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You often mention John Calvin in your columns. Would you give a brief summary of the last months of his life and include why you hold him in such regard.
John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509 and died May 27, 1563. He was a Protestant reformer who was greatly influenced by the writings of St. Augustine. He spent half of his life in the ministry and suffered from many serious illnesses; but the one that ultimately killed him was tuberculosis.
Strangely, and prematurely, in the year 1551, the cannons of the cathedral of Noyon, France celebrated in solemn procession the death of that city's most eminent son, John Calvin. His illness, along with an unverified rumor and wishful thinking had induced this celebration which was premature by thirteen years. When he eventually died in 1564 an eyewitness wrote that his corpse was "followed by almost the entire city, not many without tears." In these incidents lies a kind of allegory of Calvin's fate in history.
At times Calvin has been execrated and defamed. His influence has sometimes been jubilantly reported to have expired, but not surprisingly it has survived the authors of those reports. At other times he has been admired and extolled.
In recent decades numerous theologians, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, have turned with a new appreciation of John Calvin as an eminent teacher to a great part of the Christian church and there is every reason to believe that this trend will continue. Indeed there has been a remarkable increase in scholarly attention, in secular and sacred publications, given to Calvin's great body of writings. For example, a few years ago Time magazine ranked Calvin's ideas number three among the top ten "Ideas That Are Changing The World."
A Roman Catholic theologian and professor of religious studies at Siena College, (a Franciscan college in NY) with a name somewhat similar to mine, Fr. Dennis D. Tamburello, in an article on Reformed-Catholic dialogue, concurred with Calvin's emphasis on piety; in which the goal is not to know God theoretically or intellectually but to give glory and praise to God, who is the "fountainhead and source of every good." He applauds Calvin's teaching on the centrality of Christ where Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, "Christ, when He illumines us into faith by the power of His spirit, at the same time so engrafts us into His body that we become partakers of every good."
Tamburello cites Calvin's teaching on the Sacraments, especially on the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) as a major contribution. He highlights the fact that Reformed Protestants hold to the "real presence" and not just an empty symbolic remembrance (as many other Protestants do) of Christ in communion and notes that in the Reformed-Roman Catholic joint statement on "The Presence of Christ," both traditions hold to "belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist." (Of course, there are some significant differences here because Calvin and Reformed Protestants reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Calvin and Reformed Protestants believe that in receiving the elements of communion as believers we are drawn up into the life of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and thus our communion with Christ is both spiritual and real.)
Lutheran theologian and Academic Dean of Concordia Theological Seminary (Fort Wayne, IN), Lawrence Rast wrote that though there are differences between Luther and Calvin, Calvin had a deep and abiding respect for Luther and even as he pushed the Reformation beyond Luther, Calvin sought to remain authentic to Luther's purpose, even though this did not mean unequivocal agreement with Luther's exegetical or doctrinal conclusions. Rast states they "worked in the same context, and even shared the same road at times." Of additional interest for you readers is the fact the Luther wrote far more on doctrine of predestination than did Calvin, – even though Calvin's theology is often summarized (incompletely) by that doctrine.
Retired Episcopal Bishop C. Fitzsimmons Allison credits Calvinism in the works of Anglican evangelicals beyond the statement on predestination found in the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. Allison notes the works of Anglicans Augustus M. Toplady who wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages," John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace" and the preaching of George Whitefield as drawing heavily upon the theology of John Calvin.
As an advocate of Reformed theology, Calvin's life and work reminds me that the vitality of his teachings lie in the fact that they are an exact and logical theology, warmed by the intensive fires of devotion to the Holy Scriptures. John Calvin zealously proclaimed the free grace of God to a world blind to His ineffable glory. Calvinists hold that a Christian's greatest comfort is in knowing that we are not citizens of this world trying to make it into heaven, but rather we are citizens of heaven trying to make it through this world.
Therefore, neither I nor anyone need to take any great pain to try to convert the world to Calvinism. Rather, for those of us (Protestants and Catholics alike) who love the Word of God and who in it have found Jesus Christ to be the revealer of the Father, we can best honor Calvin, NOT by giving honor to him, but by always rendering to his Lord our complete and undivided love, honor and service., in short by honoring Christ alone.
Thus, on February 6, 1564, Calvin stood for the last time in the familiar pulpit of St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva. He preached about the harmony of the gospels when the cough seized him before he could finish. His last complete sermon was on the Wednesday before, when he preached on the books of Kings; and in the Geneva academy on that same Wednesday afternoon, gave his last lecture on Ezekiel. He last attended a church service on April 2, Easter Sunday, where his good friend and successor Theodore Beza preached. At that service Calvin received the elements of communion from Beza's hand. Calvin insisted that the Lord's Supper be observed every time the church gathered.
Calvin remained seriously ill, bedridden for eight weeks, until Saturday, May 27, 1564 when he died peacefully. The minutes of the consistory (the ruling body of St. Peter's Cathedral) were marked with a cross next to these words, "Gone to God, May 27 of this present year, between eight and nine o'clock in the evening." Calvin had asked that his body be buried in the usual manner on the next "day of the blessed resurrection;" which in his case would be the very next day, Sunday, May 28. A great procession followed his coffin to the cemetery outside the city of Geneva. Calvin had written in his will that no stone be placed to mark the spot of the grave as he did not want his tomb to become a monument. To this day no one knows exactly where Calvin was buried.
But something greater than a grave stone has remained. Through centuries the ideas and writing of John Calvin have remained powerfully alive and through them he has been teaching and shaping the church of Christ. Calvin, a mighty servant of Jesus Christ, lived humbly and died by the motto, Soli Deo Gloria, "To God alone the glory." SDG