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Calvin Courier is published twice yearly by the H.
Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, |
From the Director
As we continue to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, we look back with satisfaction at another busy but successful summer. Six visiting scholars received Meeter Center fellowships and spent periods of four to six weeks with us, mainly in June and July. The Center was crowded, but we found space for everyone, and the interaction between the scholars was wonderful. Please see page 3 for a report from Michael Springer, one of our student research fellows.
In May we hosted a highly successful dinner for the Friends of the Meeter Center, followed by speeches given by Professor Frank Roberts and Professor Richard Muller, both of whom have been very active in the leadership of the Meeter Center Governing Board over the years. We also enjoyed listening to a selection of Genevan Psalms sung by a small group organized by Professor Howard Slenk.
This fall we hosted our fifth Meeter Center Biennial Lecture. Our speaker was Professor Kaspar von Greyerz, chair of the history department at the University of Basle. He is a specialist on the Swiss Reformation (see report below).
From June 2–13, 2003, we will host our third biennial Genevan Paleography course, taught by Dr. Thomas Lambert. We strongly encourage scholars who are proficient in written French but who wish to learn paleography or refresh their skills to consider applying for the course. Past participants have indicated that the course is very valuable both in developing paleographical skills and in providing a well-crafted introduction to the history of Geneva in the sixteenth century. For more information on the paleography course see page 2.We were saddened to learn of the death of Rev. Dr. John Leith on August 12, 2002. He was one of the leading forces in North America for the study of Calvinism and was a good friend of the Meeter Center. He inspired both students and pastors with his passion for Calvin studies and organized the biennial Calvin Colloquium at Davidson for many years. He will be sorely missed.
Karin Y. Maag
All about the Swiss Reformation
The Meeter Center for Calvin Studies Biennial Lecture was delivered on October 7, 2002, by Professor Doctor Kaspar von Greyerz. Von Greyerz is the Chairman of the history department at the University of Basel, Switzerland. In the fall semester of 2002 he served as a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor von Greyerz is one of the leading lights in the area of the early modern social history of Europe. He has published several books in that field as well as dozens of articles. His most recent book, published in 2000, is Religion und Kultur, Europa 1500-1800.
Professor von Greyerz spoke on the topic The Swiss Reformation: Its Potential and Its Limits. He began his lecture with an overview of the Swiss political situation at the time of the Reformation and demonstrated how that situation placed significant limits on the possibility of the Reformation spreading in German-speaking Switzerland after the Second Peace of Kappel in 1531. Put quite simply, both the Catholic and Protestant cantons within the Swiss Confederation decided that “confessional equity” within the Confederation was most important. For Protestantism that decision meant that it would not continue to spread within the Confederation. As Professor von Greyerz noted, “It is obvious that major confessional conflict was averted in the interest of the political survival of the Swiss Confederation.”
Von Greyerz also pointed out that disagreement over the “mercenary question ” was another matter that limited the spread of the Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland. Swiss soldiers had served as mercenary soldiers in Italy and elsewhere for centuries, and such service provided much needed income in many central Swiss cantons. However, Ulrich Zwingli, the founder of the Swiss Reformation, was unalterably opposed to this mercenary system and demanded that it be outlawed in his home canton, Zurich. His adherents in other cantons followed suit. By contrast, the central Swiss cantons, which depended heavily on the income derived from mercenary service, were not about to discontinue the practice. As von Greyerz states, “This made it practically certain from the start that the cantons of central Switzerland would close ranks against Zwingli and his cause.” They opposed Protestantism within their borders and remained Catholic.
However, there was real potential for the successful spread of the Reformed movement in French-speaking Switzerland after 1536. In that year Protestant Bern occupied the Pays de Vaud in the western part of Switzerland. This occupation came about as a result of the Duke of Savoy’s unsuccessful efforts to lay siege to the city of Geneva. Once Catholic Savoy was driven out of western, French-speaking, Switzerland, resistance to the Reformation virtually disappeared in that region. In fact all of French-speaking Switzerland, with a couple of minor exceptions, embraced the Reformation after 1536, including Geneva. The potential for the spread of the Reformation in French Switzerland was realized magnificently!
There was also potential for the Reformed movement to spread outside of Switzerland, thanks to John Calvin, the Genevan reformer, and to a lesser degree, Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli’s successor in Zurich. As Professor von Greyerz noted in his lecture, “This potential was … realized to the full.” The reformations of Geneva and Zurich had a significant impact on Reformed movements in France, England, Hungary, and eventually in what would become the United States. Whatever the confessional limitations were in the Swiss Confederation, the success of the Reformed branch of the Reformation in French-speaking Switzerland and in many areas beyond Switzerland was resounding!
Professor von Greyerz’s lecture opened a window on several aspects of the Swiss Reformation that were new to me, and, I suspect, to many others. Many of these insights will be helpful to me in the future whenever I teach a course on the Reformation. The lecture was a reminder that one does not really have a full-orbed understanding of the Swiss Reformation, or any other Reformation for that matter, unless one takes into account the political and social realities associated with that Reformation. Those of us associated with the Meeter Center are most grateful that we had the opportunity to host Professor von Greyerz on our campus and grateful for the insights we gained from his visit.
Frank Roberts, Ph.D.
History, emeritus, Calvin College
New Acquisitions
Books
Kooi, Cornelis van der. Als in een spiegel: God kennen volgens Calvijn en Barth: Een tweeluik. Kampen: Kok, 2002.
Mentzer, Raymond A. and Andrew Spicer, eds. Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559–1685. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Sap, Jan Willem. Paving the Way for Revolution: Calvinism and the Struggle for a Democratic Constitutional State. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 2001.
Rare Books
Bolsec, Jérôme-Hermès. De vita et rebvs gestis Martini Lvtheri, et aliorum. Paris: M. de Roigny, 1581.
Jurieu, P. De Staat-kunde Van de Geestelykheyt Van Vrankryk. Utrecht: Francois Halma, 1682.Dissertations
Phillips, Darryl. “An Inquiry into the Extent of the Abilities of John Calvin as a Hebraist.” Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford, 1998.
Gardiner, Murv L. “Predestination and Liberation: Some Often Overlooked Evidence from Texts of John Calvin and Some Obvious and Some Hidden Influences of Calvinism.” Ph.D. diss., Union Graduate School of Arts and Science, 2000.
Kim, Eun Chul. “Preaching in the Korean Protestant Church (1884–1945): A Study in Light of John Calvin’s Understanding of Word and Sacrament.” Ph.D. diss., Drew University, 2001.
Murphy, Joseph P. “The Fountain of Life: A Metaphorical Model of the Operation of the Trinity in the Theology of John Calvin.” Ph.D. diss., Drew University, 2001.
Steere, Daniel J. “Quo vadis?: Bishop Joseph Hall and the Demise of Calvinist Conformity in Early Seventeenth-Century England.” Ph.D. diss., Georgia State University, 2000.
Articles
Balke, Willem. “Calvijn en Viret: vriendschap én spanning.” Nederlands theologisch tijdschrift 56, no. 3, 2002: 233–55.
Coertzen, Pieter. “John Calvin and the Reformed Tradition on the Jurisdiction of the Church.” Koers 66, no. 1 & 2, 2001: 115–30.
Jung, Kyu Chul. “John Calvin’s View on Inerrancy of Holy Scripture.” Presbyterian Theological Quarterly 69, no. 2, 2002: 186–206.
Koh, Kwang Phil. “The Grammar of Hermeneutics in Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.” The Journal of KwangShin University 1, 2002: 97–132.
Paleography at the Meeter Center
The Meeter Center will offer its third biennial paleography course on Genevan documents from Monday June 2 through Friday June 13, 2003. This course, led by Dr. Thomas Lambert, focuses on teaching participants the skills needed to decipher a wide range of sixteenth-century manuscript documents written in French. Although the course focuses on documents written in Geneva in the sixteenth century, the skills learned in this course can be applied to any handwritten French text of the sixteenth century. Dr. Lambert is a specialist in sixteenth-century paleography, and is currently associate editor of the Geneva Consistory Project. Previous participants have found that the course not only helped them read manuscript documents but also provided them with an excellent overview of the sixteenth-century Genevan world, from the structures of Genevan government to the day-to-day operation of the church and the impact of the Genevan Reformation.
Applications are welcome from graduate students and more advanced scholars, who wish to begin paleography or to brush up on their abilities. Participants must demonstrate prior ability to read modern French as indicated on the registration form available at www.calvin.edu/meeter/paleo.htm. At a minimum, applicants should be comfortable reading modern editions in French by sixteenth-century authors such as Calvin and Montaigne with the assistance of a dictionary. Ideally, participants less familiar with sixteenth-century French should read at least one work in French by Rabelais, Bonivard, Bonaventure Des Periers, Marguerite de Navarre, etc. before the course.
The course is limited to twelve participants. The first ten successful applicants will receive a $500 bursary from the Meeter Center which participants may use to help cover transportation and accommodation costs while in Grand Rapids. The deadline for applications is March 17, 2003. Please do not hesitate to contact the Meeter Center director should you have any questions about this course.
Meeter Center Colloquium Series
October 7, 2002: Professor Dr. Kaspar von Greyerz, professor of early modern history and chair of the history department at the University of Basle, Switzerland was the Meeter Center Biennial Lecturer. His topic was “The Potential and Limits of the Reformation in Switzerland.”
November 14, 2002: Dr. Davis Young, professor of geology at Calvin College, will speak at our fall colloquium on “John Calvin Visits the Zoo: Reflections on Calvin’s Ideas about the Natural World.”
April 10–12, 2003: The Meeter Center will cosponsor a symposium entitled, “Bach: the Preacher,” with Seminars in Christian Scholarship, Calvin College Music Department, and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
Fellowship applications for 2003 may be obtained from the Meeter Center upon request and must be returned by January 1, 2003. Application forms are also available on our Web site.
Scholar’s Impressions
As a recipient of a Student Research Fellowship, I was able to spend five weeks this past summer studying at the H. Henry Meeter Center on the beautiful campus of Calvin College. The experience was both intellectually and spiritually rewarding.
Currently, I am working on my Ph.D. at the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute in Scotland. The subject of my thesis is John a Lasco and his church ordinance, the Forma ac Ratio. I had come to the Meeter Center to research the relationship between a Lasco and Geneva. The excellent collection of materials available and the feedback received from staff and fellow researchers made this trip a success. I left with a great sense of accomplishment and a significantly improved understanding of the influence of Calvin on a Lasco’s work.
The Meeter Center offers an excellent collection for scholarly study on Calvin. Most notable among their holdings are more than 400 rare books and the extensive collection of articles relating to Calvin and Geneva. The center is also attached to the Hekman Library, which offers more than 700,000 books and periodicals to support any research interest. Behind all of this is the friendly and knowledgeable staff that makes any trip to the center worthwhile.
My time at the Meeter Center was productive and enjoyable, and I hope to make use of their facilities in the future. I would like to express my thanks to the staff and fellow researchers who made my time so fruitful.
Michael Springer, Ph.D. Student
St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute
Hugh and Eve Meeter Calvinism Awards
to High School SeniorsThe topic for 2003 is “John Calvin’s View of What It Means to Be Human.” Contact the Meeter Center to receive an informative brochure about next year’s contest. Papers should be received by January 15, 2003.
