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{{Short description|Protestant denominational family}}
{{Redirect|Reformed church|Reformed churches originating in continental Europe|Continental Reformed Protestantism}}
{{Redirect|Calvinism|John Calvin's personal beliefs|Theology of John Calvin}}

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{{Use American English|date=November 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}

{{Reformed Christianity}}

'''Reformed Christianity''', also called '''Calvinism''',{{Efn|The name ''Calvinism'' derives from the French reformer [[John Calvin]]. Reformed Christianity can also be referred to as '''Reformed Protestantism''', the '''Reformed tradition''', or simply '''Reformed'''.{{sfn|Muller|2004|p=130}}}} is a major branch of [[Protestantism]] that began during the 16th-century [[Protestant Reformation]]. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the [[Continental Reformed Protestantism|Continental Reformed]], [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]], and [[Congregationalism|Congregational]] traditions, as well as parts of the [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] (known as "Episcopal" in some regions) and [[Reformed Baptists|Baptist]] traditions.

Reformed theology emphasizes the [[Biblical authority|authority of the Bible]] and the [[Sovereignty of God in Christianity|sovereignty of God]], as well as [[covenant theology]], a framework for understanding the Bible based on God's covenants with people. Reformed churches have emphasized simplicity in worship. Several forms of [[ecclesiastical polity]] are exercised by Reformed churches, including [[presbyterian polity|presbyterian]], [[Congregational polity|congregational]], and some [[episcopal polity|episcopal]]. Articulated by [[John Calvin]], the Reformed faith holds to a [[Lord's Supper in Reformed theology|spiritual (pneumatic) presence]] of Christ in the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]].

Emerging in the 16th century, the Reformed tradition developed over several generations, especially in [[Switzerland]], [[Scotland]] and the [[Netherlands]]. In the 17th century, [[Jacobus Arminius]] and the [[Remonstrants]] were expelled from the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] over disputes regarding [[predestination]] and [[salvation in Christianity|salvation]], and from that time [[Arminianism|Arminians]] are usually considered to be a distinct tradition from the Reformed. This dispute produced the [[Canons of Dort]], the basis for the "doctrines of grace" also known as the [[Five Points of Calvinism|"five points" of Calvinism]].

==Definition and terminology==
Reformed Christianity is often called ''Calvinism'' after [[John Calvin]] (born Jehan Cauvin), influential reformer of [[Geneva]]. The term was first used by opposing [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] in the 1550s. Calvin did not approve of the use of this term,<ref name="Cottret2003">{{cite book |first=Bernard |last=Cottret |title=Calvin, A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn-xAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA239 |date=22 May 2003 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-567-53035-6 |page=239 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> and scholars have argued its use is misleading, inaccurate, unhelpful,{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=3–4}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Hägglund|first=Bengt|title=Teologins Historia|language=de|trans-title=History of Theology|others=Translated by Gene J. Lund|edition=Fourth Revised |year=2007 |location=Saint Louis, U.S.|publisher=Concordia Publishing House}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Was Calvin a Calvinist? Or, Did Calvin (or Anyone Else in the Early Modern Era) Plant the 'TULIP'? |last=Muller |first=Richard A. |author-link=Richard A. Muller |year=2009 |url=https://agrammatos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/was-calvin-a-calvinist-12-26-09.pdf|via=Agrammatos}}. An essay based on the lecture:
* {{citation|last=Muller |first=Richard| title=Was Calvin a Calvinist? |work=Conferences and Lectures |date=2009 |department= [Conferences and Lectures]|id=ref. 1442 |ref=none |publisher=Calvin University – Calvin Theological Seminary|url=https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/hh_av_conferences/1442}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Reformation: A History]] |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |last=MacCulloch|first=Diarmaid |author-link=Diarmaid MacCulloch |year=2005 |page=253}}</ref>{{sfn|Muller|2004|p=130}} and "inherently distortive."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jonathan |first1=Warren |title=Review of ''Calvinism: A Very Short Introduction'' |journal=Bunyan Studies |date=2017 |issue=21 |pages=134–137 }}</ref>

The definitions and boundaries of the terms ''Reformed Christianity'' and ''Calvinism'' are contested by scholars. As a historical movement, Reformed Christianity began during the [[Reformation]] with [[Huldrych Zwingli]] in [[Zürich]], Switzerland. Following the failure of the [[Marburg Colloquy]] between Zwingli's followers and those of [[Martin Luther]] in 1529 to mediate disputes regarding the [[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper]], Reformed Protestants were defined by their opposition to Lutherans.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2005|p=174}} The Reformed also opposed [[Anabaptism|Anabaptist]] radicals{{sfn|MacCulloch|2005|p=184}} thus remaining within the [[Magisterial Reformation]].<ref name="Voorst2014">{{cite book |last1=Voorst |first1=Robert E. Van |title=Readings in Christianity |date=1 January 2014 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-305-14304-3 |page=164 |language=en |quote=The Magisterial reformation denotes the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican churches; this is sometimes labeled the mainstream of the Reformation. ''Magisterial'' means that secular authorities ("magistrates") had a role in the life of the church; church and state were closely tied.}}</ref><ref name= "mcgrath159">{{citation|last=McGrath|first=Alister|title=Historical Theology|year=1998|publisher=Blackwell Publishers|location=Oxford|isbn=0-63120843-7|authorlink=Alister McGrath|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaltheolo0000mcgr/page/159 159]|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaltheolo0000mcgr/page/159}}</ref> During the 17th-century [[History of the Calvinist–Arminian debate|Arminian Controversy]], followers of [[Jacobus Arminius]] were forcibly removed from the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] for their views regarding [[predestination]] and [[salvation in Christianity|salvation]], and thenceforth [[Arminians]] would be considered outside the pale of Reformed orthodoxy,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2005|p=378}} though some use the term ''Reformed'' to include Arminians while using the term ''Calvinist'' to exclude Arminians.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reformed Churches |work=[[Christian Cyclopedia]] |url=http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=r&word=REFORMEDCHURCHES |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528162251/http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=r&word=REFORMEDCHURCHES |archive-date= May 28, 2023 }}</ref>

Reformed Christianity also has a complicated relationship with [[Anglicanism]], the branch of Christianity originating in the [[Church of England]]. The Anglican confessions are considered Protestant, and more specifically, Reformed,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Peter D. |date=2020-02-14 |title=Is Anglicanism Reformed? |url=https://northamanglican.com/is-anglicanism-reformed/ |access-date=2024-04-13 |website=The North American Anglican |language=en-US |quote=If one looks at the two main confessional documents of the English Reformation, the (39) Articles of Religion, and the Book of Common Prayer, a series of propositions emerge that definitely put the Church of England into that strand of the Augustinian Theological tradition which we call 'Protestantism' and furthermore, to put it into the subset known as 'Reformed.'&thinsp;}}</ref> and leaders of the [[English Reformation]] were influenced by Calvinist rather than Lutheran theologians. Still the Church of England retained elements of [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] such as [[bishops]] and [[vestments]], unlike [[Continental Reformed Protestantism|continental Reformed churches]], and thus was sometimes called "but halfly Reformed."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Haigh |first1=Christopher |title=The English Reformations and the Making of the Anglican Church |url=https://www.perthcathedral.org/images/stories/LectureSeries_no14.pdf |access-date=6 April 2024 |date=2006}}</ref> Beginning in the 17th century, Anglicanism broadened to the extent that Reformed theology is no longer dominant in Anglicanism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hampton |first1=Stephen |title=Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I |date=29 May 2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-155985-3 |pages=4 |language=en}}</ref>

Some scholars argue that [[Reformed Baptists]], who hold many of the same beliefs as Reformed Christians but not [[infant baptism]], should be considered part of Reformed Christianity, though this would not have been the view of early modern Reformed theologians.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Crawford Gribben |editor2= Scott Spurlock |series=Christianities in the Transatlantic World|last1=Bingham |first1=Matthew C. |chapter='Reformed Baptist': Anachronistic Oxymoron or Useful Signpost? |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-95192-8_2 |title=On Being Reformed: Debates over a Theological Identity |publisher=Springer International Publishing |pages=27–52 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-95192-8_2 |date=2018|isbn=978-3-319-95191-1 |chapter-url-access=subscription}}</ref> Others disagree, asserting that [[Baptists]] should be considered a separate religious tradition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=D. G. |chapter=Baptists Are Different |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-95192-8_3 |title=On Being Reformed: Debates over a Theological Identity |publisher=Springer International Publishing |pages=53–68 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-95192-8_3 |date=2018|isbn=978-3-319-95191-1 |chapter-url-access=subscription|editor1=Crawford Gribben |editor2= Scott Spurlock |series=Christianities in the Transatlantic World}}</ref>

== History ==
{{Main|History of Reformed Christianity}}

[[File:Geneva Cathedral.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Calvin preached at [[St. Pierre Cathedral]] in [[Geneva]].]]
The first wave of Reformed theologians included Zwingli, [[Martin Bucer]], [[Wolfgang Capito]], [[John Oecolampadius]], and [[Guillaume Farel]]. While from diverse academic backgrounds, their work already contained key themes within Reformed theology, especially the priority of [[Bible|scripture]] as a source of authority. Scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a [[Covenant theology|covenantal theology]] of the [[sacraments]] of [[baptism]] and the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]] as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another shared perspective was their denial of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Each understood salvation to be by [[Sola gratia|grace alone]] and affirmed a doctrine of [[unconditional election]], the teaching that some people are chosen by God to be [[Salvation in Christianity|saved]]. Luther and his successor [[Philipp Melanchthon]] were significant influences on these theologians and, to a larger extent, those who followed. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, also known as ''[[sola fide]]'',<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-06-16 |title=Sola Fide |url=https://lutheranreformation.org/theology/sola-fide/ |access-date=2020-10-06 |website=Lutheran Reformation |language=en-US |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024230239/https://lutheranreformation.org/theology/sola-fide/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> was a direct inheritance from Luther.{{sfn|Muller|2004|pp=131–132}}

The second generation featured [[John Calvin]], [[Heinrich Bullinger]], [[Thomas Cranmer]], [[Wolfgang Musculus]], [[Peter Martyr Vermigli]], [[Andreas Hyperius]] and [[Jan Łaski|John à Lasco]]. Written between 1536 and 1539, Calvin's ''[[Institutes of the Christian Religion]]'' was one of the most influential works of the era.{{sfn|Muller|2004|p=132}} Toward the middle of the 16th century, these beliefs were formed into one consistent [[creed]] which would shape the future definition of the Reformed faith. The 1549 ''[[Consensus Tigurinus]]'' unified Zwingli and Bullinger's [[Memorialism|memorialist]] theology of the Eucharist, which taught that it was simply a reminder of Christ's death, with Calvin's view of it as a [[means of grace]] with Christ actually present, though spiritually rather than bodily as in Catholic doctrine. The document demonstrates the diversity as well as unity in early Reformed theology, giving it a stability that enabled it to spread rapidly throughout Europe. This stands in marked contrast to the bitter controversy experienced by Lutherans prior to the 1579 [[Formula of Concord]].{{sfn|Muller|2004|p=135}}

Through Calvin's missionary work in France, his program of reform eventually reached the French-speaking provinces of the Netherlands. Calvinism was adopted in the [[Electorate of the Palatinate]] under [[Frederick III, Elector Palatine|Frederick III]], which led to the formulation of the [[Heidelberg Catechism]] in 1563. This and the [[Belgic Confession]] were adopted as confessional standards in the [[Synod of Emden|first synod]] of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] in 1571.

In 1573 [[William the Silent]] joined the Calvinist Church. Calvinism was declared the official religion of the [[Kingdom of Navarre]] by the queen regnant [[Jeanne d'Albret]] after her conversion in 1560. Leading divines, either Calvinist or those sympathetic to Calvinism, settled in England, including Bucer, Martyr, and [[Jan Łaski|John Łaski]], as did [[John Knox]] in Scotland. During the [[First English Civil War]], English and Scots [[Presbyterians]] produced the [[Westminster Confession]], which became the confessional standard for Presbyterians in the English-speaking world. Having established itself in Europe, the movement continued to spread to areas including North America, South Africa and Korea.<ref>{{harvnb|Holder|2004|pp=246–256}}; {{harvnb|McGrath|1990|pp=198–199}}.</ref> While Calvin did not live to see the foundation of his work grow into an international movement, his death allowed his ideas to spread far beyond their city of origin and their borders and to establish their own distinct character.{{sfn|Pettegree|2004|p=222}}

=== Spread ===
[[File:Interior of the Oude kerk in Amsterdam (south nave), by Emanuel de Witte.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Early Calvinism was known for simple, unadorned churches as depicted in this 1661 portrait of the interior of the [[Oude Kerk, Amsterdam]].]]
Although much of Calvin's work was in [[Geneva]], his publications spread his ideas of a correctly Reformed church to many parts of Europe. In Switzerland, some cantons are still Reformed, and some are Catholic. Calvinism became the dominant doctrine within the [[Church of Scotland]], the [[Dutch Republic]], some communities in [[Flanders]], and parts of Germany, especially those adjacent to the Netherlands in the [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]], [[Kassel]], and [[Lippe]], spread by [[Caspar Olevian]] and [[Zacharias Ursinus]] among others. Protected by the local nobility, Calvinism became a significant religion in eastern Hungary and Hungarian-speaking areas of [[Transylvania]]. {{as of|2007}} there are about 3.5 million Hungarian Reformed people worldwide.<ref name="The Reformed Church">{{cite web |title=The Reformed Church |url=http://www.bocskaihall.org.au/reformed-church.htm |publisher=Hungarian Reformed Church of Australia |access-date=8 February 2014  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222135525/http://www.bocskaihall.org.au/reformed-church.htm |archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref>

Calvinism was influential in France, Lithuania, and Poland before being mostly erased during the [[Counter-Reformation]]. One of the most important Polish reformed theologists was Łaski, who was also involved into organising churches in [[East Frisia]] and [[Stranger churches|Stranger's Church]] in London.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Eaves |first1=Richard Glen |last2=Carter |first2=William A. |date=1979 |title=John à Lasco: A Polish Religious Reformer in England, 1550–1553 |journal=Journal of Thought |volume=Journal of Thought |issue=14 |pages=311–323|jstor=42588808 }}</ref> Later, a faction called the [[Polish Brethren]] broke away from Calvinism on January 22, 1556, when [[Piotr of Goniądz]], a Polish student, spoke out against the doctrine of the [[Trinity]] during the general synod of the Reformed churches of Poland held in the village of [[Secemin]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hewett |first=Phillip |title=Racovia: An Early Liberal Religious Community |publisher=Blackstone Editions |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-9725017-5-0 |pages=21–22}}</ref> Calvinism gained some popularity in [[Scandinavia]], especially Sweden, but was rejected in favor of Lutheranism after the [[Synod of Uppsala]] in 1593.<ref name="Vlib.iue.it">{{cite web |url=http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/gilbert/12.html |title=The Reformation in Germany And Scandinavia |publisher=Vlib.iue.it |access-date=5 December 2013 |archive-date=19 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219195346/http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/gilbert/12.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Many 17th century European settlers in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] in [[British America]] were Calvinists, who emigrated because of arguments over church structure, including the [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrim Fathers]]. Others were forced into exile, including the French [[Huguenots]]. Dutch and French Calvinist settlers were also among the first European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th century, who became known as [[Boers]] or [[Afrikaner Calvinism|Afrikaners]].

Sierra Leone was largely colonized by Calvinist settlers from Nova Scotia, many of whom were [[Black Loyalist]]s who fought for the [[British Empire]] during the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]]. [[John Marrant]] had organized a congregation there under the auspices of the [[Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion|Huntingdon Connection]]. Some of the largest Calvinist communions were started by 19th- and 20th-century [[missionary|missionaries]]. Especially large are those in Indonesia, Korea and Nigeria. In South Korea there are 20,000 [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] congregations with about 9–10 million church members, scattered in more than 100 Presbyterian denominations. In South Korea, Presbyterianism is the largest Christian denomination.<ref name="Chris Meehan">{{cite web |author=Meehan |first=Chris |date=4 October 2010 |title=Touched by Devotion in South Korea |url=http://www.crcna.org/news-and-views/touched-devotion-south-korea |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709093000/https://www.crcna.org/news-and-views/touched-devotion-south-korea |archive-date=9 July 2017 |access-date=5 December 2013 |publisher=Christian Reformed Church}}</ref>

== Demography==

A 2011 report of the [[Pew Forum]] on Religious and Public Life estimates that members of Presbyterian or Reformed churches make up 7% of the estimated 801 million Protestants globally, or approximately 56 million people.<ref name="Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life 21, 70">{{citation |author=[[Pew Research Center]]'s Forum on Religion and Public Life |date=19 December 2011 |url=http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Christian/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf |title=Global Christianity |pages=21, 70 |access-date=20 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723134849/http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Christian/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2013 }}</ref>

Though the broadly defined Reformed faith is much larger, as it constitutes Congregationalist (0.5%), most of the United and uniting churches (unions of different denominations) (7.2%) and most likely some of the other Protestant denominations (38.2%). All three are distinct categories from Presbyterian or Reformed (7%) in this report. The Reformed family of churches is one of the largest Christian denominations, representing 75 million believers worldwide.<ref name="adherents.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990819112057/http://adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity |url-status=usurped |archive-date=19 August 1999 |title=Major Branches of Religions}}</ref>

According to ''Global Christianity: A Guide to the World's Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe'', in 2020, Presbyterian and Reformed Christians numbered around 65,446,000 people, or 0.8% of the world's population. Congregationalists were listed at 4,986,000, with 0.1% of the world's population. Therefore, the three branches of Reformed Christianity totaled 70,432,000 people, or 0.9% of the global population.<ref name=Statisticglobal2020/>

The survey also listed 77,792,000 members (1% of the world's population) in [[United Churches]], the majority of which are formed by the merger of churches of the Reformed Tradition with churches of other branches of Protestantism.<ref name=Statisticglobal2020>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdFTEAAAQBAJ&dq=Global+Christianity%3A+A+Guide+to+the+World%E2%80%99s+Largest+Religion&pg=PR1|title=Global Christianity: A Guide to the World's Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe|author=Gina A. Zurlo|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan  |page=5|date=2022 |isbn=9780310113614 |accessdate=January 2, 2025}}</ref>

== World Communions==

The [[World Communion of Reformed Churches]] (WCRC), which includes some [[United Churches]], has 80 million believers.<ref name="WCRC History">{{cite web |url=http://www.wcrc.ch/node/260 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707005807/http://www.wcrc.ch/node/260 |archive-date=7 July 2011 |title=WCRC History |access-date=7 July 2011 |work=World Communion of Reformed Churches |quote=The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) have merged to form a new body representing more than 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide. }}</ref> WCRC is the fourth largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Anglican Communion.<ref name="adherents.com" /> Many conservative Reformed churches which are strongly Calvinistic formed the [[World Reformed Fellowship]] which has about 70 member denominations. Most are not part of the WCRC because of its ecumenical attire. The [[International Conference of Reformed Churches]] is another conservative association.

== Theology<!--'Calvinist theologian', 'Calvinist theology', 'Reformed theologian' and 'Reformed theology' redirect here--> ==
=== Revelation and scripture ===
{{see also|General revelation|Biblical inspiration|Sola scriptura}}
[[File:Presbyterian Church in the United States of America no background.png|thumb|upright=1.2|The seal of the [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America]], an early American Presbyterian church founded in 1789]]
Reformed theologians believe that God communicates knowledge of himself to people through the Word of God. People are not able to know anything about God except through this self-revelation. (With the exception of general revelation of God; "His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).) Speculation about anything which God has not revealed through his Word is not warranted. The knowledge people have of God is different from that which they have of anything else because God is [[Infinity (philosophy)|infinite]], and finite people are incapable of comprehending an infinite being. While the knowledge revealed by God to people is never incorrect, it is also never comprehensive.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=18–20}}

According to Reformed theologians, God's self-revelation is always through his son [[Jesus]] Christ, because Christ is the only mediator between God and people. Revelation of God through Christ comes through two basic channels. The first is [[Genesis creation narrative|creation]] and [[Divine providence|providence]], which is God's creating and continuing to work in the world. This action of God gives everyone knowledge about God, but this knowledge is only sufficient to make people culpable for their sin; it does not include knowledge of the gospel. The second channel through which God reveals himself is [[Redemption (theology)|redemption]], which is the gospel of [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] from condemnation which is punishment for sin.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=22–23}}

In Reformed theology, the Word of God takes several forms. Jesus Christ is the Word Incarnate. The prophecies about him said to be found in the [[Old Testament]] and the ministry of the [[Apostles in the New Testament|apostles]] who saw him and communicated his message are also the Word of God. Further, the [[Sermon|preaching]] of ministers about God is the very Word of God because God is considered to be speaking through them. God also speaks through human writers in the [[Bible]], which is composed of texts set apart by God for self-revelation.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=24–25|}} Reformed theologians emphasize the Bible as a uniquely important means by which God communicates with people. People gain knowledge of God from the Bible which cannot be gained in any other way.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=12}}

Reformed theologians affirm that the Bible is true, but differences emerge among them over the meaning and extent of its truthfulness.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=28}} Conservative followers of the [[Princeton theologians]] take the view that the Bible is true and [[biblical inerrancy|inerrant]], or incapable of error or falsehood, in every place.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=31}} This view is similar to that of [[Catholic]] orthodoxy as well as modern [[Evangelicalism]].{{sfn|Farley|Hodgson|1994|p=77}} Another view, influenced by the teaching of [[Karl Barth]] and [[neo-orthodoxy]], is found in the [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)]]'s [[Confession of 1967]]. Those who take this view believe the Bible to be the primary source of our knowledge of God, but also that some parts of the Bible may be false, not witnesses to Christ, and not normative for the church.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=31}} In this view, Christ is the revelation of God, and the scriptures witness to this revelation rather than being the revelation itself.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=20}}

=== Covenant theology ===
{{Main|Covenant theology}}
[[File:Jacob Jordaens - The Fall of Man - WGA12014.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''Fall of Man'' by [[Jacob Jordaens]]]]
Reformed theologians use the concept of covenant to describe the way God enters into fellowship with people in history.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=34–35}} The concept of covenant is so prominent in Reformed theology that Reformed theology as a whole is sometimes called "covenant theology".{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=230 n. 28}} However, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theologians developed a particular theological system called "[[covenant theology]]" or "federal theology" which many conservative Reformed churches continue to affirm.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=34{{ndash}}35}} This framework orders God's life with people primarily in two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=44}}

The covenant of works is made with [[Adam and Eve]] in the [[Garden of Eden]]. The terms of the covenant are that God provides a blessed life in the garden on condition that Adam and Eve obey God's law perfectly. Because Adam and Eve broke the covenant by eating the [[forbidden fruit]], they became subject to death and were banished from the garden. This sin was passed down to all mankind because all people are said to be in Adam as a covenantal or "federal" head. Federal theologians usually imply that Adam and Eve would have gained immortality had they obeyed perfectly.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=41{{ndash}}42}}

A second covenant, called the covenant of grace, is said to have been made immediately following Adam and Eve's sin. In it, God graciously offers salvation from death on condition of faith in God. This covenant is administered in different ways throughout the Old and New Testaments, but retains the substance of being free of a requirement of perfect obedience.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=43}}

Through the influence of Karl Barth, many contemporary Reformed theologians have discarded the covenant of works, along with other concepts of federal theology. Barth saw the covenant of works as disconnected from Christ and the gospel, and rejected the idea that God works with people in this way. Instead, Barth argued that God always interacts with people under the covenant of grace, and that the covenant of grace is free of all conditions whatsoever. Barth's theology and that which follows him has been called "mono covenantal" as opposed to the "bi-covenantal" scheme of classical federal theology.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=48}} Conservative contemporary Reformed theologians, such as [[John Murray (theologian)|John Murray]], have also rejected the idea of covenants based on law rather than grace. [[Michael Horton (theologian)|Michael Horton]], however, has defended the covenant of works as combining principles of law and love.{{sfn|Horton|2011a|pp=420–421}}

=== God ===
{{see also|God in Christianity|Trinity}}
[[File:Shield-Trinity-Scutum-Fidei-English.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|The [[Shield of the Trinity]] diagrams the classic doctrine of the [[Trinity]].]]
For the most part, the Reformed tradition did not modify the medieval consensus on the [[doctrine of God]].{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=54}} God's character is described primarily using three adjectives: eternal, infinite, and unchangeable.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=55}} Reformed theologians such as [[Shirley Guthrie]] have proposed that rather than conceiving of God in terms of his attributes and freedom to do as he pleases, the doctrine of God is to be based on God's work in history and his freedom to live with and empower people.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=57–58}}

Reformed theologians have also traditionally followed the medieval tradition going back to before the early church councils of [[First Council of Nicaea|Nicaea]] and [[Council of Chalcedon|Chalcedon]] on the doctrine of the [[Trinity]]. God is affirmed to be one God in three persons: [[God the Father|Father]], [[God the Son|Son]], and [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]. The Son (Christ) is held to be eternally begotten by the Father and the [[Procession of the Holy Spirit|Holy Spirit eternally proceeding]] from the Father and Son.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=61–62}} However, contemporary theologians have been critical of aspects of Western views here as well. Drawing on the [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern]] tradition, these Reformed theologians have proposed a "[[social trinitarianism]]" where the persons of the Trinity only exist in their life together as persons-in-relationship.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=61–62}} Contemporary Reformed confessions such as the [[Barmen Confession]] and Brief Statement of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have avoided language about the attributes of God and have emphasized his work of reconciliation and empowerment of people.{{sfn|Guthrie|2008|pp=32–33}} Feminist theologian [[Letty Russell]] used the image of partnership for the persons of the Trinity. According to Russell, thinking this way encourages Christians to interact in terms of fellowship rather than reciprocity.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=29}} Conservative Reformed theologian Michael Horton, however, has argued that social trinitarianism is untenable because it abandons the essential unity of God in favor of a community of separate beings.{{sfn|Horton|2011a|pp=298–299}}

=== Christ and atonement ===
{{see also|Christ|Hypostatic union|Extra calvinisticum|Substitutionary atonement|Threefold office}}
Reformed theologians affirm the historic Christian belief that [[Christ]] is eternally [[hypostatic union|one person with a divine and a human nature]]. Reformed Christians have especially emphasized that Christ truly [[incarnation of Christ|became human]] so that people could be saved.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=82}} Christ's human nature has been a point of contention between Reformed and Lutheran [[Christology]]. In accord with the belief that finite humans cannot comprehend infinite divinity, Reformed theologians hold that Christ's human body cannot be in multiple locations at the same time. Because [[Lutheran]]s believe that Christ is bodily [[Real presence|present in the Eucharist]], they hold that Christ is bodily present in many locations simultaneously. For Reformed Christians, such a belief denies that Christ actually became human.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=65–66}} Some contemporary Reformed theologians have moved away from the traditional language of one person in two natures, viewing it as unintelligible to contemporary people. Instead, theologians tend to emphasize Jesus's context and particularity as a first-century Jew.{{sfn|Stroup|1996|p=142}}

John Calvin and many Reformed theologians who followed him describe Christ's work of redemption in terms of [[threefold office|three offices]]: [[prophet]], [[priest]], and [[Christ the King|king]]. Christ is said to be a prophet in that he teaches perfect doctrine, a priest in that [[intercession of Christ|he intercedes to the Father]] on believers' behalf and offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, and a king in that he rules the church and fights on believers' behalf. The threefold office links the work of Christ to God's work in [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|ancient Israel]].{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=94}} Many, but not all, Reformed theologians continue to make use of the threefold office as a framework because of its emphasis on the connection of Christ's work to Israel. They have, however, often reinterpreted the meaning of each of the offices.{{sfn|Stroup|1996|p=156{{ndash}}157}} For example, Karl Barth interpreted Christ's prophetic office in terms of political engagement on behalf of the poor.{{sfn|Stroup|1996|p=164}}

Christians believe [[Jesus' death]] and [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]] make it possible for believers to receive forgiveness for sin and reconciliation with God through the [[atonement in Christianity|atonement]]. Reformed Protestants generally subscribe to a particular view of the atonement called [[Penal substitution|penal substitutionary atonement]], which explains Christ's death as a sacrificial payment for sin. Christ is believed to have died in place of the believer, who is accounted righteous as a result of this sacrificial payment.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=93}}

=== Sin ===
{{See also|Christian views on sin|Total depravity|Original sin}}
In Christian theology, people are created good and in the [[image of God]] but have become corrupted by [[sin]], which causes them to be imperfect and overly self-interested.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=66}} Reformed Christians, following the tradition of [[Augustine of Hippo]], believe that this corruption of human nature was brought on by Adam and Eve's first sin, a doctrine called [[original sin]].

Although earlier Christian authors taught the elements of physical death, moral weakness, and a sin propensity within original sin, Augustine was the first Christian to add the concept of inherited guilt (''reatus'') from Adam whereby every infant is born eternally damned and humans lack any residual ability to respond to God.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Kenneth |title=Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to 'Non-fee' Free Will: A Comprehensive Methodology |date=2018 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen, Germany |isbn=978-3-16-155753-8 |pages=35, 37, 93, 127, 140, 146, 150, 153, 221, 231–233, 279–280, 295}}</ref> Reformed theologians emphasize that this sinfulness affects all of a person's nature, including their will. This view, that sin so dominates people that they are unable to avoid sin, has been called [[total depravity]].{{sfn|McKim|2001|pp=71–72}} As a consequence, every one of their descendants inherited a stain of corruption and depravity. This condition, innate to all humans, is known in Christian theology as ''original sin''.

Calvin thought original sin was "a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul." Calvin asserted people were so warped by original sin that "everything which our mind conceives, meditates, plans, and resolves, is always evil." The depraved condition of every human being is not the result of sins people commit during their lives. Instead, before we are born, while we are in our mother's womb, "we are in God's sight defiled and polluted." Calvin thought people were justly condemned to hell because their corrupted state is "naturally hateful to God."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calvin |first=John |title=Institutes of the Christian Religion |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |year=1989 |volume=1 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |pages=214–220, 244 |language=English |author-link=John Calvin}}</ref>

In colloquial English, the term "total depravity" can be easily misunderstood to mean that people are absent of any goodness or unable to do any good. However the Reformed teaching is actually that while people continue to bear God's image and may do things that appear outwardly good, their sinful intentions affect all of their nature and actions so that they are not pleasing to God.<ref name="muller 2012"/>{{rp|51}}

=== Salvation ===
{{see also|Sola fide|Justification (theology){{!}}Justification|Sanctification in Christianity{{!}}Sanctification}}
[[File:Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn - Return of the Prodigal Son - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Parable of the Prodigal Son]], depicted in a portrait by [[Rembrandt]], illustrates forgiveness.]]
Reformed theologians, along with other Protestants, believe salvation from punishment for sin is to be given to all those who have [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] in Christ.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=77–78}} Faith is not purely intellectual, but involves trust in God's promise to save.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=114}} Protestants do not hold there to be any other requirement for salvation, but that [[faith alone]] is sufficient.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=77–78}} However, this faith in the Lord Jesus is understood as one that effects obedience. In a commentary on Ezekiel 18, Calvin stated:  "faith cannot justify when it is without works, because it is dead, and a mere fiction...Thus faith can be no more separated from works than the sun from his heat."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christ |first1=T. Michael |title=A New Creation in Christ: Walter Marshall's Theology of Sanctification |date=8 August 2024 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=979-8-3852-0257-7 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_gkZEQAAQBAJ&dq=Therefore+faith+cannot+justify+when+it+is+without+works,+because+it+is+dead,+and+a+mere+fiction.+He+who+is+born+of+God+is+just,+as+John+says+(1+John+v.+18).+Thus+faith+can+be+no+more+separated+from+works+than+the+sun+from+his+heat:&pg=PR13 |access-date=1 January 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Justification (theology)|Justification]] is the part of salvation where God pardons the sin of those who believe in Christ. It is historically held by Protestants to be the most important article of Christian faith, though more recently it is sometimes given less importance out of [[ecumenical]] concerns.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=80}} People are not on their own able to fully [[Repentance in Christianity|repent]] of their sin or prepare themselves to repent because of their sinfulness. Therefore, justification is held to arise solely from God's free and gracious act.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=113}}

[[Sanctification in Christianity|Sanctification]] is the part of salvation in which God makes believers holy, by enabling them to exercise greater love for God and for other people.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=84}} The [[good works]] accomplished by believers as they are sanctified are considered to be the necessary outworking of the believer's salvation, though they do not cause the believer to be saved.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=114}} Sanctification, like justification, is by faith, because doing good works is simply living as the child of God one has become.{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=85}}

=== Predestination ===
{{main|Predestination in Calvinism}}
Stemming from the [[theology of John Calvin]], Reformed theologians teach that sin so affects human nature that they are unable even to exercise faith in Christ by their own will. While people are said to retain free will, in that they willfully sin, they are unable not to sin because of the corruption of their nature due to original sin. Reformed Christians believe that God [[predestination|predestined]] some people to be saved and others were predestined to eternal damnation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Calvin |first1=John |author1-link=John Calvin |title=Institutes of the Christian Religion |date=1994 |publisher=Eerdmans |page=2206 |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/Page_2206.html/ |access-date=13 September 2018 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401044052/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/Page_2206.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> This [[unconditional election|choice by God to save some is held to be unconditional]] and not based on any characteristic or action on the part of the person chosen. The Calvinist view is opposed to the [[Arminian]] view that God's [[conditional election|choice of whom to save is conditional]] or based on his foreknowledge of who would respond positively to God.{{sfn|Allen|2010|pp=100–101}}

Karl Barth reinterpreted the doctrine of predestination to apply only to Christ. Individual people are only said to be elected through their being in Christ.{{sfn|McKim|2001|pp=229–230}} Reformed theologians who followed Barth, including [[Jürgen Moltmann]], David Migliore, and [[Shirley Guthrie]], have argued that the traditional Reformed concept of predestination is speculative and have proposed alternative models. These theologians claim that a properly trinitarian doctrine emphasizes God's freedom to love all people, rather than choosing some for salvation and others for damnation. God's justice towards and condemnation of sinful people is spoken of by these theologians as out of his love for them and a desire to reconcile them to himself.{{sfn|Guthrie|2008|pp=47–49}}

==== Five Points of Calvinism ====
{{main|Five Points of Calvinism}}
{{TULIP}}
Much attention surrounding Calvinism focuses on the "Five Points of Calvinism" (also called the ''doctrines of grace'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lawson |first=Steven |date=March 18, 2019 |title=TULIP and The Doctrines of Grace |url=https://www.ligonier.org/blog/tulip-and-doctrines-grace/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121090553/https://www.ligonier.org/blog/tulip-and-doctrines-grace/ |archive-date=January 21, 2021 |access-date=August 5, 2021 |website=Ligonier Ministries |quote=In reality, these five doctrines of grace form one comprehensive body of truth concerning salvation.}}</ref> The five points have been summarized under the [[acrostic]] TULIP.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |title=What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics |publisher=Baker Books |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8010-1846-6 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |page=32 |language=en-us}}</ref> The five points are popularly said to summarize the [[Canons of Dort]]; however, there is no historical relationship between them, and some scholars argue that their language distorts the meaning of the Canons, Calvin's theology, and the theology of 17th-century Calvinistic orthodoxy, particularly in the language of total depravity and limited atonement.<ref name="muller 2012">{{cite book |last=Muller |first=Richard A. |title=Calvin and the Reformed Tradition |publisher=Baker Academic |date=2012 |edition=Ebook |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan (US) |pages=50–51 |language=en-us |author-link=Richard A. Muller (theologian)}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Stewart |first=Kenneth J. |date=2008 |title=The Points of Calvinism: Retrospect and Prospect |url=http://www.covenant.edu/docs/faculty/Stewart_Ken/Points%20of%20Calvinism%20Retrospect%20and%20Prospect.pdf#page=2 |url-status=live |magazine=Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology |volume=26 |issue=2 |page=189 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202211255/http://www.covenant.edu/docs/faculty/Stewart_Ken/Points%20of%20Calvinism%20Retrospect%20and%20Prospect.pdf |archive-date=2012-02-02 |ref=none}}</ref> The five points were more recently popularized in the 1963 booklet ''The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended, Documented'' by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas. The origins of the five points and the acrostic are uncertain, but they appear to be outlined in the [[Counter Remonstrance of 1611]], a lesser-known Reformed reply to the Arminians, which was written prior to the Canons of Dort.<ref>Document translated in {{cite book |last=De Jong |first=Peter Y. |title=Crisis In The Reformed Churches: Essays in Commemoration of the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) |publisher=Reformed Fellowship, Incorporated |year=1968 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |pages=52–58 |language=en-us |author-link=Peter Y. De Jong}}</ref> The acrostic was used by [[Cleland Boyd McAfee]] as early as circa 1905.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wail |first=William H. |title=The Five Points of Calvinism Historically Considered, [[The Outlook (New York)|The New Outlook]] |year=1913 |pages=104 |language=en-us}}</ref> An early printed appearance of the acrostic can be found in Loraine Boettner's 1932 book, ''The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Boettner |first=Loraine |title=The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination |url=http://www.bloomingtonrpchurch.org/refdocpre/predest.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140527231415/http://www.bloomingtonrpchurch.org/refdocpre/predest.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2014 |access-date=5 December 2013 |publisher=Bloomingtonrpchurch.org |quote=The Five Points may be more easily remembered if they are associated with the word T-U-L-I-P; T, Total Inability; U, Unconditional Election; L, Limited Atonement; I, Irresistible (Efficacious) Grace; and P, Perseverance of the Saints.}}</ref>

=== Church ===
{{see also|Protestant ecclesiology}}
[[File:John Calvin on his deathbed, with members of the Church in a Wellcome V0006910.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|John Calvin depicted on his deathbed with church members in ''The last moments of Calvin'', a late 19th century portrait by [[Lluís Domènech i Montaner]]]]
Reformed Christians see the [[Christian Church]] as the community with which God has made the covenant of grace, a promise of eternal life and relationship with God. This covenant extends to those under the "old covenant" whom God chose, beginning with [[Abraham]] and [[Sarah]].{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=125}} The church is conceived of as both [[invisible church|invisible]] and [[visible church|visible]]. The invisible church is the body of all believers, known only to God. The visible church is the institutional body which contains both members of the invisible church as well as those who appear to have faith in Christ, but are not truly part of God's elect.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=126}}

In order to identify the visible church, Reformed theologians have spoken of certain [[Marks of the Church (Protestantism)|marks of the Church]]. For some, the only mark is the pure preaching of the gospel of Christ. Others, including John Calvin, also include the right administration of the [[sacrament]]s. Others, such as those following the [[Scots Confession]], include a third mark of rightly administered [[church discipline]], or exercise of censure against unrepentant sinners. These marks allowed the Reformed to identify the church based on its [[conformity]] to the Bible rather than the [[magisterium]] or church tradition.{{sfn|McKim|2001|p=126}}

=== Worship ===
{{main|Reformed worship}}

==== Regulative principle of worship ====
{{Main|Regulative principle of worship}}
[[File:Directory for Public Worship.jpg|thumb|The [[Directory for Public Worship]] described what should (and should not) occur in worship.]]
The regulative principle of worship is a teaching shared by some Calvinists and [[Anabaptists]] on how the Bible orders public worship. The substance of the doctrine regarding worship is that God institutes in the Scriptures everything he requires for worship in the Church and that everything else is prohibited. As the regulative principle is reflected in Calvin's own thought, it is driven by his evident antipathy toward the Roman Catholic Church and its worship practices, and it associates musical instruments with [[icon]]s, which he considered violations of the [[Ten Commandments]]' prohibition of graven images.<ref name="Barber">{{cite journal |author=Barber |first=John |date=25 June 2006 |title=Luther and Calvin on Music and Worship |url=http://thirdmill.org/newfiles/joh_barber/PT.joh_barber.Luther.Calvin.Music.Worship.html |journal=Reformed Perspectives Magazine |volume=8 |issue=26 |access-date=6 May 2008}}</ref>

On this basis, many early Calvinists also eschewed musical instruments and advocated [[a cappella]] [[exclusive psalmody]] in worship,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm |access-date=16 November 2007 |year=1998 |title=Musical Instruments in the Public Worship of God |first=Brian |last=Schwertley |archive-date=20 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120010940/http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm }}</ref> though Calvin himself allowed other scriptural songs as well as psalms,<ref name="Barber" /> and this practice typified [[Presbyterian worship]] and the worship of other Reformed churches for some time. The original Lord's Day service designed by John Calvin was a highly liturgical service with the Creed, Alms, Confession and Absolution, the Lord's supper, Doxologies, prayers, Psalms being sung, the Lords prayer being sung, and Benedictions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maxwell |first=William D. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157208 |title=An Outline of Christian Worship: Its Development and Forms |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1936 |location=London |language=en-uk}}</ref>

Since the 19th century, however, some of the Reformed churches have modified their understanding of the regulative principle and make use of musical instruments, believing that Calvin and his early followers went beyond the biblical requirements<ref name="Barber" /> and that such things are circumstances of worship requiring biblically rooted wisdom, rather than an explicit command. Despite the protestations of those who hold to a strict view of the regulative principle, today [[hymn]]s and musical instruments are in common use, as are [[contemporary worship music]] styles with elements such as [[worship band]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Frame |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/worshipinspiritt00fram |title=Worship in Spirit and Truth |publisher=P&R Pub. |year=1996 |isbn=0-87552-242-4 |location=Phillipsburg, New Jersey, U.S. |language=en-us}}</ref>

=== Sacraments ===
{{see also|Sacrament#Reformed_(Continental_Reformed,_Congregationalist,_and_Presbyterian)|l1=Reformed teaching on sacraments|Reformed baptismal theology|Lord's Supper in Reformed theology}}
The [[Westminster Confession of Faith]] limits the sacraments to baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sacraments are denoted "signs and seals of the covenant of grace."{{sfn|WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER XVIII. Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation.|XXVII.I]]}} Westminster speaks of "a sacramental relation, or a sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other."{{sfn|WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER XXVII. Of the Sacraments.|XXVII.II]]}} Baptism is for infant children of believers as well as believers, as it is for all the Reformed except [[Baptists]] and some [[Congregationalists]]. Baptism admits the baptized into the [[visible church]], and in it all the benefits of Christ are offered to the baptized.{{sfn|WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER XXVII. Of the Sacraments.|XXVII.II]]}} On the Lord's supper, the Westminster Confession takes a position between Lutheran sacramental union and Zwinglian memorialism: "the Lord's supper really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance as the elements themselves are to their outward senses."{{sfn|WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER XVIII. Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation.|XXVII.I]]}}

The [[1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith]] does not use the term sacrament, but describes baptism and the Lord's supper as ordinances, as do most Baptists, Calvinist or otherwise. Baptism is only for those who "actually profess repentance towards God", and not for the children of believers.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=1689 Baptist Confession of Faith |anchor=Chapter 28: Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper |at=Ch. 28 Sec. 2}}</ref> Baptists also insist on immersion or dipping, in contradistinction to other Reformed Christians.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=1689 Baptist Confession of Faith |anchor=#Chapter 28: Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper |at=Ch. 28 Sec. 4}}</ref> The Baptist Confession describes the Lord's supper as "the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance", similarly to the Westminster Confession.{{sfn |WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER XXIX. Of the Lord's Supper.|XXIX.VII]]}} There is significant latitude in Baptist congregations regarding the Lord's supper, and many hold the Zwinglian view.

=== Logical order of God's decree ===
{{Main|Logical order of God's decree}}
There are two schools of thought regarding the logical order of God's decree to ordain the fall of man: [[supralapsarianism]] (from the [[Latin language|Latin]]: {{Lang|la|supra}}, "above", here meaning "before" + {{Lang|la|lapsus}}, "fall") and [[infralapsarianism]] (from the Latin: {{Lang|la|infra}}, "beneath", here meaning "after" + ''{{Lang|la|lapsus}}'', "fall"). The former view, sometimes called "high Calvinism", argues that the Fall occurred partly to facilitate God's purpose to choose some individuals for salvation and some for damnation. Infralapsarianism, sometimes called "low Calvinism", is the position that, while the Fall was indeed planned, it was not planned with reference to who would be saved.

Supralapsarianism is based on the belief that God chose which individuals to save logically prior to the decision to allow the race to fall and that the Fall serves as the means of realization of that prior decision to send some individuals to hell and others to heaven (that is, it provides the grounds of condemnation in the reprobate and the need for salvation in the elect). In contrast, infralapsarians hold that God planned the race to fall logically prior to the decision to save or damn any individuals because, it is argued, in order to be "saved", one must first need to be saved from something and therefore the decree of the Fall must precede predestination to salvation or damnation.

These two views vied with each other at the Synod of Dort, an international body representing Calvinist Christian churches from around Europe, and the judgments that came out of that council sided with infralapsarianism (Canons of Dort, First Point of Doctrine, Article 7). The Westminster Confession of Faith also teaches (in Hodge's words "clearly impl[ies]") the infralapsarian<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hodge/theology2.iv.i.ii.html |title=Systematic Theology – Volume II – Supralapsarianism |publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |last=Hodge |first=Charles |year=1871 |access-date=4 June 2007}}</ref> view, but is sensitive to those holding to supralapsarianism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hodge/theology2.iv.i.iii.html |title=Systematic Theology – Volume II – Infralapsarianism |publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |last=Hodge |first=Charles |year=1871 |access-date=4 June 2007}}</ref> The Lapsarian controversy has a few vocal proponents on each side today, but overall it does not receive much attention among modern Calvinists.

== Branches ==
The Reformed tradition is historically represented by the [[Continental Reformed|Continental]], [[Presbyterian]], [[Evangelical Anglican|Reformed Anglican]], [[Congregationalist church|Congregationalist]], and [[Reformed Baptist]] denominational families.

Reformed churches practice several forms of [[ecclesiastical polity|church government]], primarily [[presbyterian polity|presbyterian]] and [[Congregational polity|congregational]], but some adhere to [[episcopal polity|episcopal]] polity. The largest interdenominational association is the [[World Communion of Reformed Churches]] with more than 100 million members in 211 member denominations around the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wcrc.ch/theology/ |title=Theology and Communion |publisher=World Communion of Reformed Churches |access-date=5 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220021929/http://wcrc.ch/theology/ |archive-date=20 December 2013  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wcrc.ch/wcrc-member-churches/ |title=Member Churches |work=World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) |publisher=World Communion of Reformed Churches |access-date=5 December 2013  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412134752/http://wcrc.ch/wcrc-member-churches/ |archive-date=12 April 2014}}</ref> Smaller, conservative Reformed associations include the [[World Reformed Fellowship]] and the [[International Conference of Reformed Churches]].

=== Continental ===
{{Main|Continental Reformed Protestantism}}
"Continental" Reformed churches originate in [[continental Europe]], a term used by English speakers to distinguish them from traditions from the [[British Isles]]. Many uphold the [[Helvetic Confessions]] and [[Heidelberg Catechism]], which were adopted in Zurich and Heidelberg, respectively.<ref name="Schaff1898">{{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Philip |title=History of the Christian Church: Modern Christianity; the Swiss Reformation, 2d ed., rev |date=1898 |publisher=C. Scribner's & Sons |page=222 |language=en}}</ref> In the United States, immigrants belonging to the continental Reformed churches joined the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] there, as well as the Anglican Church.<ref name="Conkin1995">{{cite book |last1=Conkin |first1=Paul Keith |title=The Uneasy Center: Reformed Christianity in Antebellum America |date=1995 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-0-8078-4492-2 |language=en |quote=Partly because of clustered patterns of settlement and intense ethnic and linguistic identities, Reformed German and Dutch congregations resisted the lure of assimilation, although many Dutch Reformed Christians in the Hudson Valley joined Anglican congregations. |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/uneasycenterrefo0000conk}}</ref>

=== Presbyterian ===
{{Main|Presbyterianism}}
[[Presbyterian]] churches are named for their order of government by assemblies of [[Elder (Christianity)|elders]], or ''presbyters''. They are especially influenced by [[John Knox]], who brought Reformed theology and polity to the [[Church of Scotland]] after spending time on the continent in [[John Calvin|Calvin's]] [[Geneva]]. Presbyterians historically uphold the [[Westminster Confession of Faith]].

=== Congregational ===
{{Main|Congregationalism}}
Congregationalism originates in [[Puritanism]], a sixteenth-century movement to reform the [[Church of England]]. Unlike the Presbyterians, Congregationalists consider the local church to be rightfully [[Autonomy|self-ruled]] by their own officers, not higher ecclesiastical courts. The [[Savoy Declaration]], a revision of Westminster, is the primary [[confession of faith|confession]] of historic Congregationalism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America |year=2006 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |language=en |isbn=978-1-57607-678-1 |page=534}}</ref> Evangelical Congregationalists are internationally represented by the [[World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship]]. Christian denominations in the Congregationalist tradition include the [[United Church of Christ]], the [[National Association of Congregational Christian Churches]] and the [[Conservative Congregational Christian Conference]] in the United States, [[Evangelical Congregational Church in Argentina]] and [[Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches]] in the United Kingdom, among others.

=== Anglican ===
{{Further|Evangelical Anglicanism}}
Though Anglicanism today is often described as a separate branch from the Reformed, historic Anglicanism is a part of the wider Reformed tradition. The foundational documents of the Anglican church "express a theology in keeping with the Reformed theology of the Swiss and South German Reformation."<ref name="Jensen2015">{{cite web |last1=Jensen |first1=Michael P. |title=9 Things You Should Really Know About Anglicanism |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/nine-things-you-should-really-know-about-anglicanism/ |publisher=[[The Gospel Coalition]] |access-date=3 February 2020 |language=en |date=7 January 2015}}</ref> The Most Rev. Peter Robinson, [[presiding bishop]] of the [[United Episcopal Church of North America]], writes:<ref name="Robinson2012"/>
{{blockquote|Cranmer's personal journey of faith left its mark on the Church of England in the form of a Liturgy that remains to this day more closely allied to Lutheran practice, but that liturgy is couple to a doctrinal stance that is broadly, but decidedly Reformed. ... The 42 Articles of 1552 and the [[39 Articles]] of 1563, both commit the Church of England to the fundamentals of the Reformed Faith. Both sets of Articles affirm the centrality of Scripture, and take a [[Monergism|monergist]] position on Justification. Both sets of Articles affirm that the Church of England accepts the doctrine of predestination and election as a 'comfort to the faithful' but warn against over much speculation concerning that doctrine. Indeed a casual reading of the Wurttemburg Confession of 1551,{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=751}} the Second Helvetic Confession, the Scots Confession of 1560, and the XXXIX Articles of Religion reveal them to be cut from the same bolt of cloth.<ref name="Robinson2012">{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Peter |title=The Reformed Face of Anglicanism |url=http://theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-reformed-face-of-anglicanism.html |publisher=The Old High Churchman |access-date=3 February 2020 |language=en |date=2 August 2012}}</ref>}}

=== Baptist ===
{{Main|Reformed Baptists}}
Reformed or ''Calvinistic'' [[Baptist]]s,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heritage Baptist Church – A Brief History of Reformed Baptists |url=https://www.reformedbaptist.org/who-we-are/a-brief-history-of-reformed-baptists |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=www.reformedbaptist.org |language=en-US}}</ref> unlike other Reformed traditions, exclusively practice [[believer's baptism]]. They observe congregational polity like the Congregationalists. Their primary confession is the [[1689 Baptist Confession of Faith]], a revision of the [[Savoy Declaration]] of the Congregationalist Church, but other Baptist Confessions are also used.<ref name="Hicks2017">{{cite web |last1=Hicks |first1=Tom |date=30 March 2017 |title=What is a Reformed Baptist? |url=https://founders.org/2017/03/30/what-is-a-reformed-baptist/ |access-date=3 February 2020 |publisher=Founders Ministries |language=en}}</ref> Not all Baptists are Reformed. Some Reformed Baptists accept Reformed theology, especially [[Five Points of Calvinism|soteriology]], but do not hold to a specific confession or to [[covenant theology]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Masonheimer |first1=Phylicia |title=Every Woman a Theologian |date=February 2, 2023 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |isbn=978-0-7852-9222-7 |page=98}}</ref>

== Variants in Reformed theology ==
=== Amyraldism ===
{{Main|Amyraldism}}
[[File:Moïse Amyraut.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Moses Amyraut]] formulated [[Amyraldism]], a modified Calvinist theology regarding the nature of [[Jesus]]' atonement.<ref>Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. p. 269. Alister E. McGrath – 2005 "The importance of this threefold scheme derives from its adoption by Moses Amyraut as the basis of his distinctive theology. Amyraut's 'hypothetical universalism' and his doctrine of the triple covenant between God and humanity is ..."</ref><ref>Hubert Cunliffe-Jones, ''A History of Christian Doctrine,'' p. 436. 2006 "The appointment of John Cameron, a peripatetic Scottish scholar, to be a professor in the Academy in 1618 introduced a stimulating teacher to the scene, and when in 1626 his pupil, Moses Amyraut (Amyraldus), was called to be a minister ..."</ref>]]

Amyraldism (or sometimes Amyraldianism, also known as the School of Saumur, hypothetical universalism,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hodge/theology2.iv.i.iv.html |title=Systematic Theology – Volume II – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |publisher=Ccel.org |date=21 July 2005 |access-date=5 December 2013}}</ref> post redemptionism,<ref>[[B. B. Warfield|Benjamin B. Warfield]], ''Works'' vol. V,''Calvin and Calvinism'', pp. 364–365, and vol. VI, ''The Westminster Assembly and Its Work'', pp. 138–144.</ref> moderate Calvinism,<ref>[[Michael Horton (theologian)|Michael Horton]] in J. Matthew Pinson (ed.), ''Four Views on Eternal Security'', p. 113.</ref> or four-point Calvinism) is the belief that [[God]], prior to his decree of election, decreed [[Atonement in Christianity|Christ's atonement]] for all alike if they believe, but seeing that none would believe on their own, he then [[predestination|elected]] those whom he will bring to [[Faith in Christianity|faith in Christ]], thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of [[unconditional election]]. The efficacy of the atonement remains limited to those who believe.

Named after its formulator [[Moses Amyraut]], this doctrine is still viewed as a variety of Calvinism in that it maintains the particularity of sovereign grace in the application of the atonement. However, detractors like [[B. B. Warfield]] have termed it "an inconsistent and therefore unstable form of Calvinism."<ref>[[B. B. Warfield|Warfield, B. B.]], ''The Plan of Salvation'' (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1973).</ref>

=== Hyper-Calvinism ===
{{Main|Hyper-Calvinism}}
Hyper-Calvinism is the belief that emphasizes God's sovereignty in election and salvation to such an extent that it rejects the responsibility of all people to "[[Repentance in Christianity|repent]] and believe" the gospel. This belief system became prominent among some of the early English [[Strict Baptist|Particular Baptists]] in the 18th century. Historically, it has been associated with theologians such as [[John Gill (theologian)|John Gill]] and [[Joseph Hussey]] who contributed to the development of its distinct views.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-02-26 |title=HyperCal1 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226001003/http://www.anglicanbooksrevitalized.us/Peter_Toons_Books_Online/History/hypercal1.htm |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=web.archive.org}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Allen |first=Brummel |date=2025-04-03 |title=If God is Sovereign, Is Evangelism Necessary and Urgent? |url=https://www.prca.org/resources/publications/articles/item/4128-god-sovereign-evangelism-necessary-urgent |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=www.prca.org |language=en-gb}}</ref> This variant of Reformed Theology was opposed by ministers such as [[Andrew Fuller]] and missionaries such as [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] who argued against the Hyper-Calvinistic mindset that "if God wants to save the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine."<ref>{{Cite web |title=8. Andrew Fuller Escaped Hyper-Calvinism By Searching The Scriptures And The History Of Doctrine? |url=https://www.baptists.net/history/2021/07/8-andrew-fuller-escaped-hyper-calvinism-by-searching-the-scriptures-and-the-history-of-doctrine/ |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=The Baptist Particular |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rasmussen |first=John |date=2018-09-12 |title=William Carey and the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel |url=https://www.mikeleake.net/2018/09/william-carey-and-the-statement-on-social-justice-and-the-gospel.html |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Borrowed Light |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Westminster Confession of Faith]] says that the gospel is to be freely offered to sinners, and the [[Westminster Larger Catechism|Larger Catechism]] makes clear that the gospel is offered to the non-elect.{{sfn |WCF|1646|loc=[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER VII of God's Covenant with Man.|VII.III]]}}<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Westminster Larger Catechism |anchor=Q. 51–100 |at=Question 68}}</ref>

The term is also used as a pejorative and occasionally appears in both [[theological]] and secular controversial contexts. It usually connotes a negative opinion about some variety of [[theological determinism]], [[predestination]], or a version of Evangelical Christianity or Calvinism that is deemed by the critic to be unenlightened, harsh, or extreme.

=== Neo-Calvinism ===
{{Main|Neo-Calvinism}}
[[File:Abraham Kuyper 1905 (1).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Dutch prime minister [[Abraham Kuyper]] initiated [[Neo-Calvinism]].]]
Beginning in the 1880s, Neo-Calvinism, a form of [[Dutch Reformed Church|Dutch Calvinism]], is the movement initiated by the theologian and later Dutch prime minister [[Abraham Kuyper]]. [[James Bratt]] has identified a number of different types of Dutch Calvinism: The Seceders—split into the Reformed Church "West" and the Confessionalists; and the Neo-Calvinists—the Positives and the Antithetical Calvinists. The Seceders were largely [[infralapsarian]] and the Neo-Calvinists usually [[supralapsarian]].<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Bratt |title=Dutch Calvinism in Modern America |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock]]; original Eerdmans |date=1984}}</ref>

Kuyper wanted to awaken the church from what he viewed as its pietistic slumber. He declared:

<blockquote>No single piece of our mental world is to be sealed off from the rest and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'<ref>James E. McGoldrick, ''Abraham Kuyper: God's Renaissance Man.'' (Welwyn, UK: Evangelical Press, 2000).</ref> </blockquote>

This refrain has become something of a rallying call for Neo-Calvinists.

=== Christian Reconstructionism ===
{{Main|Christian Reconstructionism}}
Christian Reconstructionism is a [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist]]<ref>{{cite conference |title=Moses' Law for Modern Government |last=Duncan |first=J. Ligon III |url=http://www.reformed.org/ethics/index.html?mainframe=/ethics/ligon_duncan_critique.html |date=15 October 1994 |conference=Annual national meeting of the Social Science History Association |location=Atlanta, U.S. |author-link=Ligon Duncan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130075203/http://www.reformed.org/ethics/index.html?mainframe=%2Fethics%2Fligon_duncan_critique.html |archive-date=30 November 2012  |access-date=23 August 2013}}</ref> Calvinist [[theonomic]] movement that has remained rather obscure.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Religiously Motivated Violence in the Abortion Debate |pages=316–317 |last=Ingersoll |first=Julie |title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence |author-link=Julie Ingersoll|year=2013 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |editor1-first=Mark |editor1-last=Juergensmeyer |editor1-link=Mark Juergensmeyer |editor2-first=Margo |editor2-last=Kitts |editor3-first=Michael |editor3-last=Jerryson |location=New York |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.013.0020 |isbn=978-0-19-975999-6 }}</ref> Founded by [[R. J. Rushdoony]], the movement has had an important influence on the [[Christian right|Christian Right]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last=Clarkson |first=Frederick |author-link=Frederick Clarkson |chapter=Christian Reconstructionism |editor-last=Berlet |editor-first=Chip |editor-link=Chip Berlet |title=Eyes Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash |year=1995 |location=Boston |publisher=[[South End Press]] |page=73 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fl6Ix9HFKQEC&pg=PA73 |isbn=978-0-89608-523-7 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ingersoll |first=Julie |editor1-last=Brint |editor1-first=Steven |editor2-last=Schroedel|editor2-first=Jean Reith |title=Evangelicals and Democracy in America: Religion and politics |volume=2 |chapter=Mobilizing Evangelicals: Christian Reconstructionism and the Roots of the Religious Right |year=2009 |location=New York |publisher=[[Russell Sage Foundation]] |page=180 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-QRWP4FlVEC&pg=PA180 |isbn=978-0-87154-068-3 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The movement peaked in the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Worthen |first1=Molly |author-link=Molly Worthen |doi=10.1017/S0009640708000590 |title=The Chalcedon Problem: Rousas John Rushdoony and the Origins of Christian Reconstructionism |journal=[[Church History (magazine)|Church History]] |volume=77 |issue=2 |year=2008 |pages=399–437 |s2cid=153625926}}</ref> However, it lives on in small denominations such as the [[Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States]] and as a minority position in other denominations. Christian Reconstructionists are usually [[postmillennialist]]s and followers of the [[presuppositional apologetics]] of [[Cornelius Van Til]]. They tend to support a decentralized political order resulting in [[laissez-faire]] capitalism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=North |first1=Gary |title=Christian Reconstruction: What it Is, what it Isn't |last2=DeMar |first2=Gary |date=1991 |publisher=Institute for Christian Economics |location=Tyler, Texas, U.S. |page=81 |language=en-us}}</ref>

=== New Calvinism ===
{{Main|New Calvinism}}
New Calvinism is a growing perspective within conservative Evangelicalism that embraces the fundamentals of 16th century Calvinism while also trying to be relevant in the present day world.<ref name="CTHansen">{{cite journal |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/september/42.32.html |title=Young, Restless, Reformed |author-first1=Collin|author-last1=Hansen|date=22 September 2006 |journal=[[Christianity Today]] |access-date=13 March 2009}}</ref> In March 2009, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine described the New Calvinism as one of the "10 ideas changing the world".<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884760,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314031124/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884760,00.html  |archive-date=14 March 2009 |title=10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now: The New Calvinism |magazine=Time |author=David van Biema |year=2009 |access-date=13 March 2009}}</ref> Some of the major figures who have been associated with the New Calvinism are [[John Piper (theologian)|John Piper]],<ref name=CTHansen /> [[Mark Driscoll (pastor)|Mark Driscoll]], [[Al Mohler]],<ref name=Time /> [[Mark Dever]],<ref name=Burek>{{cite news|last=Burek|first=Josh|title=Christian faith: Calvinism is back|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0327/Christian-faith-Calvinism-is-back|access-date=16 March 2011|newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|date=27 March 2010}}</ref> [[C. J. Mahaney]], and [[Timothy J. Keller|Tim Keller]].<ref name=CRN>{{cite news|url=http://christianresearchnetwork.com/?p=17772 |title=Tim Keller and the New Calvinist idea of "Gospel eco-systems" |last=Chew |first=David |date=June 2010 |publisher=Christian Research Network  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011091605/http://christianresearchnetwork.com/?p=17772 |archive-date=11 October 2011 }}</ref> New Calvinists have been criticized for blending Calvinist soteriology with popular Evangelical positions on the [[Sacrament#Reformed (Continental Reformed, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian)|sacraments]] and [[continuationism]] and for rejecting tenets seen as crucial to the Reformed faith such as [[Reformed confessions of faith|confessionalism]] and [[covenant theology]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heidelblog.net/2009/03/calvinism-old-and-new/ |title=Calvinism Old and "New" |first=R. Scott |last=Clark|author-link=R. Scott Clark |date=15 March 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701182929/http://heidelblog.net/2009/03/calvinism-old-and-new/ |archive-date=1 July 2015 }}</ref>

==Social and economic influences==
{{See also|Protestant work ethic}}
Calvin expressed himself on [[usury]] in a 1545 letter to a friend, Claude de Sachin, in which he criticized the use of certain passages of scripture invoked by people opposed to the charging of interest. He reinterpreted some of these passages, and suggested that others of them had been rendered irrelevant by changed conditions. He also dismissed the argument (based upon the writings of [[Aristotle]]) that it is wrong to charge interest for money because money itself is barren. He said that the walls and the roof of a house are barren, too, but it is permissible to charge someone for allowing him to use them. In the same way, money can be made fruitful.<ref>The letter is quoted in {{cite book |title=Main Currents of Western Thought: Readings in Western Europe Intellectual History from the Middle Ages to the Present |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1978 |isbn=0-300-02233-6 |editor-last=Le Van Baumer |editor-first=Franklin |location=New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |language=en-us}}</ref>

He qualified his view, however, by saying that money should be lent to people in dire need without hope of interest, while a modest interest rate of 5% should be permitted in relation to other borrowers.<ref>See {{cite book |last=Haas |first=Guenther H. |title=The Concept of Equity in Calvin's Ethics |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-88920-285-0 |location=Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |pages=117ff |language=en}}</ref>

In ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]'', [[Max Weber]] wrote that capitalism in [[Northern Europe]] evolved when the [[Protestant]] (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own [[Organization|enterprise]]s and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the [[Protestant work ethic]] was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated emergence of modern [[capitalism]].<ref name="aura.abdn.ac.uk">{{cite journal |last1=McKinnon |first1=A. M. |year=2010 |title=Elective affinities of the Protestant ethic: Weber and the chemistry of capitalism |url=http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/3035/1/McKinnon_Elective_Affinities_final_non_format.pdf |journal=Sociological Theory |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=108–126 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01367.x |s2cid=144579790 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2164/3035}}</ref>

Expert researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a "Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles,"<ref>Schultz, Kevin M. ''Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise,'' p. 9.</ref><ref>Rosenblum, Nancy L. ''Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies'', Princeton University Press, 2000 – 438, p. 156.</ref> specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UJXV7HYlaQC&pg=PR13 |title=The Calvinist Roots of the Modern Era |first1=Aliki |last1=Barnstone |first2=Michael Tomasek |last2=Manson |first3=Carol J. |last3=Singley |date=August 27, 1997 |publisher=UPNE |access-date=August 27, 2017 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0-87451-808-5 |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019044726/https://books.google.com/books?id=_UJXV7HYlaQC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/faithsoffounding0000holm |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/faithsoffounding0000holm/page/13 13] |quote=united states founded on calvinism. |title=The Faiths of the Founding Fathers |first=David L. |last=Holmes |date=May 1, 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |access-date=August 27, 2017 |via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-19-530092-5 }}</ref>

==Politics and society==
[[File:Martyrs of Guernsey (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The burning of the [[Guernsey Martyrs]] during the Marian persecutions in 1556]]
[[File:Bocskai and his hajdú warriors.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Stephen Bocskai]], leader of [[Reformed Church in Hungary|Hungarian Calvinists]] in the anti-Habsburg rebellion and first Calvinist [[Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)|prince of Transylvania]] ({{reign | 1605 | 1606}})]]
[[File:Rijnwoude 019.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A Reformed church in [[Koudekerk aan den Rijn]] in the [[Netherlands]] in the 19th century]]
[[File:Market Place at Haarlem, Looking towards Grote Kerk by Berckheyde.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Grote Kerk, Haarlem|Grote Kerk]] in [[Haarlem]] in the [[Dutch Republic]], {{Circa|1665}}]]
Calvin's concepts of God and man led to ideas which were gradually put into practice after his death, in particular in the fields of politics and society. After their fight for independence from Spain (1579), the Netherlands, under Calvinist leadership, granted asylum to religious minorities, including French [[Huguenot]]s, English [[Independent (religion)|Independents]] ([[Congregationalists]]), and [[Jews]] from Spain and Portugal. The ancestors of the philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]] were Portuguese Jews. Aware of the trial against [[Galileo]], [[René Descartes]] lived in the Netherlands, out of reach of the [[Inquisition]], from 1628 to 1649.<ref>Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, ''Descartes, René'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band II, col. 88.</ref> [[Pierre Bayle]], a Reformed Frenchman, also felt safer in the Netherlands than in his home country. He was the first prominent philosopher who demanded tolerance for atheists. [[Hugo Grotius]] (1583–1645) was able to publish a rather liberal interpretation of the Bible and his ideas about [[natural law]] in the Netherlands.<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', 11. Auflage (1956), Tübingen (Germany), pp. 396–397.</ref><ref>H. Knittermeyer, ''Bayle, Pierre'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band I, col. 947.</ref> Moreover, the Calvinist Dutch authorities allowed the printing of books that could not be published elsewhere, such as Galileo's [[Two New Sciences|''Discorsi'']] (1638).<ref>[[Bertolt Brecht]], ''Leben des Galilei'', Bild 15.</ref>

Alongside the liberal development of the Netherlands came the rise of modern [[democracy]] in England and North America. In the Middle Ages, state and church had been closely connected. [[Martin Luther]]'s [[doctrine of the two kingdoms]] separated state and church in principle.<ref>Heinrich Bornkamm, ''Toleranz'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band VI, col. 941.</ref> His doctrine of the [[priesthood of all believers]] raised the laity to the same level as the clergy.<ref>B. Lohse, ''Priestertum'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band V, col. 579–580.</ref> Going one step further, Calvin included elected laymen ([[church elder]]s, [[presbyters]]) in his concept of [[Ecclesiastical polity|church government]]. The Huguenots added [[synod]]s whose members were also elected by the congregations. The other Reformed churches took over this system of church self-government, which was essentially a representative democracy.<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', p. 325.</ref> [[Baptists]], [[Quakers]], and [[Methodists]] are organized in a similar way. These denominations and the [[Anglican Church]] were influenced by Calvin's theology in varying degrees.<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', pp. 329–330, 382, 422–424.</ref><ref>
{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxbUAwAAQBAJ |title=Anglicanism and the Christian Church: Theological Resources in Historical Perspective |publisher=T & T Clark |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-567-08745-4 |editor1-last=Avis |editor1-first=Paul David Loup |editor1-link=Paul Avis |edition=2 |location=London |publication-date=2002 |page=67 |language=en-uk |chapter=The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Anglicanism Erastian or Apostolic? An Anglican Consensus: Calvinist Episcopalians |quote=There existed also a genuine, though not slavish, theological affinity between the Anglican and continental theologies, especially the Reformed (Calvinist). A moderate Calvinist view of the 'doctrines of grace' (the interlocking sequence of predestination, election, justification, sanctification, final perseverance, glorification) was, we may say, the norm. |access-date=29 January 2020}}
</ref>

In another factor in the rise of democracy in the Anglo-American world, Calvin favored a mixture of democracy and aristocracy as the best form of government ([[mixed government]]). He appreciated the advantages of democracy.<ref>Jan Weerda, ''Calvin'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage (1958), Stuttgart, Germany, col. 210.</ref> His political thought aimed to safeguard the rights and freedoms of ordinary men and women. In order to minimize the misuse of political power he suggested dividing it among several institutions in a system of checks and balances ([[separation of powers]]).{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} Finally, Calvin taught that if worldly rulers rise up against God they should be put down. In this way, he and his followers stood in the vanguard of resistance to political [[absolute monarchy|absolutism]] and furthered the cause of democracy.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, p. 10.</ref> The [[Congregationalists]] who founded [[Plymouth Colony]] (1620) and [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] (1628) were convinced that the democratic form of government was the will of God.<ref>M. Schmidt, ''Pilgerväter'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band V, col. 384.</ref><ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', p. 18.</ref> Enjoying self-rule, they practiced separation of powers.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html |title= Plymouth Colony Legal Structure |publisher= Histarch.uiuc.edu |date= 14 December 2007 |access-date= 5 December 2013 |archive-date= 29 April 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120429000512/http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Allen |last1=Weinstein |author-link1=Allen Weinstein |first2=David |last2=Rubel |year=2002 |title=The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower |publisher=[[DK Publishing]], Inc. |location=New York |isbn=0-7894-8903-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyofamericafr00wein/page/56 56–62] |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofamericafr00wein/page/56}}</ref> [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], and [[Pennsylvania]], founded by [[Roger Williams]], [[Thomas Hooker]], and [[William Penn]], respectively, combined democratic government with a limited [[freedom of religion]] that did not extend to Catholics (Congregationalism being the established, tax-supported religion in Connecticut).<ref>Catholic Encyclopedia: "Connecticut". New Advent. Retrieved 2017-07-07.</ref> These colonies became safe havens for persecuted religious minorities, including [[Jews]].<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in America'', pp. 74–76, 99–117.</ref><ref>Hans Fantel (1974), ''William Penn: Apostle of Dissent'', William Morrow and Company, New York.</ref><ref>Edwin S. Gaustad (1999), ''Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America'', Judson Press, Valley Forge.</ref>

In [[England]], Baptists [[Thomas Helwys]] ({{circa}} 1575–{{circa}} 1616), and [[John Smyth (Baptist minister)|John Smyth]] ({{circa}} 1554–{{circa |1612}}) influenced the liberal political thought of the Presbyterian poet and politician [[John Milton]] (1608–1674) and of the philosopher [[John Locke]] (1632–1704),{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} who in turn had both a strong impact on the political development in their home country ([[English Civil War]] of 1642–1651, [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688) as well as in North America.<ref>G. Müller-Schwefe, ''Milton, John'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band IV, col. 954–955.</ref><ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', p. 398.</ref> The ideological basis of the [[American Revolution]] was largely provided by the radical [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]], who had been inspired by Milton, Locke, [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]] (1611–1677), [[Algernon Sidney]] (1623–1683), and other thinkers. The Whigs' "perceptions of politics attracted widespread support in America because they revived the traditional concerns of a Protestantism that had always verged on [[Puritanism]]".<ref>{{cite book |first= Robert |last= Middlekauff |author-link= Robert Middlekauff |year= 2005 |title= The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 |edition= Revised and Enlarged |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-19-531588-2 |pages= 52, 136}}</ref> The [[United States Declaration of Independence]], the [[United States Constitution]] and (American) [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] initiated a tradition of human and civil rights that continued in the French [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] and the constitutions of numerous countries around the world, e.g. Latin America, Japan, India, Germany, and other European countries. It is also echoed in the [[United Nations Charter]] and the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]].<ref>Douglas K. Stevenson (1987), ''American Life and Institutions'', Stuttgart, Germany, p. 34.</ref>

In the 19th century, churches based on or influenced by Calvin's theology became deeply involved in social reforms, e.g. the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]] ([[William Wilberforce]], [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], and others), [[women suffrage]], and [[prison reform]]s.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', pp. 353–375.</ref><ref>M. Schmidt, ''Kongregationalismus'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band III, col. 1769–1771.</ref> Members of these churches formed [[co-operatives]] to help the impoverished masses.<ref>Wilhelm Dietrich, ''Genossenschaften'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage (1958), col. 411–412.</ref> The founders of the [[Red Cross Movement]], including [[Henry Dunant]], were Reformed Christians. Their movement also initiated the [[Geneva Conventions]].<ref>Ulrich Scheuner, ''Genfer Konventionen'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage, col. 407–408.</ref><ref>R. Pfister, ''Schweiz'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band V, col. 1614–1615.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dromi |first1=Shai M. |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo46479924.html |title=Above the fray: The Red Cross and the making of the humanitarian NGO sector |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-68010-1 |location=Chicago |page=45 |language=en-us}}</ref>

Others view Calvinist influence as not always being solely positive. The [[Boers]] and [[Afrikaner Calvinists]] combined ideas from Calvinism and [[Kuyperian]] theology to justify [[apartheid]] in South Africa.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Swart|first1= Ignatius|year= 2012|title= Welfare, Religion and Gender in Post-apartheid South Africa: Constructing a South-North Dialogue|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oXP7i6rx1ZwC|publisher= African Sun Media|page= 326|access-date = 18 October 2016
|isbn= 978-1-920338-68-8}}</ref> As late as 1974 the majority of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa was convinced that their theological stances (including the story of the Tower of Babel) could justify apartheid.{{sfn|Weisse|Anthonissen|2004|pp= 124–126}} In 1990 the Dutch Reformed Church document ''Church and Society'' maintained that although they were changing their stance on apartheid, they believed that within apartheid and under God's sovereign guidance, "...everything was not without significance, but was of service to the Kingdom of God."{{sfn|Weisse|Anthonissen|2004|p= 131}} These views were not universal and were condemned by many Calvinists outside South Africa. Pressure from both outside and inside the Dutch Reformed Calvinist church helped reverse apartheid in South Africa.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Throughout the world, the Reformed churches operate hospitals, homes for handicapped or elderly people, and educational institutions on all levels. For example, American Congregationalists founded [[Harvard University]] (1636), [[Yale University]] (1701), and about a dozen other colleges.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', pp. 80, 89, 257.</ref> A particular stream of influence of Calvinism concerns art. Visual art cemented society in the first modern nation state, the Netherlands, and also Neo-Calvinism put much weight on this aspect of life. [[Hans Rookmaaker]] is the most prolific example. In literature one can think of [[Marilynne Robinson]]. In her non-fiction she powerfully demonstrates the modernity of Calvin's thinking, calling him a humanist scholar (p.&nbsp;174, The Death of Adam).

==See also==
{{Portal|Reformed Christianity|Christianity|Religion}}
* [[List of Calvinist educational institutions in North America]]
* [[List of Reformed denominations]]
* [[Synod of Jerusalem (1672)]]: Eastern Orthodox council rejecting Calvinist beliefs
* [[Criticism of Protestantism]]
* ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]'' (1905) – [[Max Weber]]'s analysis of Calvinism's influence on society and economics

===Doctrine===
* [[Common grace]]
* [[Reformed confessions of faith]]

===Related===
* [[Afrikaner Calvinism|Boer Calvinists]]: [[Boere-Afrikaner]]s that hold to Reformed theology
* [[Continental Reformed church]]: Calvinist churches originating in continental Europe
* [[Augustinian soteriology]] : Augustine of Hippo's soteriology, which later influenced Calvinism
* [[Huguenot]]s: followers of Calvinism in France, originating in the 16th and 17th century
* [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]]: English Separatists who left Europe for America in search of religious toleration, eventually settling in [[New England]]
* [[Presbyterians]]: Calvinists in countries worldwide
* [[Puritan]]s: English Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England
* [[Waldensians]]: Italian Protestants, preceded Calvinism but today identify with Reformed theology
* [[Finished Work Pentecostalism]]: Pentecostal doctrine, which retains progressive sanctification from its Reformed roots, propagated by ministers with Presbyterian and Baptist backgrounds.

===Opposing views===
* [[Arminianism]]
* [[Catholic theology|Catholicism]]
** [[Augustinianism]]
* [[Christian universalism]]
* [[Eastern Orthodox theology|Eastern Orthodoxy]]
** [[Palamism]]
* [[Free Grace theology]]
* [[Open theism]]
* [[Lutheranism]]
* [[Molinism]]
* [[Socinianism]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist|30em}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
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* {{Citation |last=Cottret |first=Bernard |trans-title=Calvin: A Biography |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |year=2000 |place=Grand Rapids, Michigan |isbn=0-8028-3159-1 |title=Calvin: Biographie |orig-date=1995 |language=fr |others=Translated by M. Wallace McDonald}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Frank Leslie |author-link1=Frank Leslie Cross |last2=Livingstone |first2=Elizabeth A. |editor-first1=F. L. |editor-first2=E. A. |editor-last1=Cross |editor-last2=Livingstone |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA751 |edition=3rd |year=2005 |publisher=University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001 }}
* {{cite book |last=DeVries |first=Dawn |chapter=Rethinking the Scripture Principle |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2DaUOtmxsIC&pg=PA294 |editor1-last=Alston |editor1-first=Wallace M. Jr. |editor2-last=Welker |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Welker |title=Reformed Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity |year=2003 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |isbn=978-0-8028-4776-8 |pages=294{{ndash}}310 |language=en-us}}
* {{cite book |last1=Farley |first1=Edward |last2=Hodgson |first2=Peter C. |language=en-us |chapter=Scripture and Tradition |editor1-last=Hodgson |editor-first1=Peter C. |editor2-last=King |editor2-first=Robert H. |title=Christian Theology: An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks |year=1994 |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |publisher=Fortress Press}}
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* {{cite book |last=Guthrie |first=Shirlie C. Jr. |author-link=Shirley Guthrie |year=2008 |title=Always Being Reformed |location=Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |edition=Second}}
* {{Citation |last=Holder |first=R. Ward |contribution=Calvin's heritage |year=2004 |editor-last=McKim |editor-first=Donald K. |title=The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01672-8}}
* {{Citation |last=Gäbler |first=Ulrich |title=Huldrych Zwingli: His Life and Work |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |year=1986 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=0-8006-0761-9}}
* {{Citation |last=Ganoczy |first=Alexandre |contribution=Calvin's life |year=2004 |editor-last=McKim |editor-first=Donald K. |title=The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01672-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Horton |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Horton (theologian) |year=2011a |title=The Christian Faith |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |language=en-us |publisher=[[Zondervan]] |isbn=978-0-310-28604-2}}
* {{citation |last=Horton |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Horton (theologian) |title=For Calvinism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ezoDtwAACAAJ |access-date=17 January 2013 |date=2011b |publisher=Zondervan Books |isbn=978-0-310-32465-2 }}
* {{Citation |last=McGrath |first=Alister E. |author-link=Alister McGrath |title=A Life of John Calvin |publisher=Basil Blackwell |year=1990 |place=Oxford |isbn=0-631-16398-0}}
* {{cite book |last=McKim |first=Donald K. |year=2001 |title=Introducing the Reformed Faith |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox]] Press |location=Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.}}
* {{cite book |last1=Montgomery |first1=Daniel |author-link2=Timothy Paul Jones |first2=Timothy Paul |last2=Jones |title=PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace |year=2014 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=978-0-310-51389-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Muller |first=Richard A. |author-link=Richard Muller (theologian) |title=The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology |year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-521-77662-2 |chapter=John Calvin and later Calvinism |editor1-last=Bagchi |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Steinmetz |editor2-first=David C}}
* {{cite conference |last=Muller |first=Richard A. |title=Confessing the Reformed Faith: Our Identity in Unity and Diversity |publisher=[[Westminster Seminary California]] |location=Escondido, California, U.S. |conference=North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council |url=http://wscal.edu/academics/faculty/r-scott-clark/reformed-confessions/richard-muller-on-confessing-the-reformed-faith |date=9 November 1993 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150701174326/http://wscal.edu/academics/faculty/r-scott-clark/reformed-confessions/richard-muller-on-confessing-the-reformed-faith |archive-date= Jul 1, 2015 }}
* {{Citation |last=Parker |first=T. H. L. |title=John Calvin: A Biography |publisher=Lion Hudson plc |year=2006 |place=Oxford |isbn=978-0-7459-5228-4}}.
* {{Citation |last=Pettegree |first=Andrew |contribution=The spread of Calvin's thought |year=2004 |editor-last=McKim |editor-first=Donald K. |title=The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin |place=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-01672-8}}
* {{Citation |last=Stephens |first=W. P. |title=The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli |location=Oxford |year=1986 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-826677-4}}.
* {{cite book |last=Stroup |first=George W. |author-link=George Stroup |title=Reformed Reader |volume=2 |location=Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |publisher=Westminster/John Knox Press |year=1996}}
* {{cite book |last=Stroup |first=George W. |author-link=George Stroup |chapter=Reformed Identity in an Ecumenical World |editor1-last=Alston |editor1-first=Wallace M. Jr. |editor2-last=Welker |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Welker |title=Reformed Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity |year=2003 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |pages=257–270}}
* {{cite book |title=Maintaining Apartheid Or Promoting Change?: The Role of the Dutch Reformed Church in a Phase of Increasing Conflict in South Africa |first1=Wolfram |last1=Weisse |first2=Carel Aaron |last2=Anthonissen |publisher=Waxmann Verlag |year=2004}}
* {{cite wikisource |title=Westminster Confession of Faith |year=1646 |ref={{harvid |WCF |1646}}}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{see also|Reformed systematic theology bibliography}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Alston |editor1-first=Wallace M. Jr. |editor2-last=Welker |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Welker |title=Reformed Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity |year=2003 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |language=en-us |isbn=978-0-8028-4776-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Balserak |first=Jon |title=Calvinism: A Very Short Introduction |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-875371-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Benedict |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Benedict |title=Christ's Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism |location=New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |language=en-us |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-300-10507-0}}
* Bratt, James D. (1984) ''Dutch Calvinism in Modern America: A History of a Conservative Subculture'' [https://www.amazon.com/Dutch-Calvinism-Modern-America-Conservative/dp/0802800092/ excerpt and text search]
* {{cite book |last=Eire |first=Carlos |author-link=Carlos Eire |title=Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650 |location=New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.|language=en-us |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-300-11192-7}}
* Hart, D. G. (2013). ''Calvinism: A History''. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, [https://www.amazon.com/Calvinism-Darryl-Hart-ebook/dp/B00D6II2JO/ excerpt and text search]
* {{cite book|last=McNeill|first=John Thomas|author-link=John T. McNeill|title=The History and Character of Calvinism|year=1967|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|orig-date=1954|isbn=978-0-19-500743-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historycharacter0000mcne}}
* {{cite book|last=Leith|first=John H.|title=An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition: A Way of Being the Christian Community|year=1980|isbn=978-0-8042-0479-8|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|author-link=John H. Leith|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000leit_y6q2}}
* {{cite book |last=Muller|first=Richard A.|title=The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition|year=2001|isbn=978-0-19-515168-8|author-link=Richard Muller (theologian)|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Muller|first=Richard A.|title=After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition|year=2003|isbn=978-0-19-515701-7|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Picken |first=Stuart D. B. |year=2011 |title=Historical Dictionary of Calvinism |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7224-0}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Small|editor-first=Joseph D.|title=Conversations with the Confessions: Dialogue in the Reformed Tradition|year=2005|isbn=978-0-664-50248-5|publisher=Geneva Press}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|v=no|n=no|q=no|b=no|voy=no|s=Portal:Calvinism}}
* {{In Our Time|Calvinism|b00qvqpz|Calvinism}}
* [https://reformed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/RLDabney5PointsofCalvinism.pdf "Five Points of Calvinism"] by [[Robert Lewis Dabney]] (PDF)

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