Early Reformed Missiology:The fertile Genevan soil of world evangelism
By Katie Taylor
Though it is commonly assumed that the early Reformers focused on inter-church theological discussions and said “little about the evangelization of the world,” this view does not account for the full picture of Reformation era missiology.[1] It is true that many limiting factors hindered the international spread of Protestant Christianity in the 16th and 17th centuries. Nevertheless, threads of Reformed missiology wove themselves into the tapestry of church history, most notably in the life and ministry of John Calvin. The church in Geneva developed seeds of healthy missiology which would later be sown throughout the world. This paper will explore the influence of John Calvin’s missiology in Geneva and broader Europe as well as his legacy in seventeenth century global missions.
At the heart of John Calvin’s ministry was a recovery and reformation of the gospel according to Scripture within the congregation in Geneva. Calvin’s pastoral leadership of the church in Geneva took place during a time when much theological ground remained to be reconquered after rampant distortions of the gospel. Preaching to the “sensual, secular” Geneva, Switzerland, Calvin and his fellow church leaders first established the renewal of biblical church practice within their own city.[2] In his Reply to Sadoleto, Calvin justifies the need for reform and ultimately division from the Roman Catholic Church. His reasoning also displays a helpful summation of the lost ground which the Reformers sought to regain. Calvin describes the light of Scripture being “extinguished” before the Reformation, producing a church abandoned to darkness and “oblivion.”[3] Those charged to lead the way in completing Christ’s mission had left their posts. Indeed, Calvin considered “the pastoral office subverted”; a malady which he sought to restore through biblical preaching and pastoral training in Geneva.[4] Thus, the core motivation and precipitation of Calvin’s spreading ecclesiology was the health of his own church.
Forged and refined in the context of the Genevan congregation, Calvin’s writings laid the groundwork for a Reformed missiology, outlining the role of worldwide evangelism, gospel preaching, and healthy pastoral ministry. His commentary on the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28 demonstrates a conviction of the universality of gospel preaching to “all nations” and “every part of the world.”[5] Calvin also corrects harmful Roman Catholic teaching on the role of the Lord’s ministers in advancing the kingdom of God. He boldly asserts that no preacher “can be a successor of the apostles” who is not devoted to the ministry of the gospel.[6] Similarly, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin’s critique of the Roman church provides a helpful glimpse into his ecclesiology. He objects to those who define the mission of the church by anything but “Christ’s words” in Matthew 28 to go and “teach all nations” his commands.[7] Genevan ecclesiastical ordinances during Calvin’s tenure as a church leader outline the description of an elder to be one who proclaims the Word of God, administers the sacraments and exercises “fraternal correction” along with his fellow leaders.[8] Though such themes required further development in later generations, the recovery of biblical ecclesiology and evangelism in Calvin’s writings created a framework for his own missional efforts within Europe.
The seeds of Reformed missiology which germinated in the Genevan church would spread overseas in future years, due to the newly opened doors for global travel. Following Christopher Columbus’s successful voyage across the Atlantic to what would later be known as the American continent, a new horizon opened up for travel, conquest and trade.[9] The 15th century church context, then, was one not only of significant theological development but also the advance of exploration to “new worlds.” [10] A globe previously shrouded in mystery to the European people became newly accessible through land and marine navigation. As pathways of innovation and travel continued to expand, the Christian church was enabled to ride the coattails of exploration, bringing the Protestant Christian faith to far-off nations.
However, the Protestant response to this newfound access generally lagged behind the Roman Catholic global advance for nearly two centuries, due to its need for theological development. Early Protestant Reformers wereprimarily concerned with doctrinal formation and clarification within their own regions and churches. Martin Luther and his compatriots in the Reformation found themselves facing a church in “captivity” to darkness and false teaching.[11] The recovery of true, biblical teaching required intense pastoral and scholarly labor in order to “break new ground in Europe.”[12] Additionally, misconceptions about the extent to which Christ’s mission had already been accomplished stunted early Reformed believers in the development of biblical missiology. Some reformers, including Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, surmised that Christ’s return was so imminent that world evangelism was futile.[13] Meanwhile, others speculated that patristic missions already reached the nations and that exploratory ventures might even uncover established Christian kingdoms across the seas.[14] Thus, global advance for the Protestant church required internal formulation of core doctrinal distinctives as well as growth in understanding the scope of Christ’s remaining mission in the world.
In addition to doctrinal development, the early Reformed movement lacked the socio-political stability needed in order to spread beyond Europe. To begin with, the Protestant church had nothing equivalent to the papal authority of the Roman Catholic Church and the nations which supported it.[15] For this reason, any effort by Protestants to spread overseas advanced without “sponsorship of heads of state” or the navigational expertise of colonial representatives.[16] Furthermore, as a counter-cultural movement within Roman Catholic Europe, those within the early years of the Protestant reformation found themselves facing intense persecution. Many Christians within Roman Catholic-controlled territories sought to travel to Reformed hubs such as Geneva and Zurich in search of safety but were “executed before they ever reached the destination.”[17] The religious landscape of Europe itself also required significant spiritual renewal as the Reformers sought to counter the “distortions of inherited Christendom” within their own communities.[18] Before the Protestant church could begin to spread the gospel globally, it needed to emerge from the fires of political instability and religious persecution which it faced in Roman Catholic Europe.
Nevertheless, amidst these limitations, missional zeal is clearly detectable in John Calvin’s ministry in Geneva, beginning with the training of pastors at the Geneva Academy. The Academy at Geneva, founded in 1559, played a critical role in the “Reformed mission movement.”[19] The school provided a classical, liberal arts education to the hundreds of students who flocked from surrounding European countries, hungry for theological training.[20] Upon arrival, they received instruction in the classic works of theology and philosophy, as well as training in Greek, Latin, and French.[21] Instruction in rhetoric, dialectic, and preaching also served to equip students with the skills needed to step into the pulpits in their own churches.[22] The Academy aimed to train future pastors who could embody and spread the mission of the Protestant church. Without the school as a means of training up the next generation of pastors, the Reformation may well have “died with its Reformers.”[23] Instead, the Geneva Academy provided application of Calvin’s theological emphasis on preaching and ecclesiology to the equipping of the next generation of pastors.
The Academy not only trained pastors for the Genevan church, but also served as a type of proto-missionary agency for evangelizing early post-Reformation Europe. The men seeking theological training in Geneva often arrived as refugees from Roman Catholic territories.[24] Calvin himself was at one time a refugee, which aided his consciousness of the scope of spiritual needs within the Protestant landscape.[25] The training in Geneva prepared its students for dispersion across Europe as shepherds for the newly stabilizing Protestant church. Often pastors brought their pastoral training to the empty pulpits in their own towns.[26] Simultaneously, Calvin received an influx of letters requesting him to “dispatch ministers to reap the harvest” throughout Europe as many converted to the biblical gospel.[27] The Geneva Academy was quick to answer this call, sending as many as 142 missionary pastors in 1561 alone.[28] Calvin’s missiological theology employed the means of theological education to further the spread of Reformed Christianity across Europe through the efforts of the Geneva Academy.
Furthermore, Calvin’s influence extended far beyond Europe, beginning with the Huguenot mission to Brazil in 1556. This enterprise was initiated by Admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, a French explorer who wrote to Calvin, requesting a group of settlers to accompany his colonial effort in Brazil. [29] Seeing the opportunity for the spread of Reformed Christianity to the newly discovered continent, Calvin and his fellow Genevan leaders commissioned a group of French Huguenots. The group included one of Calvin’s own students, Jean de Léry.[30] De Léry’s account of the endeavor includes a clearly missiological motive in his prayer that the “Gospel may reign in this place.”[31] He also prays that the salvation of the Lord might be declared to “all nations.”[32] According to de Léry’s writings, the Huguenot settlers took the approach of dialectic conversation and evangelism with the native peoples, rather than coercion.[33] This methodology stands in sharp contrast to Roman Catholic colonial strategies of the time. A 16th century Dominican monk, Bartolome de las Casas, accuses Roman Catholic colonists of committing unnecessary violence and abuse of the American Indians’ “labor and toil.”[34] In contrast, Calvin’s gospel-oriented ecclesiology and the dialectic strategies taught in the Academy are traceable in the writings and methods of the earliest Reformed church plant overseas.
Though short-lived, the Huguenot mission to Brazil would prove to be a ground-breaking example of early Reformed missions. The colony was successful for five years, establishing the “Fort Coligny” community. Under Villegagnon’s leadership, the Huguenots established themselves on Guanabara island, near Rio de Janeiro.[35] During these years, a Protestant church was planted within the colony, which practiced regular Christian worship according to “Calvinist norms.”[36] Sadly, the mission was disturbed by Villegagnon’s turn in political motives. Differences in theology between his own Roman Catholic convictions and the Protestant faith of the Huguenots began to cause friction.[37] Villegagnon eventually murdered several of the Huguenots and expelled the rest back to Europe.[38] Though the colony in Brazil would not last for decades, due to Villegagnon’s shifting loyalties, it still serves as a remarkable prototype for Reformed missions under Calvin’s leadership.
John Calvin’s legacy continued to inform Protestant missions throughout the sixteenth century as well. The spread of Calvinistic Dutch colonists in the mid sixteenth to early seventeenth century into Brazil would continue the paradigm of religious toleration and evangelism by convincing argumentation instead of coercion.[39] The Dutch Reformed missionaries also carried their Calvinistic convictions with them to Africa and China within the seventeenth century.[40] Their efforts to establish seminaries and produce vernacular translations of the Bible in overseas contexts progressed with impressive speed within the mid seventeenth century.[41] Perhaps the most well-known example of the seventeenth century global spread of the Reformation is evident in the establishment of the Puritan colonies in North America.[42] Indeed, the “pattern…set in Geneva” for missional endeavors duplicated itself for centuries afterwards, across multiple continents.[43]
John Calvin’s Genevan, proto-missionary paradigm dismantles common claims that the early Reformed movement was not missionally conscious. When analyzing the presence or absence of missionary zeal in the early Protestant Reformation, some claim that there is “no overt… engagement with the theme of mission.”[44] Others hold that John Calvin held “no serious sense of responsibility for missionary efforts” to unbelievers within Europe or overseas.[45] However, these claims are indefensible. An examination of Calvin’s life and ministry reveals early development of missional ecclesiology and proto-missionary training of pastors in Geneva. The mission to Brazil offers a remarkably early effort to spread Reformed beliefs to the continent of South America when the opportunity arose. The later spread of Calvinistic methods through 17th century missions further extends his influence upon international missions. The widespread nature of Geneva’s missiology upon the world leads some scholars to conclude that, “Protestantism was hardly born before it became missionary.”[46]
Having demonstrated the influence of John Calvin’s missiology in Geneva, broader Europe and 17th century global missions in this paper, I would argue that those who claim that the early Reformed movement was not missional in nature do so in contradiction to the plain facts. Instead, during a time when the winds of theological and socio-political change blew in full force against the possibility of global, Protestant missions, Calvin’s efforts stood stalwart against the gales of opposition. Thus, it is more in keeping with a careful historiography of Calvin’s life to characterize him as the “most missionary-minded of all the Reformers.”[47]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Gerald H., ed. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Paperback ed. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publ, 1999.
Bartolome de las Casas. “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.” In A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions, edited by Denis Janz, 2nd ed., 435. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.
Benedict, Philip. Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible. Omaha, NE: Patristic Publishing, 2019.
———. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John Thomas McNeill. The Library of Christian Classics. Louisville, Ky. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 20.
———. Reply to Sadoleto. Fig Classic Series, 2013.
Enrique Dussel, ed. The Church in Latin America 1492-1992. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992.
James I. Good. “Calvin and the New World.” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 5, no. 4 (December 1909): 179–87.
Kenneth Scott Latourette. Three Centuries of Advance: 1500 A.D. to 1800 A.D. Vol. 3. A History of the Expansion of Christianity. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1970.
Klauber, Martin I., and Scott M. Manetsch, eds. The Great Commission: Evangelicals & the History of World Missions. Nashville, Tenn: B & H Pub, 2008.
Léry, Jean de, Janet Whatley, and Jean de Léry. History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Otherwise Called America. 1. paperback print., [Nachdr.]. Latin American Literature and Culture 6. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press, 2006.
Lindberg, Carter, ed. “Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541.” In The European Reformations Sourcebook, 2. ed., 162. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
Martin Luther. “Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” In Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions, edited by Bradford Littlejohn and Jonathan Roberts, 173. Lincoln Nebraska: The Davenant Institute, 2018.
Neill, Stephen, and Owen Chadwick. A History of Christian Missions. 2. ed., Reprinted. The Penguin History of the Church / [General Ed.: Owen Chadwick] 6. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
Nimmo, Paul T., and David Fergusson, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Reformed Theology. Cambridge Companions to Religion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Robert H. Glover. The Progress of World-Wide Missions. Edited by J. Herbert Kane. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1960.
Stewart, Kenneth J. Ten Myths about Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition. Downers Grove, Ill. : Nottingham, England: IVP Academic ; Apollos, 2011.
Terry, John Mark, and Robert L. Gallagher. Encountering the History of Missions: From the Early Church to Today. Encountering Mission. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017.
Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2004.
Walls, Andrew F. The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2002.
[1] Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith (Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2002), 196.
[2] John Mark Terry and Robert L. Gallagher, Encountering the History of Missions: From the Early Church to Today, Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017), 132.
[3] John Calvin, Reply to Sadoleto (Fig Classic Series, 2013), 380.
[4] Calvin, Sadoleto, 380.
[5] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible (Omaha, NE: Patristic Publishing, 2019), 9718.
[6] Calvin, Commentary, 9718.
[7] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John Thomas McNeill, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, Ky. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 20), 1,152.
[8] Carter Lindberg, ed., “Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541,” in The European Reformations Sourcebook, 2. ed (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 162.
[9] Stephen Neill and Owen Chadwick, A History of Christian Missions, 2. ed., reprinted, The Penguin History of the Church / [General Ed.: Owen Chadwick] 6 (London: Penguin Books, 1990).
[10] Kenneth Scott Latourette, Three Centuries of Advance: 1500 A.D. to 1800 A.D., vol. 3, A History of the Expansion of Christianity (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1970), 1.
[11] Martin Luther, “Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” in Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions, ed. Bradford Littlejohn and Jonathan Roberts (Lincoln Nebraska: The Davenant Institute, 2018), 173.
[12] Tucker, From Jerusalem, 97.
[13] Latourette, Three Centuries, 25.
[14] Neill, Christian Missions, 121.
[15] Tucker, From Jerusalem, 97.
[16] Kenneth J. Stewart, Ten Myths about Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition (Downers Grove, Ill. : Nottingham, England: IVP Academic ; Apollos, 2011), 130.
[17] Stewart, Ten Myths, 131.
[18] Paul T. Nimmo and David Fergusson, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Reformed Theology, Cambridge Companions to Religion (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 322.
[19] Terry, History of Missions, 133.
[20] Philip Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 113.
[21] Terry, History of Missions, 133.
[22] Terry, History of Missions, 133.
[23] Terry, History of Missions, 133.
[24] Martin I. Klauber and Scott M. Manetsch, eds., The Great Commission: Evangelicals & the History of World Missions (Nashville, Tenn: B & H Pub, 2008), 20.
[25] Benedict, Social History, 109.
[26] Klauber, Great Commission, 21.
[27] Benedict, Social History, 113.
[28] Klauber, Great Commission, 21.
[29] Gerald H. Anderson, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, paperback ed (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publ, 1999), 397.
[30] Anderson, Biographical Dictionary, 397.
[31] Jean de Léry, Janet Whatley, and Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Otherwise Called America, 1. paperback print., [Nachdr.], Latin American Literature and Culture 6 (Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press, 2006), 37.
[32] De Léry, Voyage, 39.
[33] Anderson, Biographical Dictionary, 397.
[34] Bartolome de las Casas, “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies,” in A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions, ed. Denis Janz, 2nd ed (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 435.
[35] Enrique Dussel, ed., The Church in Latin America 1492-1992 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992), 314.
[36] Dussel, Latin America, 315.
[37] Stewart, Ten Myths, 135.
[38] Anderson, Biographical Dictionary, 397.
[39] Enrique Dussel, Latin America, 315.
[40] Nimmo, Cambridge Companion, 311.
[41] Stewart, Ten Myths, 140.
[42] Stewart, Ten Myths, 138.
[43] Nimmo, Cambridge Companion, 322.
[44] Nimmo, Cambridge Companion, 321.
[45] Robert H. Glover, The Progress of World-Wide Missions, ed. J. Herbert Kane (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1960), 40.
[46] James I. Good, “Calvin and the New World,” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 5, no. 4 (December 1909): 179.
[47] Tucker, From Jerusalem, 97.