John Calvin

1509 - 1564

Background• He was born in Noyon, on the 10th of July 1509.• He studied at the priesthood at the college de la

marche and the college de montaigue in Paris.• He then studied law.• In 1536, the first edition of institutes of the

Christian religion was published and this led him to the fore-front of Protestantism.

• His only child died.• In 1541 he moved to Geneva. Here he was

invited to modify the constitution in sacred and secular matters.

• He wrote commentaries and catechism on nearly every book in the bible.

• He died from Quartan fever and lies in a non-marked grave in Geneva.

Pre-destination

• The doctrine of pre-destination was formulated by such theologians as Augustine of Hippo and John Calvin.

• It is based on the idea that God determines whatever happens in History and that man has a very limited understanding of Gods purposes and plans.

• This means that our actions in this life are completely irrelevant as God has already decided whether we are saved or not.

Determinism

• The view of every event has a cause and so, when applied to moral decisions, we do not have free-will.

• Determinism can also be seen in some versions of Christian pre-destination.

Soft Determinism

• Soft Determinist’s argue that determinism doesn’t rule out free-will.

• They believe that determinism and free-will are compatible. For them, freedom to act is acting voluntarily and not out of coercion.

Hard Determinism

• We are not free and cannot be held morally responsible for our actions.

• Hard determinism maintains that all actions have prior cause. Humans aren’t free to act. Our actions are determined by a complex set of prior causes.

Libertarianism• We are free and morally responsible for

our actions.

• Some people reject determinism because it rules out moral responsibility, and also because there is a sense that we have self-determination or freedom to act.

• These Ethicists are called libertarians.

Calvinism

• Formulated by John Calvin during the 16th Century and is still followed by Presbyterian churches today

• This belief says that as man is a complete sinner who is incapable of coming to God and has a sinful free will that is only capable of rejecting God.

• This then means that Pre-destination must occur or nobody could be saved.

• God is in total control and people cannot do anything to achieve salvation.

Calvin says:

• “Eternal life is fore/ordained for some, an eternal damnation for others. Every man,

therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is pre-

destined to life or death.” (institutes of the Christian religion) BK3

• This idea suggests that people have no free will as far as their ethical decisions are concerned.

• Its states that God makes his choice about who is to be saved independently of any qualities in

the individual. • People only do good because God made them

that way and put them in a certain environment and the rest are limited by their natural sinful

nature and can only choose to be sinful. Logically if we have no control over our actions,

we have no responsibility for them.

John Calvin

by Nicola Goodwin, David Perks & Peter Collins