Calvin for the World: The Enduring Relevance of His Political, Social, and Economic Theology

John Calvin was arguably the most influential of the sixteenth-century Reformers. His supporters praise his transformative influence on the ecclesial, political, and economic spheres of modern life, while his detractors paint him as a ruthless proponent of theocracy. These conflicting images suggest there is more to Calvin than meets the eye.

In Calvin for the World, Rubén Rosario Rodríguez offers a creative engagement with Calvin’s theological and political thought and a critical reclamation of the Reformer’s legacy. Rosario Rodríguez presents Calvin’s theology in historical context and explores his global impact by examining his views on a broad range of social and cultural issues, including those that pertain to political theology, migration and dislocation, nationalism, social welfare policies, revolution, racism, and religious pluralism. This book shows how Calvin’s theological legacy impacted the formation of the modern world, its worldview, and its social institutions and presents Calvin as an engaging interlocutor on contemporary matters of social, political, racial, and economic justice.

This book will be ideal for professors and students of theology for use in courses on Calvin, the Reformation, and church history. It will also be of interest to pastors and church leaders.

208 pages.

Introduction: Why Calvin? Why Now?
1. Calvin’s Theology of Public Life
The Biblical Foundations of Governance
Calvin on Civil Government
The Reception of Calvin’s Political Thought
2. Calvin, Proto-liberationist?
Understanding Latin American Liberation Theology
The Pastoral Praxis of Archbishop Romero
John Calvin’s Emancipatory Theology
3. The Undocumented Calvin
Refugees in Geneva
A Theology of Exile
Calvinist Missionaries in Sixteenth-Century Brazil
The Reformed Tradition’s Migratory Identity
4. Calvin’s Vision for an Ecumenical and Transnational Church
Calvin’s “High” Ecclesiology and the Idolatry of Rome
The Promise of Communion Ecclesiology
Plural Ministries in Calvin’s Ecclesiology
Martin Bucer’s Influence on Calvin’s Ecclesiology
5. The Cosmopolitan Calvin and Religious Intolerance
The Question of Religious Toleration
Jews and Muslims in the Protestant Reformation
The Case of Michael Servetus
Christianity and the Problem of Other Religions
6. A Scattered Inheritance–Calvin’s Reception in Latin America
Understanding the Latin American Context
Protestantism and Democracy in Latin America
Presbyterian Missions in Latin America
Cotton Mather’s Spanish Catechism
7. Calvin against Apartheid Calvinism
Black Resistance to Apartheid
Calvin’s Role in the Church Struggles
Sacramental Theology and Human Liberation
Conclusion
Indexes