Reformation Final

Blue Laws

Calvin was invited by reformers to set up a model of his ideal religious community in Geneva, Switzerland. Calvinism was strict and severe. Calvin's rule was authoritarian; he governed with an iron first and did not hesitate to use harsh corporal punishments against those who strayed from his teachings. The German Consistory played a powerful role in enforcing high moral standards within the city. The Consistory consisted of twelve laymen plus the Company of Pastors. Their duties were to keep watch on the lives of the citizens and keep individual sinners in line. Dancing, card playing, expensive clothes, and heavy drinking were all prohibited in Geneva. The moral regulations passed by the Consistory were called the Blue Laws because the statues were bound with blue covers.

covenant

the conditional promises made to humanity by God, as revealed in Scripture.

scottish kirk

Church of Scotland, reformation of this church led by John knox, who was heavily influenced by Calvin.

Geneva ecclesiastical ordinances

Ecclesiastical Ordinances is the title of the foundation rules, or constitution, of the Reformed Church in Geneva, written by John Calvin in 1541

Institutes of the Christian Religion

Institutes of the Christian Religion (Latin: Institutio Christianae Religionis) is John Calvin's seminal work of Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world[1] and still widely read by theological students today, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at the same time as Henry VIII of England's Dissolution of the Monasteries) and in his native French language in 1541,

Calvinist view on eucharist

Many Reformed Christians hold that Christ's body and blood are not corporeally (physically) present in the Eucharist, but really present in a spiritual way

Michael Servetus

Spanish physician and theologian whose unorthodox teachings led to his condemnation as a heretic by both Protestants and Roman Catholics and to his execution by Calvinists from Geneva.

TULIP

T -- total depravity. This doesn't mean people are as bad as they can be. It means that sin is in every part of one's being, including the mind and will, so that a man cannot save himself. U -- unconditional election. God chooses to save people unconditionally; that is, they are not chosen on the basis of their own merit. L -- limited atonement. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was for the purpose of saving the elect. I -- irresistible grace. When God has chosen to save someone, He will. P -- perseverence of the saints. Those people God chooses cannot lose their salvation; they will continue to believe. If they fall away, it will be only for a time.

r.h tawney

Tawney wrote another book that has also become a classic: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926). It argued that it was the individualism and the ethic of hard work and thrift of Calvinist Protestantism that had fostered industrial organization and an efficient workforce in northern Europe. He thus shifted and extended the emphasis of the earlier work of Max Weber (of whom Tawney considered himself a disciple). Weber had argued that the ideological stage for the rise of capitalism had been prepared by Calvinist religious doctrines, especially predestination.

Max weber

Weber is best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion, elaborated in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise in the Western world of market-driven capitalism and the rational-legal nation-state. He argued that it was in the basic tenets of Protestantism to boost capitalism. Thus, it can be said that the spirit of capitalism is inherent to Protestant religious values.German sociologist and political economist best known for his thesis of the "Protestant ethic," relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy.

Gallicanism

a complex of French ecclesiastical and political doctrines and practices advocating restriction of papal power; it characterized the life of the Roman Catholic Church in France at certain periods. consisted of three basic ideas: independence of the French king in the temporal order; superiority of an ecumenical council over the pope; and union of clergy and king to limit the intervention of the pope within the kingdom.

Presbyter

an officer or minister in the early Christian Church intermediate between bishop and deacon or, in modern Presbyterianism, an alternative name for elder. The word presbyter is etymologically the original form of "priest."

Affair of the Placards

was an incident in which anti-Catholic posters appeared in public places in Paris and in four major provincial cities: Blois, Rouen, Tours and Orléans, overnight during 17 October 1534. One was actually posted on the bedchamber door of King Francis I at Amboise, an affront and an alarming breach of security that left him shaken. The Affaire des Placards brought an end to the conciliatory policies of Francis, who had formerly attempted to protect the Protestants from the more extreme measures of the Parlement de Paris, and also of the public entreaties for moderation of Philip Melanchthon.

Dutch Reformed Church

was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation until 1930. It developed during the Protestant Reformation, being shaped theologically by John Calvin, but also other major Reformed theologians.

Huguenots

were French Protestants mainly from northern France, who were inspired by the writings of John Calvin and endorsed the Reformed tradition (aka calvinism) of Protestantism

puritanism

were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices, maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed. Calvinist theology and polity proved to be major influences in the formation of Puritan teachings.