Unit information: The Theology of John Calvin in 2014/15

Unit name	The Theology of John Calvin
Unit code	THRS20095
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Balserak
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Religion and Theology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit examines the life, teachings and legacy of the Sixteenth-century reformer, pastor, theologian, biblical interpreter, lawyer, social visionary, and humanist, John Calvin. One of the most significant thinkers in the Western tradition, Calvin has been called profoundly forward-looking, hopelessly conservative, shamefully licentious, ruthlessly dictatorial. Whatever he was, his thought has had a great impact on Western society. The unit will examine Calvin's context and seek to understand his theology: both its broad contours and the positions he takes on a range of subjects - doctrine of God, creation and the fall of humankind, predestination and soteriology, the church, etc. It will also consider his thinking on government, economics and other 'secular' subjects. Post-Calvin Calvinism from the Remonstrants to New England Puritanism, Kuyper, and Apartheid will also be considered. Our overall aim is to question our current sense of superiority to the past by examining one of its seminal thinkers.

Aims:

• To provide an understanding of the late-medieval and early modern theological landscape which was the background for Calvins life and thought.

• To provide an understanding of Calvins theology both in regards to the positions he takes on individual topics and in regards to the shape and character of the whole of his thought.

• To provide an understanding of some of the scholarly study of Calvin and of some of the major schools of thought present within Calvin scholarship.

• To develop analytical skills through the discussion and essay writing.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students will be expected to have:

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss late medieval and early modern theology

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss the life and thought of Calvin within its context

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss the shape of Calvins theology and the positions he held on main theological topics

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss Calvinism

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss the academic study of Calvin, his life, his theology, his thought on secular issues, Calvinism more broadly

Teaching Information

Weekly: two hour lecture

Assessment Information

Students will be assessed via a summative 3000-word essay. They will submit a 500 word formative essay on an assigned topic.

Reading and References

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961)

• T.H.L. Parker, John Calvin: A Biography (London: Dent, 1975).

• Robert Kingdon, Adultery and Divorce in Calvins Geneva (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995)

• Paul Helm, John Calvins Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

• Fran�ois Wendel, Calvin; Origins and Development of His Religious Thought, trans. Philip Mairet (New York: Harper & Row, 1963)

• Michael Mullet, John Calvin (London: Routledge, 1989)