Biola's Home Page

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sastark

Puritan Board Graduate
Thought you all might get a kick out of this. I went to my school's web site today and this is what I find on the home page:

biola.jpg


Go Eagles!
 
Interesting. Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology? Is he simply celebrated as a momentous figure in church history?
 
from the article linked to the home page picture : http://www.biola.edu/news/articles/2009/090710_calvin.cfm


Aint this the truth....


Yet “Calvinism” has become a curse word in the vocabulary of many people, and the name of John Calvin carries unpleasant baggage. Far from being inclined to celebrate his quincentennial, people are inclined to hate John Calvin without ever having read his books or learned anything about him. Marilynne Robinson, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel Gilead, lamented this rough treatment of Calvin in an essay she published in her 1998 bookThe Death of Adam. In her essay, Robinson referred to the reformer by his French name, “Jean Cauvin,” just to “free the discussion of the almost comically negative associations of ‘John Calvin,’ which anglicizes the Latin name under which he wrote, Ioannes Calvinus.” She calls him Cauvin because “the name Calvin …is so burdened that I choose to depart from custom.”

this also seems interesting:

These are words worth hearing from one of our greatest living novelists. Marilynne Robinson is an artist whose imagination has been honed and polished by her Reformed theology. But Calvin does not belong only to the Calvinists; his contribution to all thoughtful Christians is too great to belong only to those who confess themselves to be Reformed. Speaking for myself, I am a Wesleyan theologian, and I dissent from the theology of Calvin at three or four (or maybe five) crucial points. But I have learned more from John Calvin than from any other theologian, especially about the great, central doctrines of the Christian faith.
 
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?

I'm not sure if you meant this rhetorically or not, but I think it is an interesting question. If Calvin has become a theologian that you must pretend to like, even though you reject his theology, then oh how the tables have turned in the last 50 years!
 
My wife, Sonya, graduated from Biola in 1996. We were married a week later. I was a Captain in the Marine Corps back then.
 
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?

I'm not sure if you meant this rhetorically or not, but I think it is an interesting question. If Calvin has become a theologian that you must pretend to like, even though you reject his theology, then oh how the tables have turned in the last 50 years!

Maybe I live in a bubble or something, but Calvin seems to be a pretty popular guy. He seems to be more poplular than his theology.
 
Has Calvin become a theologian that one must pretend to like even though you reject his theology?

I'm not sure if you meant this rhetorically or not, but I think it is an interesting question. If Calvin has become a theologian that you must pretend to like, even though you reject his theology, then oh how the tables have turned in the last 50 years!

Maybe I live in a bubble or something, but Calvin seems to be a pretty popular guy. He seems to be more poplular than his theology.

I agree, but I don't think this was the case 50-100 years ago. Ask some older, long time reformed brothers and sisters and I think you will find that the mention of Calvin's name was only acceptable in most circles if it was followed by "that hateful Frenchman who slit Servetus' throat in cold blood". The fact that so many, from a broad range of theological backgrounds, now view him positively testifies to the great work of reforming the church that the previous generation started, and which is still being carried out today.
 
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