Thursday 2 July, 2009

World
UK

Portrait of Young John Calvin from the collection of the Library of Geneva

By Michael Ireland

As they begin to celebrate his 500th birthday, both critics and supporters agree that spiritual giant John Calvin was America’s ‘founding father’.

On the eve of America’s Independence Day on July 4, Vision Forum Ministries is hosting a national festival to honour a man whom many scholars recognise as such.

The event – the Reformation 500 Celebration – is being held at the Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.

“Long before America declared its independence, John Calvin declared and defended principles that birthed liberty in the modern world,” noted VFM president Doug Phillips.

“Scholars both critical and sympathetic of the life and theology of Calvin agree on one thing: that this reformer from Geneva was the father of modern liberty as well as the intellectual founding father of America,” he said.

Phillips pointed out: “Jean Jacques Rousseau, a fellow Genevan who was no friend to Christianity, observed: ‘Those who consider Calvin only as a theologian fail to recognise the breadth of his genius. The editing of our wise laws, in which he had a large share, does him as much credit as his institutes… So long as the love of country and liberty is not extinct amongst us, the memory of this great man will be held in reverence.’”

He added: “German historian Leopold von Ranke observed that ‘Calvin was virtually the founder of America’. Harvard historian George Bancroft was no less direct with this remark: ‘He who will not honour the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.’

“John Adams, America’s second president, agreed with this sentiment and issued this pointed charge: ‘Let not Geneva be forgotten or despised. Religious liberty owes it much respect.’

“As we celebrate America’s independence, we would do well to heed John Adams’ admonition and show due respect to the memory of John Calvin whose 500th birthday falls just six days later,” Phillips stated.

Calvin, a convert to Reformation Christianity born in Noyon, France, on July 10, 1509, is best known for his influence on the city of Geneva.

“It was there that he modelled many of the principles of liberty later embraced by America’s founders, including anti-statism, the belief in transcendent principles of law as the foundation of an ethical legal system, free market economics, decentralised authority, an educated citizenry as a safeguard against tyranny and republican representative government which was accountable to the people and a higher law.”

For those who thought the founding of America was the work of the Pilgrim Fathers, whose leaders came from the English counties of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, the point is that they were profoundly influenced by the reformation theology of Calvin which caused them to be released from the shackles of institutionalised religion into an understanding of what Christianity really meant – a personal relationship with the author of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Jesus said: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free…”

_{Michael Ireland is chief correspondent of ASSIST News Service, carrying stories of what is being done around the world in Christ’s name.}

Photo: Public Domain