This post is in response to my Lutheran cyberfriend Dr Gregory Jackson at Ichabod and his readers.
Questions about who or what constitutes a Calvinist sometimes arise on Ichabod and, to date, I have been able to make only brief comments here and there because of time constraints.
So, I am making time this week to set the record straight. Those who read Ichabod will know that it deals with doctrinal controversies occurring within the various Lutheran synods in the United States. I would certainly not recommend unorthodox Lutheran clergy to my readers. Nor would I say that Father Pfleger from Chicago or the retired Cardinal Law represent the Catholic priesthood. So, I shall take the same approach here with Calvinists.
Bottom line: there are Lutherans and then there are Lutherans just as there are Catholics and Catholics; the same is true for every denomination. However, as Christians we put forward the best representatives to those who are curious about different confessions of faith.
I omitted Calvinists who aren’t full Calvinists either in belief (John MacArthur) or preaching style (Mark Driscoll) along with those who are somewhat too populist, too anti-intellectual or too much on the fringes (the heterodox Federal Vision and dominionist movements). Others might have started out as Calvinists (Robert Schuller) but lost their Reformed theology later on in life. The following list, short though it is, is theologically authentic.
For obvious reasons, I have left John Calvin off the list — as he started this branch of the Reformation.
I have also omitted John Knox — also Calvinist — because of the way he treated my fellow Anglicans. Even Calvin asked Knox to rein it in.
Those whose names are in bold and italics below are men whose works I read regularly. Others are studied by Reformed seminarians (e.g. Beza, Olevianus, Francis Turretin, Bavinck, Berkhof), are renowned seminary professors in the United States (Clark, Trueman, Horton) or serve as head pastors (Sproul, Riddlebarger). Others are held in great esteem by laymen searching for timeless daily devotions or classic commentary on the Bible and the Christian life (Bunyan, Edwards, Henry).
Earliest Calvinists
17th – 18th century Calvinists
19th – 20th century Calvinists
John Gresham Machen (more on my Christianity / Apologetics page)
Today’s Calvinists
Reformation Ink carries a selection of articles and essays from the earliest through to the 20th century Calvinists. It also has reference materials on Church history as viewed through the prism of the Reformation.
I hope this clears up some misunderstandings with my Lutheran friends and would welcome any comments or questions they — or you — might have.
Tomorrow: Error and the Marrowmen
Churchmouse Campanologist 
13 comments
November 28, 2011 at 11:38 pm
pveitch
Don’t forget all the Canterbury bishops until Laud, that is, Parker, Grindal, Whitgift, Bancroft and Abbott. Parker wrote Heinrich Bullinger in 1566 to congratulate him re: the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566. Parker said, “We all agree with it,” probably a reference to the leading Anglican divines.
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November 29, 2011 at 12:03 am
churchmouse
Thanks, friend — it’s always good to hear from you. I wanted to leave a few gaps in the hope that you would write in. You are much better versed in this period of Anglican history than I! Appreciate the input!
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November 29, 2011 at 1:11 am
LP Cruz
Ah yes, will the real Calvinist please stand up?
That question has been going on for many years. I recall this debate when I was a Calvinist.
Now that my journey has taken me to Lutheranism, we too have the same type of question.
LPC
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November 29, 2011 at 1:22 am
churchmouse
Thanks, LPC, for writing in. I very much enjoy reading Extra Nos and your concise, precise posts.
I have been curious these many months — answer not obligatory — what sort of Calvinist church you belonged to back in the day. Was it properly confessional or was it more evangelical?
Sorry to find out via you, Dr Jackson and others that the same questions about truth and doctrine are being asked in Lutheranism. A bit like my journey from Catholicism to Anglicanism. Just when we thought it was safe …
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November 30, 2011 at 8:55 am
extranosky
Hi Churchmouse,
I was with a church that belonged to the Presbyterian Church of Australia. I was there for 4 years and I have high respect for the pastor of the church where I went, he was scholarly and down right caring, gracious and loving to his flock. I am happy to see them grow, it is one of the healthy churches of PCA my side of Melbourne. I just could not sign my name to the WCF.
LPC
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November 30, 2011 at 11:52 am
churchmouse
Thanks for your response, LPC — sounds like it was a solid church with a great pastor. It’s good to read that you have good memories of it.
Appreciate your pointing out that it was the WCF which was the stumbling block.
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November 29, 2011 at 6:28 am
Bruce Church
Okay, this is noted. But I’m sure Ichabod readers won’t have much good to say about Calvinists period, whether they are so-called respectable Calvinists or not. Thanks for sharing, though.
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November 29, 2011 at 9:29 am
churchmouse
There was a post on Ichabod a couple of weeks ago featuring some real misconceptions about who or what is a Calvinist. I tried responding in the comments but didn’t have time to go into detail.
Bottom line — a Remonstrant or an Amyraldist is not a Calvinist, yet, that mistaken impression seems to persist. There also seems to be some misapprehension that Bible church evangelicals are Calvinist.
Then, there is the mistaken thinking that Calvinists are, by definition, universalists.
Yes, there has been a historical breakaway by some Calvinists towards a lesser, more easily absorbed — and ultimately confused — doctrine.
It seemed time to set the record straight in more detail.
As a non-Lutheran I would want to know that UOJ — the ongoing Lutheran controversy — is not even in the Augsburg Confessions. I could write here that most Lutherans today are universalists, but that would be false, even though some high-profile quasi-emergent pastors are.
It seems to me that Protestants owe each other the courtesy (and honesty) of representing other confessional denominations fairly and accurately.
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November 29, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Pooka
CM, this is a nice list. Thanks! Reading these guys or about them is very edifying. I have a huge collection on my Kindle that I’m slowly working through.
Check this out: http://www.ligonier.org/reformation-trust/blog-for-book/ You can blog for books! Calvinist books!
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November 29, 2011 at 2:46 pm
churchmouse
Thanks, Robert, I’m glad you like it!
Thanks for the Blog for a Free Book link at Ligonier — a brilliant idea!
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November 30, 2011 at 5:22 am
pveitch
http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2011/11/advent-2-2011-memories-worth.html
A few remembrances in Advent 1 and 2. Bp. Herter, Reformed Episcopal Church, a godly, honourable, scholarly (PhD, Westminster), thoughtful, careful and informed Churchman. One of the few trusted on this side of the Atlantic by this reader. My Prof, my Pastor, my Bishop and…though not Tractated with “Father this and that”…he was a father in the faith. Bp. Herter died in 1987. He lives with the Veitch family to this day.
And yes, he was a Calvinist and Anglican, unlike Mr. Laud (Canterbury) or Mr. Wesley (the Methodist sectarian).
Let us pray for the old schoolmen. The light flickers and is endangered, yes. But HM rules the school.
Regards,
Donald Philip Veitch
Jacksonville, NC, USA
(East Coast)
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November 30, 2011 at 11:39 am
churchmouse
Thank you for the recollection about Bp Herter — much appreciated. May God grant us more faithful clergy.
‘The light flickers and is endangered, yes. But HM rules the school.’ I think of you when I read about the Occupy movement at St Paul’s and wonder what your impressions are of the scene. If someone had told me this was going to happen — even a year ago — I would have said they had an active imagination. Yet, here we are. I’ll report on the latest next week — it pains me to write about the desecration of one of our world-famous cathedrals.
And some of the clergy who have resigned from St Paul’s would gladly join this movement. How far have they strayed from the Church and the 39 Articles!
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November 30, 2011 at 11:39 am
churchmouse
Thank you for the recollection about Bp Herter — much appreciated. May God grant us more faithful clergy.
‘The light flickers and is endangered, yes. But HM rules the school.’ I think of you when I read about the Occupy movement at St Paul’s and wonder what your impressions are of the scene. If someone had told me this was going to happen — even a year ago — I would have said they had an active imagination. Yet, here we are. I’ll report on the latest next week — it pains me to write about the desecration of one of our world-famous cathedrals.
And some of the clergy who have resigned from St Paul’s would gladly join this movement. How far have they strayed from the Church and the 39 Articles!
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