The New Calvinism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TIME Magazine has a feature on \u201c10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.\u201d It\u2019s one of those eye-grabbing attempts to spot future trends in their infancy; a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The New Calvinism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TIME Magazine has a feature on \u201c10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.\u201d It\u2019s one of those eye-grabbing attempts to spot future trends in their infancy; a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-14T12:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html\",\"name\":\"The New Calvinism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-14T12:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-03-14T12:02:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"TIME Magazine has a feature on \u201c10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.\u201d It\u2019s one of those eye-grabbing attempts to spot future trends in their infancy; a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The New Calvinism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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{"id":571,"date":"2009-03-14T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism\/"},"modified":"2009-03-14T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-14T12:02:00","slug":"the-new-calvinism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/the-new-calvinism.html","title":{"rendered":"The New Calvinism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

TIME Magazine<\/a> has a feature on \u201c 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s one of those eye-grabbing attempts to spot future trends in their infancy; a secular oracle for its mainstream readers. They\u2019re mostly positive and it\u2019s not unreasonable to expect that some of them will have a major impact in coming years. They include such beginning trends as recycling suburbs to something more sustainable and \u201cecological intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want to comment on Idea #3 \u2013 \u201c The New Calvinism<\/a>.\u201d I don\u2019t follow conservative religions closely, but I do read several religion blogs, and I\u2019ve noticed far more discussion of Calvinism than I ever remember hearing when I was growing up in the Baptist church. Apparently it\u2019s really taking off in conservative Evangelical circles, most notably the ultraconservative Southern Baptist Convention.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a key quote from the TIME piece: \u201cCalvinism \u2026 offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything \u2026 by a logic we may not understand but don\u2019t have to second-guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two groups of people who are attracted to Calvinism. The first are Biblical literalists. If you read the Bible literally, John Calvin\u2019s Five Points are a logical conclusion \u2013 God has chosen some for salvation and others for damnation; we have no free will. I\u2019ve already said plenty about why reading the Bible literally is a bad idea \u2013 I won\u2019t repeat it again.<\/p>\n

The second are people who want a simple, definitive religion; people for whom cold, cruel, arbitrary certainty is preferable to warm and loving ambiguity and randomness. In this country those folks are attracted to Calvinism; in other parts of the world they\u2019re frequently attracted to Islam.<\/p>\n

Unitarianism and Universalism arose in the early days of the 19th century largely as a response to Calvinism. They provided a positive, hopeful alternative for both this world and the next. And they were hugely successful \u2013 so successful that their theologies were adopted by much of mainstream Christianity (including some branches of the Calvinist-descended Presbyterian church), which left Unitarians and Universalists without much to call their own. The New Calvinism is, I think, a counterrevolution two centuries later.<\/p>\n

If Life is a river, Calvinism is a jagged rock in the middle of the stream. Some people prefer to cling to its cold, barren stability rather than flowing with the current or swimming on their own. If that helps them get through the challenges and sorrows of Life, so be it.<\/p>\n

As for me, I prefer worshipping a Goddess and God of love, freedom, possibilities, and at times, the regenerative power of chaos.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"