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Submitted by drei_30 on July 22, 2005
Category: Philosophy
Words: 6211 | Pages: 25
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1) The terms of the question
The political conception of J. Calvin has been subjected to a wide range of interpretations so that a " communis opinio" appears nowadays very difficult to be reached. Particularly the contribution of Calvin's theology to the birth of democracy and liberty has been until now one of the most debated and discussed. It is well known that the most famous and influential version of the thesis associating Protestantism and Progress was offered by G. W. F. Hegel, who in his " Philosophy of History" ( trans. J Sibree, New York, 1956, p.417 and p. 444) pointed out that in Germany the eclaircissement was conducted in the interest of Theology, in France it immediately took up a position of hostility to the church. This was possible in part because the protestant world itself..... advanced so far in thought as to realize the absolute culmination of self consciousness. This is the essence of the Reformation: Man is in his very nature destined to be free.
The idea of a kinship between Protestantism and political and social progress has became a common place among liberal Protestants. The boldest and most prolific representative of the above point of view was no doubt Emil Doumergue who in his Jean Calvin: Les hommes et les choses de son temps ( 7 vols, Lausanne, 1899-1927, p 212) , argued straightforwardly that Calvin deserved the title of founder of the modern world.
The idea of some inner connections between Protestantism and some aspects of modernity was taken up by Max Weber ( see The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism) according to whom the Calvin's conception of vocation would constitute the basis of the modern capitalism.
After the Great War the tide of Protestant opinion turned against the fathering of modernity on the Reformation. The most eminent among these thinkers was Karl Barth whose "dialectical Theology" or "Theology of crisis" emphasized the infinite distance between a radically transcendent...
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