Conversion in the Thought and Experience of John Calvin

Abstract

"THE DECADE OF EVANGELISM is an appropriate time to subject a term such as 'conversion' to fresh scrutiny. In the context of evangelisation, what does the word mean? What has it meant in the past? The purpose of this essay is to assess what the term meant for John Calvin. 'Conversion', for Calvin, was intimately associated with 'the progress of Christ's Kingdom', a phrase he used repeatedly in his expository writings. I have indicated elsewhere that he construed this progress chiefly in institutional terms, equating it directly with that of the Reformed Church. 1 Nothing in the present discussion is a qualification of this. Yet alongside the identification of Christ's kingdom with the structures of the true church must be set Calvin's equation of it with the experience of a true Christian. Insofar as it conforms to the Word of God, Calvin describes the life of an individual believer, as well as the polity of the Reformed Church, as a manifestation of Christ's kingdom. In his view, the kingdom of Christ is truly established only where individual human beings respond appropriately to the preaching of God's Word"