TEN MYTHS ABOUT CALVINISM: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition [Paperback]

I've just finished Ken Stewart's Ten Myths. It has worked in me much humility, and much enthusiasm for the future of the Reformed faith. The humility comes from recognizing how much he has read that I've never heard of, and how well he has grasped it. I am so glad he reminds us that Calvinism is about the kind grace of God, which has been expressed in many ways. It is everything but a narrow sect, but has been and is being joyfully received by people everywhere who take the biblical gospel seriously, and have come thereby to (diverse) Calvinistic conclusions.
I am especially grateful for his work on American (and global) revival. Who could believe that God could yet awaken in his indifferent and bored people a new appreciation for his gospel, except those who are convinced that the Lord has much more in his sovereign plan than has yet been known? Do you `pray down' or `work up' revival? As with similar questions, the answer must be: both. Of course Finney was much too sure he had it all mapped out, and people on the other end of the spectrum were too much into watchful waiting. I am so glad that Stewart identified the forerunners of revival as Calvinists, especially pointing out that the first professor at Prlnceton TS, Archibald Alexander, in his Log College book was vehement that Princeton inherited the Log College direction. (I would add, very glad that I can add something, that Alexander was opposing Charles Hodge, his young colleague, who had written in his Constitutional History that both Old and New Sides were about equal in value to the church).
Stewart pleads for breadth in the grand tradition of Amazing Grace, against the dark heresy of Worthy Me. Of course he is right, but he could have done more with the rise of the `biblical theology,' so well expressed by Geerhardus Vos, and my former colleagues John Murray, Edmund Clowney, Richard Gaffin, Ray Dillard and multi-perspectival Vern Poythress. In a way that biblical theology is just the ultimate in observing how a doctrinal emphasis functions within the biblical text. As always, John Calvin had pointed the way, telling us that that are two things we must know, God and also ourselves. He wisely placed thinking about election primarily not in the beginning, under the doctrine of God, but later in Book Three, dealing with the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Whatever may be true in the abstract about Election is not that relevant; how we are to understand it in the setting of our hard and confusing lives is what's crucial.
Oh, my joy in the future, which to a degree is already here. Must we say `limited' atonement, true though it is? Not really, since the issue is whether Jesus actually accomplished anything on Calvary. May a Baptist be a Covenant theologian? Of course, though with a bit lacking (but he'll preach a good sermon at the funeral of a baby). I'm ready to see the Southern Baptist Church as by far the largest and most influential Calvinist church in America. More to the point, in our `post-modern' time, when the collapse of Humanism and Liberalism signals a true new beginning in American religion, does Calvinism's Grace have a future? That joyful hope is what I get from Stewart. I can hardly wait to experience the new ways we will come to understand that nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ (Perseverance is traced especially well in the book).
The very brief chapter on `role of women' was startlingly helpful to me. Calvin truly believed in women deacons of some sort! While Stewart never tires of reminding us that there is more to Calvinism than Calvin, at this place I'm afraid I see today less of Calvinism than in Calvin. My PCA denomination has turned its back on even considering that question, and I am deeply saddened.
My own heritage is Calvinistic Methodist, which if it isn't a joke, is a superb illustration of the variety in the Reformed faith. Can you really put together Methodistical life with Calvinism? It happened so it's possible! Could we today agree with Whitefield when he was asked if he would see Wesley in heaven: `No, I'm afraid not. He will be so close to the Throne and I'll be so far away.' If we could agree, we will value Stewart's book very highly, God gives to us all a life of his Grace, and it is well for us to recognize and honor it wherever it appears--and be passionate in our prayers for the radically Free Grace church on the horizon.
D. Clair Davis, Professor of Church History and Chaplain, Redeemer Seminary, Dallas

David Hackett Fischer once wrote: "History is, in short, a problem-solving discipline. A historian is someone (anyone) who asks an open-ended question about past events and answers it with selected facts which are arranged in the form of an explanatory paradigm." Such an endeavor unfolds in a very wonderful way in this book.

For lack of a better term - this book is an exercise in ecclesiastical, historical chiropractic. It serves to realign some very critical, misaligned historical conceptions that for some (I have not a doubt in the world) have been producing undiagnosed pains, discomforts and perhaps even tears. It is a healing book. And I am profoundly grateful for it.

Dr. Stewart's bona fides as standing solidly mid-stream in the Reformed and Calvinistic school is without question. A Th. M from Westminster Seminary; Ph. D from the University of Edinburgh and his 14 year tenure on the faculty of Covenant College (Lookout Mountain GA - PCA) speak for themselves. His bio on Covenant's website reads in part: "Dr. Stewart is a specialist in the history of Christianity from the Reformation to the present with special interest in the development of the evangelical Protestant tradition." But it is his thorough research, irenic spirit, and his obvious commitment to and fearless pursuit of - historical Reformation truth as demonstrated in this book that makes me so desirous that this fine work attain a broad reading.

I will confess that on first gloss, not all of the chapter titles intrigued me.

The first 4 chapter are devoted to "Four Myths Calvinists Should Not Be Circulating (But Are) - and were what garnered my immediate attention. As one who considers himself self-consciously "Calvinistic" I found that I had participated at one time or another and to greater or lesser degrees - in believing and propagating the first 3. These "myths" in the order cited in the book are:

1. One man (Calvin and One City (Geneva) Are Determinative.
2. Calvin's View of Predestination Must Be Ours.
3. TULIP is the Yardstick of the Truly Reformed.
4. Calvinists Take a Dim View of Revival and Awakening.

To my chagrin - I've owned all of the first three in some respect. And have at times hidden my lack of agreement with the 4th. That said - and with each chapter's discoveries richly documented and footnoted - I found chapter 3 of absolute necessity in the face of the current trend of what Collin Hansen has termed the "Young, Restless and Reformed" movement.

Convincingly establishing that TULIP is a 20th century device (decidedly unhelpful due to its unfortunate reductionism), Dr. Stewart notes that there are 2 predominant "schools" who adhere to it most. The "sovereign grace" school (of which I would have located myself) for whom "the TULIP acronym is sacrosanct; it is a historic formula understood to have been passed down to us by our forebears", is one. For those in this school, "Dislike and scorn of TULIP is reckoned as being akin to negative attitudes toward the Bible and gospel; unbelievers misjudge them all."

In contrast, the "apologetic" school shows a "heightened awareness that the doctrines summarized under the rubric of TULIP are capable of being grossly misunderstood." Hence there have been numerous attempts to reconstruct more accurate ways of explicating the doctrines referred to so as to inhibit those misunderstandings. Dr. Stewart's footnote refers to no less than 8 examples of this school including the likes of R. C. Sproul, Roger Nicole, Timothy George etc. Of course several myths get exploded in this chapter: That Calvin coined "TULIP", or that the Synod of Dordt coined it. In fact, Dr. Stewart's extensive research can trace it no further back than 1913. Do see the detailed historical breakdown (pages 93-95) and appendix in this regard.

This chapter alone is worth the price of the book in its clarion call for us to step back - no matter how tempting it may be - from the sound-bite, Twitterized approach to expounding Biblical truth and the deep, deep doctrines of the Bible in easily distorted and misconstruable forms. This, because such truths are not to be imbibed like M&M's, and secondly because our own Reformed tradition is NOT so neatly tied up in tidy little packages. Indeed, as the subtitle to this book reminds us - we desperately need to recover the "Breadth of the Reformed Tradition" - and not yield to a pop-history that makes doctrinal expressions lose their appropriate nuances at the hands of the very giants who went before us. When one wants to posit "THE" Reformed view - we must be exceedingly careful. Dr. Stewart will go to great lengths to show how Calvin, Bucer, Zwingli, Luther and a vast array of others spoke guardedly and often with subtle shades that allow for a necessary breadth of understanding and expression virtually lost in some circles today.

The balance of the book is occupied with "Six Myths Non-Calvinists Should Not Be Circulating (But Are).

These are:

1. (ch. 5) Calvinism is Largely Antimissionary.
2. (ch. 6) Calvinism Promotes Antinomianism.
3. (ch. 7) Calvinism Leads to Theocracy.
4. (ch. 8) Calvinism Undermines the Creative Arts.
5. (ch. 9) Calvinism Resists Gender Equality.
6. (ch. 10) Calvinism Has Fostered Racial Inequality.

What I found so interesting in each of these chapters is - that once I got into them, I found myself engrossed in the topics, and delighted at the treatments. And to be honest - these were not topics that interested me on the surface. But there are truly important things said - and re-aligned in each one of them. None could be left out without harming the book over all.

Chapters 9 & 10 especially blew the dust off of topics I had felt some discomfort with, but really had never identified too clearly for myself. I knew "something" was out of joint in these areas - but just what, I was never able to pinpoint - nor (to my embarrassment) did I ever take the proper time to delve into. Once again, I commend these each to you as not only enlightening, but as a means to relieve what may be the source of unidentified discomfort in your own thinking. These are necessary issues we tend to discard because it would require either too much effort to unpack and think through - or perhaps we secretly fear will reveal something we don't want to see. But let Dr. Stewart take you there. It will be very much worth it.

When the Bible records history - it does so relentlessly - exposing the sins, failures and foibles of its subjects. And the Church can do no less when we look into our own history after the canon had closed. To create a pop version of our own history leads to the creation and perpetuation of the kinds of myths Dr. Stewart labors so lovingly to disabuse us of in this book. He is unafraid to let the truth be known. Especially the truth that as Reformed believers, not all exists in a mythical, monolith of doctrinal precision on every point. Some amazing shades appear in some unexpected places. We're not talking about foundational formulations which have stood the test of time and scrutiny - but of extrapolations upon the foundations which may or may not be chipped all from the same stone.

But that is as we ought to expect, isn't it? If Calvin can say the best of theologians are men at best (I "think" it was Calvin) can we not own the reality that each was fallen and each still needs have their assumptions and reasonings tested and re-tested against the canon of Scripture, and the assumptions, reasonings and analyses of other fine (and increasingly informed) theological minds? It seems so. To me at least.

Buy it. Read it. Give it to a friend. And let's grow together. Come to Dr. Stewart for an "adjustment". I promise you, you'll feel better when you leave.

In this volume Stewart discusses, in two parts, myths about Calvinism which should cease being repeated. In part one he covers four myths Calvinists themselves circulate, and in the second part he discusses six myths non-Calvinists disseminate. These ten myths are, in order

Part One-
One Man and One City are Determinative
Calvin's View of Predestination Must be Ours
TULIP is the Yardstick of the Truly Reformed
Calvinists Take a Dim View of Revival and Awakening

Part Two-
Calvinism is Largely Antimissionary
Calvinism Promotes Antinomianism
Calvinism Leads to Theocracy
Calvinism Undermines the Creative Arts
Calvinism Resists Gender Equality
Calvinism Has Fostered Racial Inequality

Stewart concludes his treatment with a chapter titled `Recovering our Bearings: Calvinism in the Twenty-First Century'. Then follows an Appendix and the usual indices.

This volume is essentially a plea to understand Calvinism as something more than a simple monolith. If I may, the overarching impression this reader took away from reading the volume is that there are numerous ways to take one's `Calvinism' . Indeed, Stewart himself hints at this when he writes

Calvinist and Calvinism are not ideal terms to describe an approach to Christian faith and theology descending from multiple centers that knew few boundaries and had a high degree of fraternal cooperation within Swiss-South German Protestantism (p. 40).

Stewart prefers the term `Reformed' for these Swiss-German and French movements.

As Stewart corrects the misunderstandings which arise when Calvinism is misrepresented, he keeps the reader engaged and interested. He has a very easy style of writing and he's quite clear and precise. He's nice to read, in other words.

At the conclusion of each chapter he lists a few `discussion questions' and he also offers a brief bibliography for further reading. So, for example, at the end of chapter one his bibliography includes mention of David Steinmetz's Reformers in the Wings and William Monter's Calvin's Geneva. It was a more than a little mystifying to me that he didn't include Diarmaid MacCulloch's The Reformation: A History which is in my estimation the very finest history of the period written in the last 50 years. That volume most surely should be on anyone's reading list when it comes to the Reformation.

Stewart's discussion of Calvin's view of Predestination (in chapter two) is simply brilliant. I would recommend it to anyone seeking to know the mind of Calvin on the topic. It's not a very long chapter but it is simply packed with invaluable insight. Stewart describes the history of the doctrine, the growth of the doctrine in Calvin's own work, and those in his own day and afterwards who saw things differently. Stewart makes the terribly important and too often overlooked point that

... predestination as addressed in the major confessions of the Reformation era is shorn of some excesses attached to Calvin's own views (p. 71).

Chapter three is finely written and our author makes it quite clear that not only is the TULIP acronym really quite new, it also played virtually no part whatsoever in the development of Reformed theology. This will come as quite a surprise to those who mistakenly believe that TULIP fell from Calvin's own lips. Stewart offers a very helpful table at the end of the chapter (on pp. 93ff) showing those theologians which made use of TULIP in their works, and why.

By the time readers arrive at part two, they should have the feeling that much that they have heard of Calvinism has simply been inaccurate. Part two in its entirety reinforces that feeling as six more falsehoods regarding Calvinism are exposed and debunked.

Calvinism has had, in many of its forms, more than a common missionary spirit. Calvinism can hardly be accused of stirring people to lawlessness. And Calvinism leads no more to theocracy than does Lutheranism or Catholicism. Indeed, if people are concerned about religions that lead to theocracy, and that quite intentionally, they should look to the East.

It is fair to say that the real danger of theocracy (in any oppressive sense of the term) in the modern world is not associated with countries that have been the strongholds of Christianity, but instead with those (of more than one kind) that resist both the idea of coexistence of distinct religions and its counterpart, the idea of the freedom to depart from one religion in order to embrace another (p. 194).

Naturally though he never says the word, Islam in its less than moderate form is easily understood. And he is absolutely right. Radical Islam is far more interested, by its own admission, in establishing nothing less than Islamic Theocracies around the world. The threat to democracy isn't Calvinism, it's Islam. It isn't Calvin, it's Muhammed. And frankly I'm glad to see a historian make the point (though Stewart makes it more cordially and sensitively than I just have).

Calvinism isn't opposed to the arts either. And neither is the Reformed tradition. Stewart is right to remark

... the Reformation's response to the various arts in fact varied considerably by region and by brand of Protestantism (p. 199).

The arts, of course, refer to images in the churches and music. And Stewart is right to observe that Zwingli was more stringent on the subject than Calvin.

When it comes to race relations and gender equality, Calvinism is no more to be faulted than anything else in terms of the 16th century worldview on those topics. And Calvinism has been, it has to be admitted, progressive in large part on both.

Does Stewart prove his point that Calvinism has been misunderstood by both insiders and outsiders? Yes. And he does it excellently. There is, in fact, very little to quibble with in this volume. Stewart has it right. He has Calvin right, he has Calvinism right, and he even has Zwingli right (in those instances when Zwingli comes up, Stewart does a very good job in representing his views correctly and fairly).

This is an excellent primer on Calvinism- a much needed corrective to all the misinformation presently circulating about that theological movement.

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