By Christian Kirkpatrick Special Writer
It started last November at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
The Rev. Dr. Gordon Mikoski, an assistant professor of Christian education at the Princeton Theological Seminary, was wondering how he would honor the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, which was coming up in 2009. As he browsed through a display of books from Westminster John Knox Press — which publishes his favorite translation of Calvin’s seminal work, “Institutes of the Christian Religion”— Rev. Mikoski considered reading the Institutes throughout the upcoming year.
An introduction to the doctrines and practices of Protestant Christianity, Calvin’s work is both comprehensive and long. But divided into daily readings (minus Sundays and Christmas), the daily assignment would amount to four or five pages. What a simple and fitting way to savor the thinking of one of Protestantism’s founders.
When Raymond Bonwell, director of programs for the seminary’s Erdman Center of Continuing Education, heard about this idea, he suggested that Rev. Mikoski open it to the wider world. A steering committee was soon formed, and in a few weeks an enterprise called “A Year with the Institutes” was online at the seminary’s Web site. It provides a daily, sequential reading from the Institutes. Westminster John Knox allows the seminary to keep each daily reading on the site for three days, for free. Visitors to the seminary’s Web site can also listen to them online or through podcasts.
Also, a pastor or professor posts a reflection on each week’s reading. And a blog is open to anyone who wants to comment on the readings or reflections. Conversation on the blog has been lively.
A summary of each of the Institutes’ four books is posted after it has been read. This can be used as a review or to enable those who start the Institutes in the middle or who miss some of the daily readings to catch up.
Participants began reading book four of the Institutes on Aug. 25, and the seminary is asking its alumni to encourage their churches to join them. This last book, says Rev. Mikoski, is specifically about the church — its nature and purpose, its relationship to civil authority, and the sacramental character of Christian life.
Calvin’s great work is a primer on Christian belief and practice, says Rev. Mikoski. “The Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments — it covers all the basics.”
True, some of Calvin’s tenets, such as predestination, have given rise to profound disagreements. Nevertheless, Rev. Mikoski declares that the reformer is an excellent teacher and conversation partner who speaks both to pastors and lay people through his clear thinking and accessible prose.
Participants in “A Year with the Institutes” seem to agree. Every day, an average of 2,000 computers download the audio version of the daily readings, and the site receives hits from between 5,000 – 6,000 computers each month.
“This speaks to Calvin’s insight as a biblical interpreter and skill as a writer and church leader,” comments Rev. Mikoski. “He illuminates what the Bible is about, what it means for how we live, and what God is calling us to do.”
The legacy of Calvin’s thought is found throughout Protestant Christianity, but especially in churches that are part of the Reformed Tradition. In America, this tradition includes Presbyterians, the Dutch Reformed, as well as some Congregationalists, members of the Church of Christ, and others.
Calvin’s ideas have also shaped the secular world. Sociologist Max Weber said they created what he called the Protestant work ethic. In early America, Calvin’s ideas were credited with inspiring hostility to British rule. Thus the American Revolution was often referred to in England as “the Presbyterian Rebellion.”
After the war, Calvin’s ideas may have helped to shape our federal government. He had called for a system by which individual churches, without a governing hierarchy, would be run in a democratic partnership between pastors and church members serving as elders and deacons. This distribution of power was necessary because Calvin believed that people are sinful, Rev. Mikoski explains. No one person should be trusted with sole authority.
In America’s first Presbyterian college, today known as Princeton University, Calvin’s ideas were strongly supported during its early days, particularly by one of its presidents, John Witherspoon, who also signed the Declaration of Independence and helped to organize what is today known as Nassau Presbyterian Church. Although Rev. Mikoski admits that no direct connection can be proved between Calvin’s conception of church organization and America’s system of checks and balances, he points out that James Madison, an important framer of the Constitution, was a devoted student of Witherspoon’s.
Although Calvin was born 500 years ago, he still has things to say to us today. This is true both because Calvin wrestled with eternal matters and because he helped to shape the world we live in. As Rev. Mikoski observes, “He laid the groundwork for much of what followed him.”
For more information, visit www.ptsem.edu/ Calvin2009/.
