Thread by @jarrodmckenna

Cheap takes on Calvinism... My former mentor Noel Vose (RIP) and I met at a gathering of an Anabaptist House Church network I helped start in the early 2000’s. We would meet for Bible studies and to pray together. He was incredibly supportive of the commune I started...

On one occasion I made a comment about Calvinism to which his response surprised me. “Jarrod, have you actually read Calvin himself?” I had read a lot about Calvin yet in Anabaptist keeping I let my yes be yes and just said, “no.” Noel smiled and got up and went to the shelf...

He came back with Institutes. “Homework”, he smiled.

I was fascinated. The sheer brilliance. Unlike @Bruxy or @theboyonthebike, I never went through a “Calvinist phase”. I read Calvin as a card carrying (Kingian/charismatic/hesychastic Catholic Worker) anabaptist.

Calvin, particularly Calvin in context, was not the Calvin of the neo-Calvinists. Suddenly Trocmé, the Niebuhrs, Brueggemann and later de Gruchy and Boesak made sense to me.

Tonight I found myself reading Calvin again. This time on his social vision. Here are few quotes I’d love to hear Calvinists quote more:

Regarding his vision for the State responsibilities, they should include,

“distribute and care for the goods of the poor (i.e. daily alms as well as possessions, rents and pensions)… [and] tend and look after the sick and administer the allowances to the poor as is customary.”

Please note, rent for the poor. As in, the poor each have a home and the other side of a “Protestant work ethic” is a “Protestant social welfare ethic” that covers rent. Imagine that implemented in Australia, or the USA, or South Africa or elsewhere.

Regarding health care, Calvin writes,
“Care should be taken to see that the general hospital is properly maintained. This applies to the sick, to old people no longer able to work, to widows, orphans, children and other poor people.“

Calvin goes on to say,
“Further, both for the poor people in the hospital and for those in the city who have no means, there must be a good physician and surgeon provided at the city’s expense”

*that* kind of Calvinism would revolutionise the American health system!

I’m still no Calvinist. And yes, I *love* David Bentley Hart and his sardonic humour. Yet a very prayerful man who is no longer with us taught me that it’s wonderful I share my home with Muslims but Christ also calls me to be as hospitable to Calvinists.

After spending 15 years of my life living with people who wouldn’t otherwise have a home, I’ve learnt that part of hospitality is understanding and appreciating the beauty of what you may disagree with. Anything else is ideology imitating hospitality.

So maybe Calvinism isn’t so much the problem as the kind of Calvinism.

& maybe if Anabaptism was able to embody real economic alternatives we could again inspire such rigorous responses that also share a deep compassion for the destitute.

I know. That’s not very tweetable.

In conclusion,
I like my Calvinists to have something to say to Marxists, like Brueggemann (yes, he’s told me on multiple occasions he’s a Calvinist.)

And I like my Anabaptists to not be smug pacifist distant from the hurting but humble servants with a proximity to the pain.