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Calvin Courier is published twice yearly by the H.
Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, |
From the Director
From May 24 to 26 the Meeter Center and Calvin Theological Seminary cohosted the biennial Calvin Studies Society meeting. Seven speakers provided insightful presentations on the theme of “Calvin and the Church.” Attendance was strong with 79 preregistered participants. The combination of scholarship, socializing, and attending events such as an evening concert of sixteenth- century music proved extremely successful.
The Center continues to pursue its regular work of welcoming scholars, including one of our two student research fellows for 2001, Mr. Young Hwan Ra, a doctoral student at Cambridge University in England. He spent four weeks at the Meeter Center in February and March. We encourage graduate students, faculty members, and pastors to consider applying for our fellowships. More information on the fellowships, including amounts and eligibility, is available on our Web site.
In October the Meeter Center hosted a book reception to honor Professor Bernard Cottret of the University of Versailles-Saint Quentin to mark the publication of his monograph Calvin: A Biography published by Eerdmans. In February we honored Dr. John Bolt of Calvin Theological Seminary on the publication of his study of Abraham Kuyper, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper’s American Public Theology, also published by Eerdmans. Our other major publication news is the reissue of our CD, Music of the Genevan Psalter. The first thousand copies sold out in less than a year. The CDs are available from the Meeter Center and through the Calvin College Bookstore at 1–800–748–0122 or bookstore@calvin.edu.
We invite you, as always, to contact us either by e-mail or in person with requests for information or to arrange for a visit and use of our collection.
Karin Y. Maag
Calvin’s Meeter Center
On November 28, 2000, I had the pleasure of listening to a lecture about the Meeter Center here at Calvin College by one of Calvin’s professors. As part of the continuing lecture series celebrating Calvin’s 125-year anniversary, Karin Maag informed the audience about the aims of the Center and the wide array of resources that it makes available to students and scholars.
The specific aims of the Meeter Center are two-fold: to collect and make available a wide range of resources and to help people navigate through these materials. Calvin’s Meeter Center can be proud of having one of the largest collections of John Calvin’s work in North America. With this large gamut of works accessible to the public, the Meeter Center helps visitors avoid two traps in Reformation scholarship. The first is that despite being a popular subject for scholars, students are often indifferent to—and even dislike—Reformation scholarship. But the Meeter Center conducts tours of its facilities and displays rare sixteenth-century books, and this helps the students feel more connected to Reformation history and become more interested in the resources available to them.
The second problem facing Reformation scholarship is overzealous partisanship. Many people come into the Meeter Center with definite beliefs and assumptions about the faith and writings of John Calvin. The Center tries to show people that history can be only truly understood by first understanding the context—social, cultural, and religious—of the time, and only then can someone get the big picture of any issue. The Meeter Center is successfully providing opportunities for students as well as the community to learn about the Reformation while continuing to foster top-notch scholarship around the world.
The Meeter Center is a great facility that I have used more than once. It certainly contains impressive material, and more and more people are becoming aware of its many uses. John Calvin, the Reformation, and Calvin College continue to be better known and better understood because of it. Keep up the great work!
Brian Busker
Calvin College senior
New Acquisitions
Books
Berthoud, Jean-Marc. Calvin et la France: Genève et le déploiement de la réforme au XVIe siècle. Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, 1999.
Bèze, Théodore de. Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze. Vol. 23. Collected by Hippolyte Aubert. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2001.
Calvin, John. La famine spirituelle: sermon inédit sur Esaïe 55. Edited by Max Engammare. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2000.
Murdock, Graeme. Calvinism on the Frontier 1600–1660: International Calvinism and the Reformed Church in Hungary and Transylvania. New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Peter, Rodolphe and Jean-François Gilmont. Bibliotheca Calviniana: Les oeuvres de Jean Calvin publiées au XVIe siècle. III. Écrits théologiques, littéraires et juridiques 1565–1600. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2000.
Rare Books
Calvin, John. In librum Jobi Conciones, avec une préface de Théodore de Bèze. Geneva: Héritiers d’Eustache Vignon, 1593.
Calvin, John. Sermons ausquels l’histoire de Melchisedec et la matiere de la justification sont deduites, avec l’exposition du sacrifice d’Abraham. Geneva: [Jean Bonnefoy pour] Jean Durant, 1565.
Articles
Beach, J. Mark. “The Real Presence of Christ in the Preaching of the Gospel: Luther and Calvin on the Nature of Preaching.” Mid-America Journal of Theology 10, 1999: 77–134.
Bruijn, J. de. “Calvinism and Romanticism: Abraham Kuyper as a Calvinist Politician.” In Religion, Pluralism, and Public Life: Abraham Kuyper’s Legacy for the Twenty-First Century. 45–58. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.
Busch, Eberhard. “Die Ekklesiologie bei a Lasco und Calvin.” In Johannes a Lasco (1499–1560) Polnischer Baron, Humanist und europäischer Reformator. 125–143. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.
Kayayan, Eric. “Exhortation in Calvin’s Sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16–17.” In Calvin as a Minister of the Word. Proceedings of the Sixth SA Congress for Calvin Research. 1–12. Potchefstroomse Universiteit, South Africa, 2000.
Moreau, Pierre-François. “Calvin: fascination et critique du stoicisme.” In Le Stoicisme au XVIe et au XVIIe siècle. Le retour des philosophies antiques à l’Age classique. 51–64. Paris: Albin Michel, 1999.
A Spring Colloquium
Pastor Antoine Court (1695–1760) was a leading figure in the Church of the Desert—the underground Reformed assemblies that met in the French countryside (au Désert) after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. From 1715 to 1729 Court played an essential role in organizing these disparate assemblies and in encouraging a policy of nonviolent resistance. Refusing assimilation into the Roman Catholic Church, members of the Desert Church began to celebrate their marriages and baptisms at the assemblies, even though such ceremonies had no legal value in a country where all citizens were officially Catholic.
In 1729 Court was forced to flee for his safety to Lausanne, where he lived until his death. Although no longer active in the ministry, Court dedicated the rest of his life to aiding the Desert Church. He was part of the committee governing the Desert Seminary, a clandestine school established in Lausanne to provide basic theological training for Desert pastors. Court also pursued various historical projects promoting the Desert Church and the need for toleration. In 1744 he was given the charge of coordinating contacts between the Desert Church and its foreign benefactors, chiefly the Dutch and English governments, who supported the Seminary and aided pastors and Huguenot prisoners financially.
As part of these duties, Court wrote a polemical work, Le Patriote français et impartial (The French Impartial Patriot), in 1751 to respond to a virulent letter penned by the Bishop of Agen against “the toleration of Huguenots.” At that time it seemed that prominent members of the French government favored the return of wealthy Huguenots who had fled France after the Revocation. Responding to the Bishop’s accusations against the Huguenots, Court outlines the need for toleration through various historical, philosophical, and economic arguments. His main goal is to request a new Edict of Nantes that would guarantee freedom of conscience for French Protestants.
Court had great difficulty in distributing his work, particularly the second edition of 1753, as French authorities began an intensive campaign to wipe out the Desert Church in 1752–1754. Moreover, prominent Huguenots objected to the breadth of Court’s demands and preferred a more modest request for civil rights, namely a civil marriage procedure. While it is unlikely that Court’s text directly influenced the king’s policies toward Huguenots, the Patriote clearly inspired other Protestant works on toleration and can even be linked to Voltaire’s Treatise on Toleration.
Otto Selles, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of French
Calvin College
Colloquia and Conferences
Meeter Center Colloquium Series
March 30, 2001: Dr. Otto Selles, professor of French at Calvin College, was the Meeter Center’s spring lecturer. His topic was “A Huguenot ‘Treatise on Toleration’: The Pastor Antoine Court’s Le Patriote français et impartial (1751–1753).”
May 24, 2001: Dr. Herman Selderhuis, professor of church history at the Theological University in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, was the Meeter Center Biennial Lecture speaker. His lecture, entitled “The Church on Stage: The Dynamics of Calvin’s Ecclesiology,” was given in conjunction with the meeting of the Calvin Studies Society held May 24–26, 2001. The theme of the conference was “Calvin and the Church.”
October 23, 2001: Matteo Campagnolo, the curator of the Medals Collection at the Genevan Art and History Museum, Switzerland, will speak on “Calvin on Medals.”
November 15, 2001: Rev. Willem Jan van Asselt, senior lecturer of church history at the Faculty of Theology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, will give the fall lecture on “The Fundamental Meaning of Theology: Archtypal and Ectypal Theology in 17th Century Reformed Thought.”
Fellowships Awarded in 2001Faculty Research Fellowship: Dr. Kwang Phil Koh, professor in systematic theology, Kwangshin University, Korea, will pursue research on the grammar of hermeneutics in Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Student Research Fellowship: Mr. Young Hwan Ra, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, spent time at the Center studying the development of Calvin’s hermeneutical views in relation to eschatology. Mr. Roelf Theodoor te Velde, a Ph.D. candidate at the Theological University of the Reformed Churches, Kampen, The Netherlands, will do research this summer on the doctrine of God in Reformed orthodoxy.
Emo F. J. Van Halsema Fellowship: Rev. Willem Jan van Asselt, senior lecturer of church history at the Faculty of Theology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, plans to do a study of Johannes Maccovius—pioneer of Reformed scholasticism.
are also available on our Web site.
From Cambridge to Calvin
I came from Cambridge with two main objectives: to gather secondary resources and to write on the eschatological character of Calvin’s theology. I almost achieved my first goal. The Meeter Center has an excellent collection of primary and secondary resources related to Calvin, and the article collection is much greater than I imagined. The merit of the Center is in its location—closely linked to the Hekman Library. With theological books located on the fourth floor of the library and philosophical books on the fifth floor, the Meeter Center and Hekman Library together provided all the materials I needed. I sometimes regret that I only stayed for one month. The time was too short to complete my work.
I achieved the second objective by completing the section on the eschatological character of Calvin’s theology. Thanks to an excellent working environment and the availability of the needed research materials I got many ideas for my dissertation.
My time at the Meeter Center was both challenging and enjoyable. I am grateful to God for the people I met and for all that I have learned. Many thanks to Karin, Susan, and Paul whose kindness to me made me feel at home, and special thanks to Richard Muller who gave me many insights. Now as I look back, I realize how much I am taking home with me. Many others showed me hospitality in providing transportation for me as well as meals—Korean, Indonesian, and Japanese. During my stay Calvin College celebrated its 125th anniversary, and I celebrated my birthday. I will long remember the birthday greetings from my new friends away from home.
Young Hwan Ra
Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge
Hugh and Eve Meeter Calvinism Awards to High School Seniors
Thirteen students wrote papers on the topic “John Calvin on the Place of Music in Worship and the Relevance of His Ideas for Today.” The first prize of $2,500 went to Bethany Keeley of Holland, Michigan, and the second prize of $1,250 was awarded to Trisha Draayer of Sioux Center, Iowa. The topic for 2002 is “John Calvin and Religious Persecution.” Contact the Meeter Center for an informative brochure about the awards. Papers must be received by January 15, 2002.
