JOHN CALVIN

1509 - 1564
 BACKGROUND

He was born in Noyon, on the 10th of July

1509.
He studied at the priesthood at the college
de la marche and the college de montaigue
in Paris.
He then studied law.
In 1536, the first edition of institutes of the
Christian religion was published and this led
him to the fore-front of Protestantism.
In 1541 he moved to Geneva. Here he
was invited to modify the constitution in
sacred and secular matters.
He wrote commentaries and catechism on
nearly every book in the bible.
 PRE-DESTINATION

• The doctrine of pre-destination was formulated

by such theologians as Augustine of Hippo and
John Calvin.
• It is based on the idea that God determines
whatever happens in History and that man has a
very limited understanding of Gods purposes
and plans.
• This means that our actions in this life are
completely irrelevant as God has already
decided whether we are saved or not.
 DETERMINISM

• The view of every event has a cause and

so, when applied to moral decisions, we
do not have free-will.
• Determinism can also be seen in some
versions of Christian pre-destination.
 SOFT DETERMINISM

• Soft Determinist’s argue that determinism

doesn’t rule out free-will.

• They believe that determinism and free-

will are compatible. For them, freedom to
act is acting voluntarily and not out of
coercion.
 HARD DETERMINISM

• We are not free and cannot be held

morally responsible for our
actions.

• Hard determinism maintains that all

actions have prior cause. Humans aren’t
free to act. Our actions are determined by
a complex set of prior causes.
 LIBERTARIANISM

• We are free and morally responsible

for our actions.

• Some people reject determinism

because it rules out moral
responsibility, and also because
there is a sense that we have self-
determination or freedom to act.

• These Ethicists are called

libertarians.
 CALVINISM

• Formulated by John Calvin during the 16th

Century and is still followed by Presbyterian
churches today
• This belief says that as man is a complete sinner
who is incapable of coming to God and has a
sinful free will that is only capable of rejecting
God.
• This then means that Pre-destination must occur
or nobody could be saved.
• God is in total control and people cannot do
anything to achieve salvation.
 CALVIN SAYS:

• “Eternal life is fore/ordained for

some, an eternal damnation for
others. Every man,
therefore, being created for one or the other of these
ends, we say, he is pre- destined to life or death.”

(institutes of the Christian religion) BK3

• This idea suggests that people have no free will
as far as their ethical decisions are concerned.
• Its states that God makes his choice about who
is to be saved independently of any qualities in
the individual.
• People only do good because God made them
that way and put them in a certain
environment
and the rest are limited by their natural sinful
nature and can only choose to be sinful.
Logically if we have no control over our
actions,
we have no responsibility for them.