FROM POLITICAL CALVINISM TO THE REFORMATION OF THE REFUGEES

Abstract

With the notable exceptions of Scotland, the Netherlands, and Geneva itself, the Calvinist movement was, in contrast to state-sponsored Lutheranism, the Reformation of a persecuted minority. Heiko Oberman has labelled it the “Reformation of the Refugees,” explaining Calvin’s doctrine of predestination as a comforting message bringing the assurance of salvation to people forced to flee their homelands.¹ Oberman dates this “third Reformation” (following, first, Luther’s Reformation and second, the city Reformation) from 1548-49, with the Lutheran defeat in the Schmalkaldic War and the influx of refugees in Geneva following the Augsburg Interim.² I believe that his dating is correct, but for the wrong reasons.