Calvinism
An ambiguous term, used with two quite distinct meanings:
- Refers to the religious ideas of the Reformed Church and individuals (such as Theodore Beza, William Perkins, John Owen) who were profoundly influenced by French theologian John Calvin, and his writings, notably his work The Institutes of the Christian Religion. The term “doctrines of grace” is an alternative for “Calvinism” in order to remove the attention from John Calvin and instead focus on how the specific points are biblically and theologically sound.
- Refers to the religious ideas of John Calvin himself.
The first sense is by far the more common, but there is a growing awareness that the term can be misleading: Calvin never sought to establish a new religion called Calvinism. He simply saw the need for a work which could set out clearly the basic ideas of evangelical theology, based on Scriptures and defending them in the face of Catholic criticism.
Calvin’s name remains as he was the one who organised and consolidated the theological and biblical reasons for rejecting the Roman Catholic Church, and he brilliantly developed his concepts into a complete theological viewpoint. This was picked up on and sometimes subtly modified by other religious leaders and was consolidated (along with other Reformers influences) into what is the Reformed church.