Time's Ten Ideas Through the Lens of Number Three

In Monday's entry, I reflected on the inclusion of Calvinism as one of the "10 Ideas Changing the World right Now" from a personal appeal perspective. It is the coherence of Calvinism in providing a single world-view that explains -- not always pleasantly, but in a way that rings true to observation and experience -- the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of life fit together and make sense. I have not found on the Time website an explanation of the criteria that guided their choices, so am not clear whether their inclusion of Calvinism was an acknowledgment of a sociological reality ("there are a lot of people starting to adhere to Calvinism and worship in Calvinist churches") or whether it was an evaluation of the potential implications of the idea ("when people start to take Calvinism seriously, it has far reaching implications that you will notice"). Tied to this is the confusion that has arisen around the label "New Calvinism", which is understood by many to refer to that branch of Calvinism that draws its inspiration from Abraham Kuyper, but seems in this article to refer to "new" in the sense of current and emerging, in contrast to old and established. (In an essay published in the 2008 Comment, I used the term Neo-Puritan to describe this movement, suggesting that the time was ripe for a neocalvinist-neopuritan dialogue in order to forge a public theology that more adequately answers some of the questions of our time.)

What Time intended is beside the point. What they published provides an opportunity to illustrate the comprehensiveness and power of the Calvinism, also in the public square. When Calvinism takes hold, it is not just something that impacts Calvinists. It has comprehensive implications for a society when it is consistently lived out. Last week, I was trying to explain to someone why what I believed mattered to my neighbours, and was not simply a private matter that they could live with out of respect for my religious freedom and because "I'm happy it works for you -- I'll find truth in my own corner." I used an ecological metaphor. When we live together, we share the air and water -- they don't respect the boundaries of private and public we set between us. So it is that personal religious beliefs, when taken seriously, end up not being all that personal. That is not just true for Calvinism -- it is as true for secularist belief, Islamic adherence, or new age philosophy. Our beliefs impact the social ecosystem in which we live and ultimately, the purity and health (or lack thereof) of the prevailing belief systems that shape our politics, economics, culture and every other aspect of society are impacted.

To be sure, predicting what the impact of a society in which calvinism is an idea of influence is hardly a simple matter. There are many who identify themselves as calvinists who have widely differing perspectives on what an ideal society might look like. To learn from history, the USA, the Netherlands, and Scotland are all countries in which calvinism played a significant historic role. As I pointed out in my chapter on work in Living for God's Glory, while these three countries "have a similar legacy of views regarding work, vocation and thrift, it is telling that the phrases 'being Dutch' and 'being Scotch' evoke thrift, while the phrase 'being American' suggests the acquisition of possessions." The three countries reflect the influence of a common theology with very different results.

Reading through the other nine ideas on Time's list, I could not help reflect on how the lens of calvinism impacts them all. Very cryptically....

1. Jobs are the new asset. Max Weber's famous thesis that Calvinism influenced the rise of western capitalism needs to be nuanced and debated (buy Living for God's glory if you want more of my views on that), but few would dispute the fact that Calvinisms emphasis on all persons having a calling from God, and as such, distinctions between sacred and secular occupations in terms of legimitacy before God are unscriptural, has had profound impacts on society's where these views were widely held.

2. Recycling the Surburbs. Cardus has an entire project entitled Stained Glass Urbanism in which we are examining the intersection of faith, faith institutions and city-building.

4. Reinstating the Interstate. Not to sound too much like a Cardus promoter (although I am the Director of Research, so I guess it is permissible), but we have for several years promoting the concept of "trade corridors" arguing that trade involves not only physical infrastructure such as roads and ports to move goods, but ends up impacting our culture and very nature of society. Who we trade with help shapes who we are -- and it is important that various institutions of society are involved in these choices and not just government, themes we deduce from sphere sovereignty which has calvinist origins.

5. Amortality, shorthand for various attempts to resist the onset of age, is an idea that is very uncalvinist in that is presumes the present life is all there is to focus on, and emerges from a worldview that rejects the idea of progress in history and transcendent purpose. In the absence of such a purpose, satsifaction must be found in present experience.

.... to be continued tomorrow