Geneva Under John Calvin

What Geneva Was Like
Calvin's Geneva was the kind of place that excommunicated unrepentant sinners as a result of Calvin having insisted upon this practice. (Gonzalez, 65) Although this was the same city that earlier had the mass abolished as a result of the influence of missionaries from Bern (Gonzalez, 64-65), the changes of Calvin had been far more extreme than just a removing of the mass. For example Michael Servetus was arrested as Calvin had produced thirty-eight accusations against him, and he was thus burned at the stake for his theological views. (Gonzalez, 67) The point is that the city of Geneva went from being a superficial Protestant city that a few missionaries had some influence upon into a city that had the prospect of making the flames of heretics burning into a powerful hallmark that could fill the land with divine justice forevermore.

The strictness of Calvin's powerhouse city of divine justice was so powerful that even Sebastian Castello was expelled from the city for having interpreted erotic love into the famous poem of Song of Songs (Gonzalez, 67), and unfortunately many Protestants today cannot see Song of Songs as anything more than an erotic love poem. In a even greater attempt to work against such theology of people with differing views from that of Calvin, he opened the Genevan Academy in 1559 under the direction of Theodore Beza. (Gonzalez, 68) The point is that not only had Calvin sought to regulate the customs of Geneva (Gonzalez, 67), but he also managed to formulate a institution that would cause his teachings to spread to other lands through the travel of students. (Gonzalez, 68)

Could Such a Society Exist Today?
Given the vigor for moral excellence found in Islamic lands, Calvin's city is easy to conceive of. Although Christianity understands Islam to be promoting false doctrine and perhaps even a false God, the point to be made is that many Islamic governments have the type of strictness that Calvin had with Geneva. Although the Christian view of divine justice and the Islamic view of divine justice may sharply contrast in both principle and practice, both Geneva and the Islamic lands often share a similar style of theologically based government.

Although theocratic governments like ancient Israel and ancient Egypt are very hard to conceive of with the western secular mind, the structure of the theocratic government still exists in part today with some nations in the world. The Roman Catholic Church in the time of Calvin and Geneva would have likely been attempting to continue to hold on to whatever elements of theocratic government still existed in a time of theology. Although theology often eventually took the place of direct revelation and thus secular and liberal governments took the place of theocratic governments, Calvin's Geneva could be conceived of as a theological movement that continued to hold tight to the idea of government being run under the direction of God.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day, vol. 2. San Francisco, California: Harper, 1985.