Calvinism and War

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Christine Kooi

Published:

2020

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Reformed Protestants found themselves involved in some of the bloodiest conflicts of sixteenth-century Europe. The Reformed criticism and rejection of the old Church made peaceful coexistence unlikely, and when Reformed movements found themselves increasingly under pressure to conform, they grew less and less willing to do so. A life “under the cross” grew less palatable in Calvinist minds, especially since Calvin himself had warned against the spiritual dangers of “Nicodemism,” that is, pretending not to be a dissenter to preserve one’s safety. This chapter argues that one of the major intellectual projects of sixteenth-century Calvinism was to provide a theological rationale for what seemed to most people to be politically unthinkable: war against established government. The leading thinkers of the Reformed movement, in their writings at least, were certainly not reluctant to confront, provoke, and fight back for the sake of the gospel.

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