautionary tale that we have never really done the whole "Christian nation" thing very well.