John Calvin-Life,Legacy and Theology

JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -
PROF. M. M. NINAN
many “Red savages” one kills in extending God’s plan of Manifest Destiny for his cherished elect, nor
does it matter how many paupers, workers, “infidels” or even common people are sacrificed in
carrying out the absolute INSANITY of the Calvinist God’s decrees.
"In this context it is easy to see how the new Calvinist mercantile class in Europe and North America
utilized their beliefs to justify their growing brutality against all classes, races and religious
denominations which represented the “Other.” Indeed, this new class of religiously motivated
entrepreneurs totally believed that they were God’s chosen people and the fortunate (though
undeserving) recipients of His limited atonement. The pessimistic attitude the Calvinists held about
their own good fortune – i.e. that they did not deserve it – helped keep them somewhat humble (at
least outwardly) and fixated on their business matters. Thus, “Calvinist pessimism” was a useful
ideological tool for those who would become known as the “Pilgrims” and “Puritans” in North America
(those comprising the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite) to exploit, enslave and annihilate ever
greater numbers of people, to accrue even more undeserved wealth for the “glory of God,” so long as
they did not (paradoxically) squander their holdings on “sinful” endeavors. And if they did succumb to
any amount of sinful degradation (as they most certainly did) – oh well! That was merely the natural
result of mankind’s innate depravity. One could simply confess one’s sins and commit oneself to doing
better, since God’s grace is inevitable in the end.
"Needless to say, Calvinism caught on like wild fire in North America (even among the White masses),
where an austere spiritual-cultural-political-economic worldview was needed in order to:
(1) inspire endless thrift and hard work among the masses,
(2) tame the vast American wilderness (considered by settlers to be the biblical “Promised Land” or
“Canaan”), and
(3) subjugate the “heathen” Indians (also considered by settlers to be immoral “Canaanites”).
The Calvinistic Work Ethos
"With the exception of a handful of Catholics in Maryland, the vast majority of European-American
colonists subscribed to an ever increasing variety of Protestant sects which had their fundamental
ideological roots in the reformist ideas of John Calvin and Martin Luther. Both commoners and elites
thus embraced the intertwined religious and secular manifestations of the Calvinist ethos – a
philosophy defined by the idea that, instead of merely working for one’s living (in order to survive), one
must “live to work.”