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Calvin the Magistrate
His Political and Legal Legacy
Religion and Law
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
The legal and political scenario of Calvin's day involved upheavals deriving from the force of religion upon law. Whole cities, provinces, and states came under Reformation influence, ranging from quiet individual conversions to Protestantism to the hysteria of community iconoclasm. The transformation of these societies, however, was not moving away from a religious worldview; rather, the transformation was a movement of one religion to another. In Calvin's day, secularism, pluralism, and religious toleration were nonexistent. Europe was not in the thrall of the question "Should religion in public life be tolerated?" but rather "Which religion should be enforced, to the banning of all others?"
Calvin was a driven man, but a valid question drove him: "What is the true religion?" And deriving from the central question were corollaries: "What law is right law?" and "What government is right government?" Calvin's trek would lead him to answers.
Calvin concluded that, substantively, a correct political and legal system derives from the Bible, and procedurally, the system is applied by democratically elected officials, checking and balancing one another--and his views were consistent with a Reformation consensus.
George J. Gatgounis, a Harvard alumnus, is a published author, trial attorney, ordained minister, and seminary professor. A member of the Harvard Faculty Club, he formerly served as one of the editors of the Harvard Civil Rights Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. As an active Harvard alumnus, he serves as the moderator of the Harvard Reading Club of Charleston, South Carolina. He serves at Cummins Seminary as Professor of Hebrew Bible, and Professor of Greek Septuagint (LXX), Greek New Testament, and Greek Classics. He is also a South Carolina Supreme Court certified civil court mediator, family court mediator, and civil arbitrator.
“Bringing to bear his expertise in law and theology, George Gatgounis provides a welcome and refreshing study of John Calvin’s understanding and use of law. After viewing Calvin’s legal theory and political theory, the author shows the outworking of these in Geneva as well as surveying how Calvin’s views aligned compared with other reformers in the same theological tradition. There is much to be learned from this unique book.”
—Timothy J. Demy, Professor of Military Ethics, U. S. Naval War College
“Calvin was not only a theologian but trained in law, as Dr. Gatgounis and I have been, and this influenced the manner in which he approached the study of theology and his interest in theology’s influence upon law and government. I found George’s work insightful and balanced. His work is well worth reading more than once. I heartedly endorse the book.”
—H. Wayne House, Distinguished Research Professor of Theology, Law, and Culture, Faith International University and Faith Seminary
“While Calvin is remembered chiefly as a reformer, Gatgounis demonstrates the organic connection between his theology and his jurisprudence as well as their collaborative force in sixteenth-century Geneva, where Puritan zeal sought to transform church and state. This well-researched volume also charts Calvin’s influence in colonial New England.”
—Charles L. Echols, Adjunct Professor, Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary
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