Calvin exercised a tremendous influence in the development of the modern world, and not just in terms of church life but also in democracy and culture. Calvin’s theology has played an important part in the development of the Christian tradition, affecting the liberty and wealth of nations as well as personal destinies.
His character and gifts convey such paradoxical complexity that the “moderation” he so often praised is a prerequisite. We feel the tension in many places in his work. Several times in the Institutes he speaks about the rule of charity that looks for progress, “hoping for better things in the future than we see in the present”. God “changes the worst men into the best, engrafts the alien and adopts the stranger into the church”. And the Lord does this to check our judgment, so we do not assume a greater right than it deserves.
The occasion of the commemoration of the 500 th birth day of Calvin in 2009 offers an opportunity to revisit Calvin’s theological heritage during the 8th IRTI conference. So in this IRTI Conference we will be looking back at Calvin’s theology, especially in the Institutes, as it is his most read work, from the perspectives of current worldwide Christianity and particularly Calvinism and the Reformed tradition. We will also be looking forward “hoping for better things” through the contribution our theology can make to the problems we face in the global village of tomorrow.
How have such strong lines of unity and covenant and disunity and counter-covenant, lines that do not seem to have an ultimate reconciliation in Calvin’s thought, influenced the development of the protestant tradition and of Reformed attitudes in particular?
If Calvin’s thought stimulates praise for God, thanks to Christ, an appreciation of unity in the Spirit and a missionary vision, is there not also a downside in the Reformed tradition in a certain hardness of attitude, orthodox superiority, judgment of others and individualism that belie Calvin’s rule of charity and his covenantal perspectives?
These and other questions go to the heart of issues we face as Christians in situations that, if they are greatly different from those of the world in which Calvin lived, echo the fundamental dilemmas of God and human nature, grace and fallen nature, hope and despair that continue to preoccupy us today.
We are happy to be invited by the Theological Seminary in Aix en Provence to focus on these questions in Calvin’s native country, France.