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I introduced a recent adult Sunday school quarter on the doctrine of God and man (sic), using J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, with a discussion of the benefits of knowing God from Calvin’s Institutes 1.1.1-3. “Without the knowledge of ourselves there is no knowledge of God” and “Without the knowledge of God there is no knowledge of ourselves.” Calvin concludes that “the order of right teaching” requires that we treat the knowledge of God first and then the knowledge of ourselves later. My application point was, “Do you aim to understand yourself better as you know God more?”

William J. Larkin Jr. (M.Div., 1970)
Columbia, South Carolina

I’ve always had a problem with the Trinity. I kept bumping into it as an issue—Oneness, Threeness—until one day I came upon a little article written by John Calvin that shared the simple truth that “Trinity” was just a word we created in order to speak intelligently about our experience. We experience the Threeness but we recognize the Oneness. This opened me up to consider more of Calvin, which led to a study of the Institutes, which led to the discovery of this great understanding that Jesus didn’t prescribe any set form of worship and so we should expect that, in different cultures and times, old or traditional practices would be abrogated for new ones for the “advantage of the church.” We should not rush into change hastily, but “allow Love to be our guide,” and then we would not go far wrong.

Geoff Kohler (M.Div., 1987)
Tampa, Florida

Calvin’s eucharistic theology has helped me in my pastoral, ecumenical, and academic work. In particular, his emphasis on union with Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit, enacted liturgically in the Sursum Corda, propels all facets of ministry to work for the visible unity of all of God’s people locally, nationally, and globally, and serves as a constant reminder that Christ has already made us one with each other and with the triune God. Our task, therefore, is to live that organic unity in all areas of life, in gratitude for what God has done in and through Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Neal D. Presa (Th.M., 2004)
Middlesex, New Jersey

1960 was the fourth centennial of the Scottish Reformation, and one of the results was the decision of Oliver and Boyd to produce a modern translation of Calvin’s commentaries. This decade also coincided with the attempts of the Nationalist Government of South Africa to enlist Calvin as progenitor of the volkskerke concept that justified apartheid as a policy of self-development, as opposed to the evangelical and ecumenical tradition of theologians like Andrew Murray. To read Calvin was a huge support for those of us involved in the struggle that began with the Message to South Africa (1968) and culminated in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches’ rejection of the Dutch Reformed Church’s membership in 1984, nor has his relevance diminished with the advent of a secular state.

Calvin Wight Cook (Th.D., 1953)
Howick, Republic of South Africa

John Calvin always made the sacrament of Holy Communion available to communicants at public worship in Geneva even if it meant offering it to them following the main service. During the three decades I have served as chaplain of Tusculum College, I have offered Holy Communion at every weekly chapel service. You never know when, at the least expected moment, someone will be offered the sacrament and be refreshed and renewed in mind, body, and soul. I took a course with Dr. Donald Macleod titled Word and Sacrament, and have always offered both, I believe, to the spiritual benefit of my students.

Stephen R. Weisz (M.Div., 1965)
Greeneville, Tennessee

Professor Edward A. Dowey Jr. took me under his wing in 1963, when I was a graduate student, to study Calvin’s doctrine of the authority of the church. The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book Four, became my area of study. Calvin wrote that we believe the church because we have become fully convinced that we are members of it. He also took Cyprian’s dictum that only those who have the church as mother can have God as father and turned that idea around, teaching that those for whom God is father, the church is mother. And God has given clergy the duty and authority to teach the Word within the church. The members are nourished in God’s purposes their entire life, until they finally enter heaven’s reward. This is a helpful bit of Calvinism. I was glad to have the chance to read him and also to learn that he continues to be seriously studied after all these years.

Charles J. Duey (Th.M., 1964)
Cromwell, Connecticut

Calvin’s opening statement in the Institutes avers that all knowledge of God begins with knowledge of ourselves. Some years ago I noticed that he never changed that; though he tweaked and altered many parts of the Institutes over the decades, every subsequent edition preserves this fundamental platform on which the rest of the corpus is built. Coming from one known far more for his exalting of Word and of Spirit, Calvin’s avowal that knowledge of the divine begins with individual, personal experience is quite surprising. But it has vast implications for the pastor dealing with hurting or confused parishioners, growing converts, new inquirers…. Writing 500 years ago he says to our age, influenced the last half of the twentieth century by existentialism and the first part of the twenty-first by post-modernism, “To know God, start with what you already know, yourself, and go from there.”

Gene R. Smillie (M.Div., 1982)
Elmhurst, Illinois

John Calvin wrote that when he was around twenty-one years old, God “turned my course in another direction.” By an unexpected or sudden conversion God subdued and “tamed to teachableness a mind too stubborn for its years.” Calvin’s wholehearted commitment to God was symbolized by the seal he adopted for himself, a flaming heart on the palm of an extended open hand and the words, “My heart, I give you, O Lord, eagerly and sincerely.” I was about the same age when Jesus Christ confronted me and I dedicated my life to him. In my ministry, I had a stained glass made of Calvin’s seal and had my business cards printed with his seal and motto on them. This seal and motto have been a source of inspiration all during my ministry.

John M. Robertson (M.Div., 1959)
Sun City, Arizona

As a United Methodist student, I wasn’t happy about studying Calvin! But then I read the first two statements of the Institutes: in order to know God, you have to know yourself and in order to know yourself, you have to know God. In the fourteen years since graduation, I have shared that with many parishioners as a starting place for spiritual, emotional, and psychological growth. And I come back to it myself time after time as a way to deepen both my relationship with God and my understanding of myself. Thanks to John Calvin from a follower of John Wesley!

Elizabeth A. Perry (M.Div., 1994)
Astoria, New York

I remember so clearly being taught that Calvin’s answers would often times be at odds with my beliefs, but that he always asked the right questions! As a United Methodist pastor, I have frequently consulted the Institutes in order to ask myself the proper questions in preparations for Bible studies and sermons. The results have been rich and rewarding.

William H. Yeager (M.Div., 1977)
Gainesville, Florida

John Calvin’s efforts to make Christian theology accessible to the emerging educated merchant class have been both an inspiration and a model for those of us who live and serve amidst people to whom the church is alien, Christ is relatively unknown, and life has another agenda. Here [at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand] in the heartland of Buddhism, everything we do for Christ involves building cultural bridges and reiterating theological truths in words, languages, and metaphors that must be prayerfully and tediously discovered and developed. This brings us to as many perils as it does pearls, as it certainly did for Calvin.

Kenneth Dobson (D.Min., 1987)
Chiang Mai, Thailand

One of the most profound observations in theological writing is found in the first sentences of the Institutes: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.” Calvin unfolds the relation between God and the self in a characteristically unambiguous way, but, clearly, the door has been opened to not only the modern sense of ambiguity in the relationship, but a striking sense of symmetry as well. Calvin eschews simple-minded causation from the side of either God or the self. I find that very helpful in thinking about life.

John Simpson (M.Div., 1962)
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

My husband, George Furniss, and I recently returned from being visiting pastors in the Reformed Church of France. We discovered a congregation that is fully immersed in the Reformed tradition—their new motto is “To believe is to think!”—coming straight from John Calvin’s influence. In a congregation of 400, more than fifty people attend weekday evening interactive lectures about the reformers, and more than sixty members participate in an annual long-weekend bus tour led by the pastor, retracing the tracks of the reformers. I am awed by the zeal that members have for further understanding Reformation theology and attribute that to pastoral scholarly excellence and the close bond that Reformed church members feel with John Calvin and their Reformed roots.

They are also enthusiastic about imbibing wine and champagne (even at council meetings) and it is notable that the seemingly stuffy Calvin’s salary was often paid in wine. I hope to claim each of these patterns in my pastorate in the U.S.

Sandra Larson (M.Div., 1977)
Colbert, Washington

For my Ph.D. dissertation at PTS I studied Calvin’s theology and practice of church discipline in Geneva based on his writings and the registers of the Geneva Consistory. The Geneva Consistory was established by John Calvin and became a unique organization for church discipline, where clergy and laity worked together to help believers to correctly understand the Protestant faith and practice so that they could produce a lifestyle suitable to the gospel. Church discipline is, for Calvin, “sinews, through which the members of the body [the church] hold together, each in its own place” (Institutes, 4.12.1). Although church discipline today has become something rather sticky and seemingly powerless, I believe it so crucial for the health of our church to learn about and apply more of the Reformer’s emphasis on and application of discipline.

Jung-Sook Lee (Ph.D., 1997)
Seoul, South Korea

I first read the Institutes in college. At that time I thought of Calvin as the seminal thinker who provided the intellectual foundation for Reformed thinking. If that sounds like a textbook answer, it is. In my first solo pastorate I had an epiphany that went beyond the textbook. I was serving as a board member for the Jefferson County (Ohio) Mental Health Center. Though Presbyterians were a denominational minority in the area, nine of the fourteen people sitting around the table were Presbyterians. Calvin’s influence is in the DNA of our faith. Born in the urban setting of Geneva and bolstered by the belief that people of goodwill can mitigate self-interest by working as a community, we keep trusting that God provides a measure of redemption in the here and now. Thirty-five years later, I still take pride in the Calvinist tradition that asserts that faith is more than what we believe, it is what we do!

Robert B. Smith (M.Div., 1972; D.Min., 1982)
Huron, Ohio

“I’m a Calvinist”
by Peter Hofstra
(Sung to the tune of “I’m a Lumberjack”)

I’m a Calvinist and I’m okay,
I know where I’m going on Judgment Day!
I was depraved, to-tal-ly
Now unconditionally elect
I received that limited atonement
Saving me from heck!

Oh, I’m a Calvinist, and I’m okay,
I know where I’m going on Judgment Day!

I’ve got some grace, irresistible,
With the saints, I’ll persevere,
Someday we’ll be in heaven,
Hey, is it getting hot in here?

Well, I’m a Calvinist and I’m okay,
I know where I’m going on Judgment Day!

I was raised with the acronym TULIP as a reference to Calvin’s theology. In seminary, and beyond, the great gift of humor has carried my church and myself through difficult times and anxious moments. I share this as a great gift of God, the ability to smile.

Peter Hofstra (M.Div., 1996)
Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Upon taking Theology of Calvin with Dr. Elsie McKee, I was most surprised by Calvin’s pastoral letters. While the Institutes and his sermons are widely read, the pastoral letters showed me a side to the man that history often paints as austere, cold, and condemning. I carry the image of Calvin’s compassionate heart that balances his prophetic stances and orthodox teaching as I engage my congregation, remembering always that people matter most.

Case Thorp (M.Div., 2000)
Orlando, Florida

For the past fifteen years I have practiced a method of prayer called “centering prayer.” I have found it a meaningful practice for myself and I have led many workshops in churches teaching it. I have received encouragement from John Calvin, who taught prayer as an intimate relationship with God. Calvin says that our prayer flows from the “sweetness of love.” (Institutes III, XX, 28) The word translated “sweetness” is dulcedo, prominent in the writings of the mystics, including Bernard, Richard of St. Victor, Rolle, and Ruysbroeck. (Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Westminster Press, p. 890) Calvin says prayer draws us into God’s bosom (Institutes III, XX, 5) like a child in the arms of a loving parent.

I was also encouraged in the practice of centering prayer by Calvin’s “rules” for prayer. Centering prayer lets go of thoughts by using a sacred word or symbol to stay with the intention of consenting to God’s presence and action within. Calvin taught that in prayer we let go of cares and thoughts that take us away from “pure contemplation of God.” (Institutes III, XX, 4) “We are to rid ourselves of all alien and outside cares, by which the mind, itself a wanderer, is borne about hither and thither.” (Institutes III, XX, 4) Rather than being “distracted by wandering thoughts” (Institutes III, XX, 5) we give watchful attention to the wonder of God.

J. (John) David Muyskens (Th.M., 1962; D.Min., 1978)
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Coming to Princeton from a congregation in the old “southern” church, we had Communion only quarterly (whether we needed it or not). It was an enriching revelation to me to learn that John Calvin, our patron saint, wrote, argued, and struggled all his working life for a weekly celebration of the Eucharist. So I have since done the same with every church I have served. Praise be, the PCUSA congregations are now mostly on a monthly celebration. And I feel sure we will eventually join the huge majority of Christians in the world in celebrating the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day! Thanks, Calvin.

James Aydelotte (B.D., 1960)
Asheville, North Carolina

John Calvin’s theology shaped my own in many ways. The insight on ministry that has helped me keep perspective on my own service as a Presbyterian pastor and that I have used as a gentle reminder to generations of candidates for ordination is found in Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Chapter III “Of the Teachers and Ministers of the Church. Their Election and Office,” where he describes God’s use of the ministry of mortals. I summarize his reasons from p. 316 of the 1981 reprint of Beveridge’s translation as follows: “1. not transferring his right and honor to them, but only doing his own work by their lips as an artificer uses a tool for any purpose, 2. as a most excellent and useful training to humility, when he accustoms us to obey his word though preached by men (sic) like ourselves, or, it may be, our inferiors in worth, 3. to cherish mutual charity…for did every man suffice for himself, and stand in no need of another’s aid (such is the pride of the human intellect), each would despise all others, and be in his turn despised.” I’m especially partial to reason number two as a check on my own pride, but all three work.

Paige M. McRight (M.Div., 1971)
Orlando, Florida