{"id":15257,"date":"2011-04-02T11:05:37","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T16:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=15257"},"modified":"2011-04-02T12:15:19","modified_gmt":"2011-04-02T17:15:19","slug":"calvinism-an-insiders-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/04\/02\/calvinism-an-insiders-evaluation\/","title":{"rendered":"Calvinism: An Insider’s Evaluation (Sat Aft Book Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m not a Calvinist, but Kenneth Stewart is. He\u2019s a very good thinker and a clear writer and he argues there is more than one kind of Calvinism, and many don\u2019t even know that, especially many of the most vocal New Calvinists of our day. (Nor do some of them know their history of American evangelicalism, but I digress.) We are in Ken Stewart\u2019s debt for his new enough-is-enough book, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Non-Calvinists are not always informed about Calvinism, and are sometimes fond of pointed jabs that do not describe Calvinists accurately, and so a book like this that shows both deep commitment to Calvinism and friendly fire is one we all need. He is also concerned as well with those Calvinists who think they\u2019ve got it figured out but don\u2019t. What Stewart\u2019s book will do is humble Calvinists into thinking their family is more diverse than is often supposed. As Roger Olson explained Arminian theology from the inside in his Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, so Stewart has provided for us a similar kind of volume.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For whom is this book written? Stewart says it\u2019s for insiders, and I suppose that is especially true but I enjoyed the book and it helps me understand Calvinism. He writes so well it seems he\u2019s writing this for all of us. One senses that this book is aimed in part at those Calvinists who are reducing Calvinism to only some of its theme or who are drawing on only one or two of its various waves. So he sketches in part one of the book those elements that Calvinists are saying about themselves that are simply not accurate.<\/p>\n

What this book puts on the table for us all to see is this: Calvinism cannot simply be defined by one theologian, one church, or one idea but is a broad and varied theological persuasion with four centuries of historical conversation. It would be good for critics of Calvinism to read a book like Stewart\u2019s and J.K.A. Smith\u2019s Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, whose book I did not review but would welcome a review. So we all need not to equate the movement with its most prominent preachers today.<\/p>\n

I believe more critics of Calvinism need to learn to distinguish the \u201carchitecture\u201d of Calvinism (it\u2019s emphasis on the glory of God, it\u2019s grasp of God\u2019s sovereignty and majesty and beauty, it\u2019s focus on human sinfulness etc, which themes ought to draw us together) from the more specific articulations of Calvinism, where most of the critics focus. Stewart\u2019s book keeps this sort of distinction, though these terms are mine, in mind to remind us of the essential story of Calvinism.<\/p>\n

A brief sketch: Stewart discusses, with ample evidence and thorough explanations, four myths Calvinists should not be circulating (but are):<\/p>\n

1. One Man (Calvin) and one City (Geneva) are determinative
\n2. Calvin\u2019s view of (double) predestination must be ours
\n3. TULIP is the yardstick of the truly Reformed
\n4. Calvinists take a dim view of revival and awakening<\/p>\n

And six myths non-Calvinists should not be circulating (but are):<\/p>\n

1. Calvinism is largely antimissionary
\n2. Calvinism promotes antinomianism
\n3. Calvinism leads to theocracy
\n4. Calvinism undermines the creative arts
\n5. Calvinism resists gender equality
\n6. Calvinism has fostered racial inequality.<\/p>\n

Recent statements by some Calvinists have brought again into focus kinds of sovereignty of God ideas that push double predestination to the fore, but Stewart shows that Calvin\u2019s later and more radical views affirming double predestination were modified and toned down over time, and that Calvin\u2019s view should not be pressed as the<\/em> Calvinist view. Stewart\u2019s sketch here is admirable.<\/p>\n

As his examination of the (in)appropriateness of thinking TULIP is the best way to organize Calvinist theology. That chp alone is worth the price of this book. It might be healthier for us, and I include myself here, to speak of Calvinism as a tradition than of a specified set of beliefs.<\/p>\n

And a comment about the charge that Calvinism is antinomian. My own experience is that this charge is false; Calvinists are not antinomian, and in fact have a tendency (paradoxically) toward a more legalistic framework. To be sure, an emphasis on election and final perseverance can promote antinomian ideas, but I\u2019ve only seen such sillinesses among the immature or in the rhetoric of opponents.<\/p>\n

However, Stewart observes that one form of antinomianism, and one not to be bothered by, is to think that Christians are not called to observe the Torah and are called to live out the gospel. But what I\u2019m seeing today among some young Calvinists, e.g., Tullian Tchividjian, appears to me to be an exaggeration of grace theology at the expense of how the Bible frames ethical practices and injunctions. Not to mention how even Calvin talked about the law\u2019s usefulness for the Christian. Clearly, there is no attempt with these \u2014 as has been the case at times in church history \u2014 to justify sin or to minimize sin. It has to do with the law and commands and how to frame ethics. In other words, instead of simply permitting someone like Jesus or Paul to say \u201cfollow me\u201d or \u201cdo this\u201d they tend to have a need to explain each and everyone of those as expressions of a grace at work in the life so that \u201cfollow me\u201d really means \u201cGod\u2019s grace will prompt following me.\u201d As I view such approaches, the potency of the command and the appeal to the will are blunted. I don\u2019t see this tendency in Calvin\u2019s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, which I\u2019m reading now. All of this to say I was keen on what Stewart had to say about this tendency today. It\u2019s perhaps a version of what is called Spirit-centered antinomianism or High Calvinism, but there is nothing in his book that makes me think he was thinking of this misguided recent trend among some young Calvinists.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a Calvinist, but Kenneth Stewart is. He\u2019s a very good thinker and a clear writer and he argues there is more than one kind of Calvinism, and many don\u2019t even know that, especially many of the most vocal New Calvinists of our day. (Nor do some of them know their history of American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nCalvinism: An Insider's Evaluation (Sat Aft Book Review)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm not a Calvinist, but Kenneth Stewart is. 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