Why Waste Time Talking to Calvinists?

A friend of mine who is a Protestant pastor told me recently that there were basically two approaches to the Christian faith we both profess. One was “mystic” and the other was “emphatic”. He explained that we Catholics followed the first which involved accepting that our faith was a mystery, not questioning the lack of clarity, certainty and empirical proof, and enveloping ourselves in all the rituals associated with it. By following this path we Catholics hoped it would lead us to eternal life, he said. The other approach, which Protestants follow, was more dogmatic and certain, less mysterious and offered a virtual guarantee of salvation. Having said that he admitted that he personally felt neither approach was the right one and said he was searching for a “convergence”. When I asked where this convergence could be found he said in Jesus himself. I am still waiting to find out how but as we live in different continents and communicate by text this will take some time.

My friend is by no means a Calvinist and I don´t know how attached to the “emphatic” approach he is but his position seems too close to the Calvinist concept of the Elect for my taste. The Elect already have their place in Heaven reserved regardless of how they behave during their earthly existence. This is known as “predestination” and Calvinists believe God has already selected those who will be saved. Just why God should have selected a chosen few is beyond my understanding. It seems like a theological version of the Darwinist idea of the survival of the fittest. However, whereas Darwin´s survivors were the result of evolutionary changes that occurred over the millennia the Calvinist Elect were fully formed at birth just like the immutable forms of life the opponents of Darwin said God had created individually.

By believing in the concept of the Elect, Calvinists may be identifying with the Jews of the Old Testament who regarded themselves as the Chosen People. Jesus was brought up in the Jewish faith but did not believe the Jews were the Chosen People. He wanted the faith to be spread everywhere and after his Crucifixion the most important decision the newly-formed Church took was to proclaim Christ´s doctrines to everyone – Jew and gentile, the circumcised and uncircumcised, pagans and idol worshippers.

The idea of the Elect also goes against basic fairness. If the selected few are already chosen then why should the rest of us make any effort to uphold the teachings of Christ? On the other hand I see a parallel with the concept of Original Sin. Whereas we Catholics believe the Original Sin we are all born with can be washed away by baptism Calvinists believe this can be achieved through God's grace and not by human means like baptism.

I was brought up in Scotland which historically was the most Calvinist country in the world and my Protestant relatives were Presbyterians and members of the Kirk as the Church of Scotland was called. It was not until I was in my teens that I learned about the Reformation as it was a subject that was never mentioned at my Catholic school. At first I was quite in favor of the Reformation as the Catholic Church at that time was corrupt and had strayed far from the original teachings of Jesus. Whereas the Church of England maintained many aspects of the Catholic Church, such as mass, bishops, vestments and rituals, Presbyterianism was downright revolutionary. Everything associated with the Church of Rome was jettisoned, often violently.

There is no doubt that it was genuinely popular in many areas of Scotland and the Reformation instituted a more “democratic” system where the congregation elected ministers and the Moderator, also elected, only held power for a year. However, it was perverted by fanatics and bigots like John Knox who replaced the spirituality of Catholicism and Jesus´s message of love for mankind with a hatred and intolerance that unfortunately exists to this day in some parts of Scotland. (Knox is on the far right in the picture of the International Monument to the Reformation in Geneva. Calvin is second left.)

Obviously Calvinists would say things are more complicated than my interpretation. They believe this predestination, as they call it, is a sign of God´s good grace. The non-Elect i.e. Catholics like us are born with a fallen nature that prevents us from willingly accepting God's offer of salvation and a hellish fate awaits us.

As Calvinists also believe that Catholics cannot be among the Elect I don´t see much point in trying to make any ecumenical outreach to them. Of course we should respect other religions, particularly Christian ones, but let´s not get carried away. What do we have in common with Calvinists if, according to them, we are already doomed and our good works count for nothing?

In concluding, I would like to say how pleased I was that the Pope refused to pray in a mosque during his recent trip to Turkey when he said he only prayed in a place where the Holy Sacrament was present.