John Calvin: The Virtual Founder of America

     Very few people today realize that our country was founded on the theology of the Protestant Reformation, particularly the theology of John Calvin, the Reformation’s greatest leader and organizer. John Calvin was born July 10, 1509 in a city about 58 miles northeast of Paris.  At the University of Paris Calvin received a thoroughly conservative training in the Roman Catholic faith. But he rejected that faith after his conversion. He describes his own conversion: “At first, while I remained so obstinately addicted to the superstitions of the Papacy, that it would have been hard indeed to have pulled me out of so deep a quagmire – by sudden conversion, God subdued me and made my heart teachable.” From that time onward Calvin gave his life to the cause of the reformation. Part of his university training taught him that not the copies, but the original works in literature were the sources to be studied and followed. Calvin became convinced that the Word of God, and not the things which the Church fathers said, was the real guide to follow in religious matters. And he devoted the rest of his life to working out that principle. The second major principle to which Calvin devoted his life was the principle that sinners are justified by grace alone, and not by works.

 

John Calvin was a “second generation” Reformer. He was 26 years younger than Martin Luther, whom most historians consider to have started the Reformation on Oct. 31, 1517. Luther had the courage and the originality to break with the Roman Catholic Church and to speak in no uncertain terms against its evils. Calvin completed the task which Luther had begun. Protestant Churches which subscribed to the theology of John Calvin sprang up early in various European countries, including France, Germany, England, Scotland, and Holland. To distinguish them from other protestant denominations (such as Lutheran), these churches are officially known as Reformed.

 

A little over 50 years after Calvin’s death in 1564 the Reformation that started in Europe was brought to our country by our Pilgrim forefathers, who undertook a voyage to America “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith” (Mayflower Compact, 1620). It is a fact that many of the early settlers of America were Calvinists. According to Historian Philip Schaff, “The earliest and most influential settlers of the United States – the Puritans of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, the Huguenots of France, the Reformed from Holland and the Palatinate [in Germany] – were Calvinists, and brought with them the Bible and the Reformed Confessions of Faith. Calvinism was the ruling theology of New England during the whole Colonial Period.” It is estimated that at the time of the American Revolution, more than one-half of all the soldiers and officers of the Colonial Army were Calvinists, and all of the colonels except one were Presbyterian elders. The war for Independence was spoken of in England as “The Presbyterian Rebellion.”

 

According to Calvin scholar, David Hall, our modern culture is different because of John Calvin (see The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World). To cite just a few examples, Calvin broke with the educational philosophy of his day and advocated a broad-based education for every citizen, and not just for the elite members of society. Calvin improved how the church and society should care for the poor. Calvin advocated limited and decentralized government, including a doctrine of separation of powers. Calvin’s idea that the Church ought to be free from the control of the civil magistrate inspired our founding fathers to write the first amendment to the United States Constitution. Calvin’s economic philosophy, including his emphasis on the sacredness of ordinary vocations, led to free markets and capitalism. For these and many other reasons, John Calvin has been called “the virtual founder of America.” Harvard professor George Bancroft called Calvin “the father of America.” He ranked Calvin among “the foremost of modern republican legislators,” who was responsible for elevating the culture of Geneva into “the impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile seed-plot of democracy.” Bancroft credited the “free institutions of America” as being derived “chiefly from Calvinism through the medium of Puritanism.” He concluded, “He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.