Just as I am always uncomfortable when some vaguely leftish action is tagged as "Marxist," I think "Calvinism" has enough real content that we should be careful to use the term correctly.
Calvin, so far as I know, never intimated that worldly ease and wealth was the portion of the elect, and in fact the Calvinists' later cry of "No bishop, no king" made them the great troublemakers of the seventeenth century.
So far as I can tell, the actual theology of Calvin is just about dead. I was raised Presbyterian, myself, and was rather astonished by what I found in the Institutes when I actually read it in my twenties. What we call the Religious Right is Arminian in theology, centered on the "Decision for Christ" rather than the image of election found in infant baptism. And even the strange subset embracing what we has been called the "Prosperity Gospel" is hardly peopled by the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street, but by the working poor, often racial minorities, desparate for a break.
I have, by the way, much appreciated your unmediated dispatches on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. It seems nothing short of a miracle that suddenly the national news media has noticed that sometihng's been going on with the middle class during the last 30 years.
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Almost all of them wealthy...and blind to needs of others for the sake of keeping their money.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll give this one Anon props: he's brief!
ReplyDeleteThing is, these days you can hear Popoids who hold no truck w/ "that heretic burning in hell" Calvin, spouting the same capitalism-defending BS.
Jesus, in contrast, is (still!) to be found among the 99%.
Anonymous' succinct comment, like all anonymous comments on this blog, is now deleted.
ReplyDeleteJust as I am always uncomfortable when some vaguely leftish action is tagged as "Marxist," I think "Calvinism" has enough real content that we should be careful to use the term correctly.
ReplyDeleteCalvin, so far as I know, never intimated that worldly ease and wealth was the portion of the elect, and in fact the Calvinists' later cry of "No bishop, no king" made them the great troublemakers of the seventeenth century.
So far as I can tell, the actual theology of Calvin is just about dead. I was raised Presbyterian, myself, and was rather astonished by what I found in the Institutes when I actually read it in my twenties. What we call the Religious Right is Arminian in theology, centered on the "Decision for Christ" rather than the image of election found in infant baptism. And even the strange subset embracing what we has been called the "Prosperity Gospel" is hardly peopled by the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street, but by the working poor, often racial minorities, desparate for a break.
I have, by the way, much appreciated your unmediated dispatches on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. It seems nothing short of a miracle that suddenly the national news media has noticed that sometihng's been going on with the middle class during the last 30 years.
Rick Allen, it's been awhile. Thanks for stopping by again.
ReplyDelete