Calvinism

Calvinism. The religious ideas of bodies and individuals who were profoundly influenced by the 16th-cent. church reformer John Calvin, or by his writings. In Calvinism there is typically a strong stress on the sovereignty of God over every area of life, and on the supremacy of scripture as the sole rule of faith and practice, an authority confirmed by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of predestination was never a leading axiom of Calvin's thought. But many of Calvin's early followers (e.g. Theodore Beza) were quick to establish the divine ‘decree’ (to eternal life and death) as the principle from which all other ideas were derived, and on this basis elaborated logically rigorous theological systems. Calvinist theology reached powerful expression in the Helvetic Confession (1566) and at the Synod of Dort (1618–19). The latter expounded the so-called ‘five points’ of Calvinism: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the final perseverance of the saints.