Calvin Biographical Profile

John Calvin was a prominent French Theologian of the Protestant Reformation.  He lived between the years of 1509 and 1564, and was perhaps better known as an avid Pastor and reformist.   His system of Christian theology would later be known as Calvinism.  After breaking from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1520’s, he saw the great uprising against Protestants in France, and that inspired him to flee to Switzerland and write his famous work, Christian Religion.

After being exiled from Geneva for trying to implement his fervent ideas, he was invited to Strasbourg where he first became a minister for French refugees.  He was then invited back to Geneva and began to lead the church there.  His major achievements were creating new forms of church government and introducing new liturgy.  His ideas were a great fire for the Reformation in Geneva and across Europe.  Eventually all opposition to him in Geneva disappeared, as he gained more and more power.

It was perhaps his writing that has the greatest force and impact, both in his time and for the rest of history.  His controversial writing was mostly about the Bible, theological treatises, and ideas about the Reformation.  Calvin was greatly influenced by the Augustinian Tradition, which led to his ideas about predestination and the sovereignty of God. 

Major religious sects that follow the teachings of Calvin today include Presbyterianism and other Reformed Churches.   His thoughts also had a tremendous impact on Puritanism, and even are cited as contributing to the influence of individualism, capitalism, and democracy.

It speaks a great deal to the power of John Calvin and his beliefs that the Geneva that originally sent him away due to his ideas not only invited him back, but by the 1550’s Geneva was completely Calvinist in belief and practice.  It was then the Protestant center of Europe, and most Protestants driven out of their homelands across Europe would come to Geneva for refuge.  The foreign reformers in Geneva were perhaps the most radical Calvinists in Europe. 

The reason that Calvin’s branch of Protestantism became the dominant form was probably due to the righteous Calvinism being practiced in Geneva by people from all over Europe.  Because of the diversity of people, Calvinism was more easily spread back to other nations, and then across the ocean to the United States as well.