For many in our culture, the word "Calvinism" is synonymous with a grim form of legalistic religion that chiefly focuses on the doctrine of predestination -- the idea that God has determined from eternity who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.

This shorthand definition was perhaps given additional ground by the famous essay of Max Weber on "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Weber argued that Calvinism's obsession with predestination led to a "this-worldly asceticism," which caused its followers to reinvest their profits in their businesses rather than to spend them on personal luxuries, hence encouraging the rise of modern capitalism. But neither Weber's, nor the popular, picture of Calvinism really does justice to the rich reality of this branch of evangelical Christianity.

John Calvin (1509-1564), the Protestant Reformer from whom the movement takes its name, was one of the second-generation reformers of the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church. His initial contribution to the reform movement was a systematic theology titled, "Instruction in the Christian Religion, Embracing Almost the Whole Sum of Piety, and Whatever Is Necessary to Know the Doctrine of Salvation: A Work Most Worthy to Be Read by All Persons Zealous for Piety."

Published in 1536, this work was in the style of a catechism that had chapters on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the sacraments (including a separate chapter on the alleged false sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church), and on Christian freedom and the power of church and state. Calvin continued to work on this text throughout his life, and he published a final, much-expanded edition of the work in 1559. Popularly known as Calvin's "Institutes," it now had expanded to a work in four books and 80 chapters!

THE ACTUAL historical origins of Calvinism as a distinct branch of Protestant theology can be traced to the debates about the Eucharist that emerged among the first-generation Reformers Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531). Luther had argued that Christ's body was present "under" the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine, so that when the minister said the words of consecration, "This is my body," Christ's body was really present in the elements. Zwingli thought the words of consecration were a figure of speech, and that the Eucharist was a memorial and thanksgiving for Christ's once-for-all sacrifice on the cross.

Calvin, thinking he could find a compromise formula that would satisfy both the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, argued that at the words of consecration, the body of Christ is really present to the communicants by the power of the Holy Spirit, but not locally in the bread. Unfortunately, this formula satisfied neither the Zwinglians nor the Lutherans, but simply created a third brand of Eucharistic theology -- the Calvinist variety.

As Calvin's theology developed from the first to the final edition of the Institutes, certain key themes emerge that one can take as benchmarks of the movement that bears his name. First and foremost is an emphasis on the unmerited and ever-present grace of God that reaches out to fallen human beings and restores them from sin to divine favor. Often people say that Calvinism emphasizes the sovereignty of God. This is true. But it is specifically the sovereignty of God's grace that is emphasized.

SECOND, THE appropriate human response to God's grace is thankful and obedient service to God in lives lived as God's children. God's grace deserves our gratitude. Third, a humble acknowledgment of the human tendency to sinfulness and idolatry, and a consequent willingness to repent, confess sin, and return to God on a regular basis. There is little patience with perfectionism in this tradition. On the contrary, it has a realistic sense of people's weaknesses.

Fourth, Calvinism gives careful attention to the ways in which people can receive God's grace. These range from participation in the church, to partaking of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, to engagement in civil society. Calvinists understand the world to be the theater of God's glory and grace -- the stage on which the drama of salvation is being played out. That means that engagement with the world is a crucial part of the experience of salvation. Faithful participation in government, for example, is an important part of Christian life.

If I were to summarize the theology of Calvinism in a phrase, it would be "grace and gratitude." John Calvin was a theologian who wrote eloquently and persuaded many followers that there is nothing in the universe more powerful than the sovereign grace of God.
Dawn DeVries is the John Newton Thomas professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond. Contact her at ddevries@union-psce.edu.