Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Part I Calvin’s Life and Context
- Part II Calvin’s Work
- 3 Calvin’s writings
- 4 Calvin as a biblical interpreter
- 5 Calvin’s theology
- 6 Calvin’s ethics
- 7 Calvin’s preaching
- 8 Calvin on piety
- 9 Calvin and social-ethical issues
- 10 Calvin and political issues
- 11 Calvin’s controversies
- Part III After Calvin
- Part IV Calvin Today
- Select bibliography
- Index
11 - Calvin’s controversies
from Part II - Calvin’s Work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Part I Calvin’s Life and Context
- Part II Calvin’s Work
- 3 Calvin’s writings
- 4 Calvin as a biblical interpreter
- 5 Calvin’s theology
- 6 Calvin’s ethics
- 7 Calvin’s preaching
- 8 Calvin on piety
- 9 Calvin and social-ethical issues
- 10 Calvin and political issues
- 11 Calvin’s controversies
- Part III After Calvin
- Part IV Calvin Today
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
The literary style of sixteenth-century polemical writings is quite foreign to modern readers. For those theologians, religion was a matter of life and death, literally. Phrases and expressions that should not be used in “polite company” today are found heavily seasoning the writings of both Roman and Protestant polemical authors.
As an example of sixteenth-century polemic writing style, listen to Sir Thomas More speak of Martin Luther in his Latin work Response to Luther:
What wonder, then if the stupid scoundrel slanders the prince, since he has already long ago scorned both the apostle James and the whole catholic church and now proceeds to such a degree of impiety that he openly blasphemes the Holy Spirit, since that which everyone sees the Holy Spirit has inspired in all the faithful, this buffoon worse than any infidel dares to blaspheme with his cursed tongue which should be cut out by the roots.
But since the foundation of such a facetious fiction [on the element of wine in the Eucharist] is not any word of the prince but the dull-witted device of Luther himself, by which everyone sees that he imputes to the king a statement which the king nowhere makes, who is so foolish that he will not laugh at this fool so foolishly fashioning fools?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin , pp. 188 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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