John Calvin and the Swiss Reformation (Geneva-style)

1. John Calvin and the Swiss Reformation (Geneva-style)

2. For essay n.2 of your take-home final: • Do not feel that you MUST spend your entire essay describing EVERYBODY’s opinion on the Eucharist! • Have a thesis, i.e., make a CHOICE of which positions you want to focus on, and make an ARGUMENT about why you chose those particular points

3. From last time.. • Zwingli: a different path to the Reformation • Erasmian influence • No images in church • How about sacraments?

4. Eucharist in Zwingli • While Zwingli did not believe in the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, for it was too much similar to superstition, he did not believe in Luther’s doctrine that the bread CONTAINS the body of Jesus either…

5. ….so what did he believe in? From Friday’s handout… • You eat the body of Christ ‘spiritually’ which means that: • EUCHARIST HAS A REPRESENTATIONAL VALUE • Zwingli tries to reassure people that ‘God is good’. Note again the dramatic aspect of theology in people’s life • NB: Luther IS NOT the same as Zwingli, which means that the Reformation was not a solid and united front!

6. For Zwingli, Eucharist is like ‘saluting the flag’

11. Conclusions on Zwingli • Zwingli represents a different path to Reformation: do not think that the Reformation was only Luther’s • Protestantism was NOT one big happy family! • Pay special attention to the question of the Eucharist • The influence of Erasmus is much stronger in Zwingli than in Luther, as Zwingli emphasizes the ‘spiritual’ aspects. However, once again, Erasmus was NEVER a Reformer!

13. Brief Biography • Born in 1509 in France • Educated in the Humanist tradition • In 1536 he moved from France to Geneva • His main work was the ‘Institutiones Christianae Religionis’, or ‘Foundations of Christian Religion’, first ed. 1536; last ed. 1559

14. Geneva

15. What are the main feature of Calvinism? • Systematic character • Emphasis on the Bible • The doctrine of Eucharist • The relationship between State and Church • Predestination: an important twist

16. Systematic character: the ‘Institutiones’

17. Calvin commissioned the first translation of the Bible in French, 1535

18. 1560: the Geneva Bible (English trans. divided in verse and modeled upon Calvin’s method) is published

19. The Doctrine of Eucharist • Calvin, like Zwingli, was a scholar, and he was influenced by Humanism: as Zwingli, he saw Luther’s doctrine of real presence as too much ‘corporeal’ • However, he also thought that Zwingli’s reduction of the Eucharist to the ‘saluting of the flag’ business was a little too much (or too little)…. • Therefore his doctrine is something in between, in the sense that for Calvin the Eucharist did not simply have ‘symbolic VALUE’, but was a SYMBOL itself

20. Church and State • Calvin envisioned society as divided into four main functions: • 1) Elders (the most important ones, were in charge of discipline) • 2) Doctors (teachers, and Calvin considered himself one of them) • 3) Pastors (in charge if preaching) • 4) Deacons (in charge of charities)

21. Church and State II: look at your source! • ‘Secret vices are to be secretly admonished’: what about public ones? • Elders have to first ‘make friendly remonstrance’ to the ones who commit ‘vices notorious and public’ • If the sinners persist, they ‘must abstain from the Supper’ • Religious and political ‘discipline’ as a value: we need to eradicate those who show ‘contumacy and rebellion’