Calvinist spirituality and its meaning for ethics
Henk Jochemsen
1. Calvinist spirituality
Introduction
‘For those seeking to understand the Netherlands, national taboos and obsessions are a good
place to start. These can best be gleaned from Dutch literature, in which three themes have
generally been dominant: the relationship with the (former) East Indian colonies, the Second
World War and the results of a Calvinist upbringing. These themes come back strongly in
(……) typically Dutch novels’.1
This statement by the Dutch literary editor of NRC-Handelsblad, Elsbeth Etty, herself clearly
not a follower of Calvinism, is typical for the popular idea that Calvinism is one factor that
has shaped the mood and character of the Dutch people. One may wonder, though, how many
of the Dutch have a clue as to what are the distinct Calvinist ideas that influenced the Dutch
people and nation.2 Generally values like austerity, sobriety (the Dutch serve one cookie with
your coffee), responsibility, simplicity, steadfastness, severity, courage and faith are
associated with the Calvinist impact on society.3 Not without reason. But apart from the fact
that it is doubtful whether this still characterizes the Dutch people, it is noteworthy that the
Calvinist influence is expressed in ethical values/virtues and not in terms of spirituality
(except faith, though even that can also be seen as a virtue). In this contribution I will try to
formulate the main traits of Calvinist spirituality that form the background of the supposedly
typical Calvinist values. Because of the character of this publication and being a Calvinist
myself I will do this primarily from an inner perspective with explanatory remarks from a
third person perspective. An inner perspective is necessarily personal and I do not pretend that
my view should be seen as a normative Calvinist perspective.
Two currents of Calvinism
To me the most outstanding trait of Calvinism is the confession of the sovereignty of God in
all things, in creation, in providence, in salvation and in restoration. In Calvinism God is put
central, not mankind. The needs of mankind will be met adequately precisely by putting God
in the centre. In working out the implications for my account of Calvinism it is helpful to
realize that in today’s Dutch Calvinism at least two currents should be distinguished, that both
have impacted me and that in my view should not have split. This is a more pietistic,
theologically and culturally conservative current that arose in the seventeenth century mainly
as a reaction to a perceived rationalism in the protestant church and theology. This current
emphasises on the sovereignty of God in salvation. In the second current, sometimes called
neo-Calvinism, the figure of Abraham Kuyper is central. This movement dedicates more
attention to the sovereignty of God in creation and recreation.
The first current stresses the very personal character of faith and salvation. To them the
traditional cardinal points of Calvinism should not just be believed but become personal
1
Elsbeth Etty, ‘Novels: Coming to terms with Calvinism, colonies and the war’, NRC webpages 2 july 1998;
http://www.nrc.nl/W2/Lab/Profiel/Nederland/novels.html
2
Calvinism as a theological current is found in the Netherlands in the main protestant churches that in their name
use the word “protestant”, “gereformeerd” or “hervormd” (both translated into English as reformed). To me
Calvinism is not just a theological current but also entails a world view, as will be explained in the text. In this
contribution I will speak of Calvinism that with respect to theology and spirituality is synonym to “reformed”.
3
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=64&story_id=111.
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experience in order to be saved. In English these cardinal points are sometimes indicated by
the acronym: TULIP.
TULIP stands for: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
grace, and the perseverance of the saints. What do these theological notions mean?
"T" means that ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, all of humanity has been
in a state of corruption and helpless to obtain salvation. It does not mean that no moral good
whatsoever can be expected from human beings – although some preachers seem to have this
idea - but that every aspect of mankind has been corrupted by sin. Body, soul, heart, reason,
conscience, and whatever other aspect of mankind one wants to distinguish, have all been
affected by the fall in Adam in which all humanity shares. The consequence is that no human
contribution to salvation is possible. "U" asserts that election is founded on God's purpose
"even before the beginning of the world." Salvation rests on the initiative of God who in His
grace provided for a way to obtain forgiveness and salvation, namely faith in His Son Jesus
Christ. "L" claims that Christ's atonement, being an essential condition for salvation, applies
only to the elect but not to the rest of corrupt humankind. "I" claims that the soul's inner
regeneration is entirely the "mysterious and ineffable" work of God. And "P" asserts that God
will somehow preserve the elect from falling from grace, despite their occasional and
inevitable lapses into sin.
The convictions indicated by U, L and I are very much related and centre around the doctrine
of election, or predestination. This is probably the most hotly debated and least understood –
also among Calvinists, I am afraid - Calvinist doctrine (though not only Calvinists hold it).
I won’t try to give a theological account of it, but instead try to explain the spirituality behind
it, as I see it.4
Calvinists have a deep awareness of the holiness of God and of evil in the human heart. They
experience a deep cleft between mankind and God and on the basis of the Bible they
acknowledge that as the guilt of mankind and every human person. They realise that by its
own force mankind can and will never reach the standard God sets for humanity. At the same
time it is acknowledged that God, being holy, will not give up His standards. If He would do
so there would be no guarantee of the establishment of the Kingdom of God in which all evil
and sin, injustice and suffering will be gone. The incompatibility of Gods Being with all kind
of evil is at the same time guarantee of the coming of His reign and of the impossibility of all
human self-deliverance. But the Good News is that God maintains His standard and goodness
and at the same time provides for a way to get saved out of our misery and corruption. This is
by faith in Jesus who perfectly fulfilled Gods standards and purpose with mankind, reconciled
mankind in principle with God and overcame evil and death.
However, God does not deal with human beings in an impersonal, collective way. So the
work of Christ, being sufficient for al mankind, becomes effective for those who by faith
accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord and follow Him. The belief in the ‘limited grace’
sounds at first sight as a restriction of Gods grace, but should primarily be understood as a
way in which God wants to deal with people, namely in a personal way, in a personal
relationship. The doctrines of election and irresistible grace and perseverance of the believers,
implies that sharing personally in the saving work of Jesus Christ cannot be undone by
whatever power or circumstances, since it resides in Gods intentions and initiative towards
me. All coercion and force to ‘convert’ people is, therefore, meaningless. At the same time
God does not overrule the individual. He calls every man who hears the gospel to repentance
and faith. At the same time by His Spirit He quickens the human spirit and renews the heart.5
4
Cf. Hans Borst, Temptatio et Gaudium – aanvechting en vreugde, Reeks Dixit dl. 3, Amsterdam 2006.
Canons of Dordt, chapter 3 / 4, section 16: ‘However, just as by the fall man did not cease to be man, (…) so
also this divine grace of regeneration does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it
abolish‘... the will and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spirituality revives, heals, reforms,
5
2
The irresistible grace of God and human responsibility cannot be put in one logical system.
So, when the doctrine of predestination is formulated in a third person, ‘objective’ account of
‘the way things are’, misunderstandings are almost unavoidable. Salvation is a gift from God
that He gives through the preaching of the Word of God that summons me to believe Him.
Calvinism has a high esteem of the Bible, as the revelation of God that is necessary because
of human depravity and at the same time trustworthy and sufficient for humans to obtain
reestablishment of the relation with God and true fulfilment.
Hence the gospel not only sets me free from guilt, corruption and condemnation, but it
liberates me also from the need to justify and save myself. Calvinism not only stresses the
sinfulness of mankind in itself, but also the incalculable value God, by sheer grace, adjudges
to mankind. I am not just a toy of fate, not the product of blind chance, but Gods creature
made in His image and for whom He gave His Son who sacrificed Himself for me.
People belonging to this stream of Calvinism traditionally have tried to apply the word of God
to their personal lives in a practical life style in which values and virtues mentioned above are
prominent. However, they generally have distanced themselves from mainstream culture and
have not tried so much to influence society in an organised way. (Which does not mean that
by their presence and way of life, as well as – increasingly – by their organisations, this group
had not had any influence on Dutch society).
The deliberate intention to have an impact on society as a whole has been a characteristic of
the second current, neo-Calvinism.
This second Dutch current of Calvinism is foremost a fruit of the work of A Kuyper. In
addition to theologian and preacher, Kuyper was a politician, a statesman, a journalist and a
visionary leader – whether one shares his vision or not. Kuyper, humanly speaking, has
organised the reformed column of Dutch society. For him the gospel was not only a message
about individual salvation. It also was the basis of a view of life as a whole that needed to be
elaborated into views of the responsibility of Christians in the various spheres of life and
society, like the family, the church, the state, the school and university, the economic
enterprise. In his famous Stone lectures, delivered at Princeton University (USA) in 1898,
Kuyper summarized his understanding of some of the main points of Calvinism as a religion
as follows.
Summing up the results of our investigations thus far, I may express my conclusion as
follows. In each one of the four great problems of religion, Calvinism has expressed its
conviction in an appropriate dogma and each time has made that choice which even now, after
three centuries, satisfies the most ideal wants, and leaves the way open for an ever-richer
development. First, it regards religion, not in a utilitarian, or eudaemonistic sense, as existing
for the sake of man, but for God, and for God alone. This is its dogma of God's Sovereignty.
Secondly, in religion there must be no intermediation of any creature between God and the
soul,– all religion is the immediate work of God Himself, in the inner heart. This is the
doctrine of Election. Thirdly, religion is not partial but universal, – this is the dogma of
common or universal grace. And, finally, in our sinful condition, religion cannot be normal,
but has to be soteriological, – this is its position in the twofold dogma of the necessity of
regeneration, and of the necessitas S. Scripturae.6
and – in a manner at once pleasing and powerful - bends it back. (…)’. ‘…. the will and its properties or coerce
a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms, and - in a manner at once pleasing and powerful bends it back. (…)’.
6
A. Kuyper, Calvinism and religion. Lectures on Calvinism: The Stone Lectures of 1898; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans 1898, 2nd lecture, p.58,59; also accessible at www.kuyper.org/main/publish/books_essays/
printer_17.shtml.
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Let me add one remark of clarification to this quote. When Kuyper speaks about the
universality of Calvinist religion he does not refer to the saving work of Christ but he stresses
that religion in the Calvinist form encompasses the whole of life. Religion is not just a part of
life and does not only concern specific religious activities, significant only for a ‘sacred’
sphere of life and in particular for those with religious offices. No, the religion in the sense of
the life of faith is considered to concern all human faculties, including the mind, and all
spheres of human life. The sovereignty of God applies to the whole of life and all of life. This
is the doctrinal background of the foundation of all sorts of Christian (Calvinist)
organisations. Not to isolate oneself from the rest of society but to develop a faith-inspired
understanding and approach to the institutions and issues of our time and use those
organisations as communities and instruments of change in society at large.
This brings us to the second main part of this essay in which I will deal with the way in which
Calvinist spirituality is elaborated in an ethical approach of life and human action in society.
An important part of such an approach is the use of the four focal points of salvation history
as perspectives on life and reality and all it entails.7 Those four focal points are creation, fall,
redemption or salvation and fulfilment or restoration. Theologically these concepts are
“ordinary” Christian notions, not exclusively Calvinistic. But their use as an interpretative
framework is typically Calvinistic.
2. A Calvinist framework
The four focal points of salvation history can be described and interpreted theologically as
historical events. Building on that approach I will use them here as different normative
perspectives on life and reality. In this way they offer a framework that helps to interpret
reality. The four complementary perspectives form one framework in which it is important to
maintain the right balance between them since isolating one perspective leads to a distorted
view on reality.
Creation
The belief that everything that exists, is ultimately created by God is crucial in Calvinist
thinking and spirituality. It holds that the Creator in His creation gives an expression of His
own character, implying that Creation rests on the divine purpose and morality (if we may
speak of that). Introducing a contrast between two opposing approaches to reality can possibly
illuminate the importance of this conviction best. I present them here in an ideal-typical way,
acknowledging that in real life situations, choices will often embody a kind of mixture of
these two. The distinctiveness of the two approaches renders clearly as ‘meaning precedes
existence’ versus ‘existence precedes meaning’.8 The first approach, ‘meaning precedes
existence’, holds that reality has meaning and value that underlie human existence and
precede it. In other words, reality has a value in itself that is independent of its usefulness for
humankind. So, fundamentally, ‘meaning’ is not a construct of the human being.
7
A.M. Wolters, Creation regained, Grand Rapids (MI), 1985. This frame work is not exclusive for Calvinism
but its use is typical for Calvinism.
8
The word ‘precede’ should be understood here in an ontological, not in a chronological sense. The idea that
meaning is at the very core of reality is a central thought of Dooyeweerd. The two approaches presented here are
analogous to two positions distinguished by Avraham Heschel, viz. appreciation versus manipulation ; cf. A.J.
Heschel, Who Is Man? Stanford (CA) 1965.
4
Precisely this is the core of the second approach: ‘existence precedes meaning’. This position
holds that reality does not harbour meaning; individually and collectively people should give
meaning to their lives if it is going to have any meaning. Following this second approach the
task of humanity would be to construct one’s own meaning and values for guiding one’s
choices against the backdrop of circumstance. In other words, it holds that existence
normatively precedes meaning. This position ignores the experience and understanding of
many people with respect to the reality of their existence.9 The experience of meaninglessness
and the search for meaningful life styles of many secularised people who in their worldview
have no real basis for even the notion of meaning, reflect the meaning-harbouring character of
the world.
The Calvinist position starts from the presumption that life and reality harbour meaning and,
therefore, that meaning ultimately is not something we construct or produce. Meaning is
ultimately ‘given’ to us. This means that so-called ‘ethical’ choices founded solely on
circumstance without taking into account the prior meaning-structure of reality will harm both
reality and ourselves. The normativity created reality harbours, presents itself and pops up
somehow in human experience. When we try to ignore the law of gravity we will experience
the consequences realise its reality. The normative laws do not impose themselves as directly
and unavoidably as the natural laws but they make themselves feel. We can ignore the
rhythms and regularities in our bodily life, but our bodies will protest sooner or later. We may
want to neglect the moral structuredness of human life, but it will damage the humane quality
of individual and social life. For instance, he who lives in hate against somebody else will
damage his own psychological and physical well-being as well as his moral character.
This is because reality is normatively structured and human life and social entities have a
telos; not as self-sufficient self-explanatory substances, but because they rest in God’s
creative and redemptive purpose and providence. Social structures somehow reflect the
created normativity of human social life. This normativity manifests itself in the flourishing of
human communities where it is observed, and in the frustration and problems that turn up
where that normativity is violated.
It is due to this structuredness of reality and its moral implication that people with different
religions and worldviews may come to similar ethical positions. They identify the same
values as fitting human life. Yet, the expressiveness of this structuredness is often not very
strong. We live in a reality that is no longer creation as made and meant by God. (This is
elaborated in the second main focal point of our interpretative framework, the fall; see below).
This perspective of creation is a basis for a fundamentally positive attitude to reality, to bodily
life and to human activity in this world. The Dutch paintings in the 17e century demonstrate a
characteristic of Calvinist spirituality. Ordinary life is valuable. We are called to sanctify the
things in this world since they originally belong to God and we are called to serve Him and
our neighbours in everything. Our daily work should not primarily be understood as an
unavoidable burden, as something unworthy, but as our calling to care for Gods world and
pursue its development. Human beings are called to do so on account of the way they are
created. God used the soil of the earth and blew his breath into the being He made. Mankind,
as male and female, is created in Gods image. So mankind shares both the material world and
the spiritual world and hence is equipped to intermediate between them. This is his office
flowing from his being created in Gods image. It gives the human being its fundamental and
inalienable dignity; a dignity granted to him by the Creator. It underlines that being ill or
handicapped does not make my life a ‘failure’ because I am still created in the image of God,
and in Gods future there will be no disease. This view makes all intentional killing of human
beings fundamentally problematic.
9
Viktor Frankl even asserts that the will-to-meaning is a characteristic of human existence, not just a desire or
belief. V.E. Frankl, De zin van het bestaan. [The meaning of life], Rotterdam 1978, 123-126.
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Overemphasising this perspective of creation ordinances and of providence entails the danger
that absolute value is attributed to historically given relationships and institutions, leading to a
deleterious form of conservatism.
Calvinism has not always stressed the positive implications of this perspective of creation for
our position in and responsibility for the world. This perspective has sometimes been
overshadowed by the perspective of the Fall to which we will turn now.
Fall
This refers in the first place to the biblical message that Adam and Eve in Paradise did not
continue to live in full love, trust and obedience to God. They gave in to the temptation of the
snake, representative of the evil one, to become themselves as God in knowing good and evil.
That is, to define for themselves what they would consider good and evil instead of trusting
Gods word on this. This is what the bible calls sin. This destroyed the harmonious
relationship with God, with each other and with nature. This perspective teaches me that the
fundamental root of evil and suffering is not a lack of knowledge or of resources, nor just
blind fate, but the loss of the sound relationship with God. Mankind in its root is corrupted in
a way that is irreparable for mankind itself. This corruption is primarily religious, but
manifests itself in all other aspects of life (cf. above on “total depravity”). The world we live
in is no longer as it is meant to be – that is why we need and have ethics in the first place. The
normative structure of creation, as well as man's understanding of it, is perverted by sin and
not obvious. This perspective underlines the seriousness and profoundness of evil without
explaining it and without excusing mankind. Wickedness and sin remain a dark mystery that
goes beyond individual evil human actions; yet human beings are held responsible. Human
life and actions always carry this contamination of corruption and decay. This should make us
careful and modest. Utopia is not within human possibilities. All forms of power, political,
institutional and technical, etc. always have this leaven of corruption. Therefore, all power
should always be controlled and restricted by norms. These norms still relate to reality as
originally created. The order has not been fully abolished, because God maintains his creation
in a certain ‘fallen order’. But the normative meaning of the structures of creation that
underlie our concrete distorted world needs to be (re-)discovered and (re-)elaborated by
human beings and given shape in their everyday life. Natural courses of events or historically
grown states of affairs do not simply contain norms for human action, though they will give
pause to think. In our world the underlying created structures and their corruption are
inextricably mixed. Hence, our ethical judgement must be based on painstaking analysis of
the situation and the normativity entailed in it, undertaken in the light of all the empirical
evidence available. To be sure, this process of learning how to interpret the validity of ethical
values in a particular situation is a journey of discovery, not one of mere construction. In this
journey, Calvinists profess, we need the light of Gods Word and the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. And in the course of this process, in which many factors can play a role, people may
come to different conclusions even if they adhere to the same religion. We all know in part.
Salvation
The theological meaning of salvation has been indicated above when explaining the acronym
Tulip. Here I will try to formulate some implications for our understanding of ourselves as
human beings and for our position in this world.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world underlines the immense value that
God attaches to His creation, not least to human beings. The bodily resurrection of Jesus
Christ proves that salvation is salvation of creation, not from the material created reality and its
order. This means that the order as intended in creation remains valid and comes to its
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destination in salvation. It also forms another strong argument to grant full protection and care
to human beings as bodily beings whatever their capacities or stage of life.
In His work Jesus demonstrated that he came to overcome sin and evil and to restore
wholeness and shalom. In that perspective the work of people and certainly of Christians in
this world, can be seen, not least in all forms of care. The power of sin and perversion is
strong and should not be underestimated. But in principle it has been overcome. Life is not
futile or absurd, not just a cruel accident in a meaningless history. Ultimately history is His
story in which everything will be justified and put right, even though to us that is beyond
imagination.
The gospel calls people to believe in Jesus and demonstrate His kingship in their lives in this
world. And they are invited to follow His example of proclaiming the coming of His
Kingdom and of demonstrating its values already in the lives of needy people.
Without doubt, love in a variety of forms, is the central value. But his love is not an
unqualified emotion of sympathy or kindness. Calvinism has related love to Gods law. Love
is an attitude of unconditional willingness to do good, to do justice to people and relations and
to created reality in general. Doing justice to reality means to observe the created order that is
valid for it. This is expressed in the (moral) law. The Creator, the Lawgiver and the Saviour
are One and the same God. Therefore, the law fits the human being and love is the fulfilment,
not the replacement of the law, as Jesus Himself has stressed. Such love and its practice in the
fulfilment of the law is beyond mere human possibilities. It can be Gods gift that springs from
the fountain of Christ’s saving work, through the Holy Spirit.
The sense of responsibility and unworthiness, of stewardship and pilgrimage has been typical
for Calvinism, leading to the values and virtues mentioned in the first section of this essay.
Overemphasising this perspective could lead to the belief that everything is already Ok, to an
underestimation of sin and evil and a overly optimistic attitude in trying to deal with problems of
suffering and injustice. Another misunderstanding, due to the relentless resistance of corrupting
powers in this world, could be that salvation only concerns the spiritual side of mankind and
reality. Then the material creation, including human bodiliness, is given up. Normative creational
structures are emptied of their meaning for our lives. This opens the door to the introduction of
human constructions in the place of creational structures, e.g. in experimenting with all kinds of
sexual relationships and artificial procreative techniques. This reflects the position of “existence
precedes meaning” described above.
Restoration, fulfilment
This perspective deals with the ‘last things’, the destination of history. Theologically it refers
to the belief that God will guide history to its fulfilment in His Kingdom in which He will be
all in all. This will happen through the crisis of judgement that will reveal the deepest motives
of people. The notion of judgement often contains an element of threat, and it has that.
Judgement entails the possibility of condemnation. Salvation is also being saved from
condemnation by being related to Christ by faith. But at the same time judgement has a
positive element. In judgement goodness will be connected openly again with truth. The
proud, the wicked, the violent will not inherit the earth but the meek, the peacemakers, the
pure in heart. So, this perspective teaches me that sin and suffering, death and doom do not
have the last word. This perspective is a source of hope and motivation to take responsibility
and try to put up signs of Gods justice and mercy already in this world. At the same time it
puts our work in the right perspective. It teaches us that the final solution to the human
predicament will not come by our efforts. It resists all technological fanaticism and
utopianism. This is important since utopianism has the tendency to exclude certain groups of
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people from the moral community since they will not be willing or able to meet the criteria of
utopia.
We are called to care but not to be constantly concerned as if the salvation of the world
depends on us. We are also called to enjoy and celebrate the good things of life as an act of
gratitude towards our Creator and Saviour. Calvinists have not been strong at this point. I
once sat at a dinner with a few colleagues among whom a Roman Catholic priest and
professor of ethics. When we came to the desert he kindly offered me a particular delicious
and rich desert, which I gladly accepted. After finishing the meal he explained that he was
very contented that he had been able to have a Calvinist enjoy an unhealthy and in fact
superfluous desert. Clearly an example in which the image of Calvinists worked out positively
for the Calvinist concerned!
Overemphasising this perspective also leads to misunderstandings. Concentrating exclusively
on the promise of a bright future contains the danger of going ahead of Gods guidance in
history and trying to realise the Kingdom of God by human effort. More than once in history
this has led to severe problems more than once. It can easily lead to a form of utopianism and,
after its frustration, to resignation that is void of any hope. Accepting Gods pace in history is
often difficult, especially in arduous circumstances. That is why perseverance is such an
important Christian virtue.
Providence
A doctrine of the Christian religion (as well as of other religions) that in the way it has
functioned and still functions forms a typical feature of the spirituality of parts of the Calvinist
movement is the providence of God. With the use of he above-mentioned framework I close
this essay with a few remarks on this belief.
The belief in Gods providence is first of all related to the perspective of Creation. God is not
only the Creator Who is at the beginning of everything. He also sustains and guides all things
and events both great and small. Especially in the pietistic branch of Calvinism this belief has
received a strong emphasis. It forms a main reason why within this religious group people
have rejected – and a minority still rejects- preventive measures like insurances and
vaccination. Taking such measures while still healthy is felt to be an act of distrust towards
God in Whose hands we are and from Whom we may trust that He will provide all we need.
In this context it is impossible to elaborate this thought. Although I do not agree with the
before-mentioned consequences of this position, I want to remark that from an inner
perspective in the context of a broader view on mankind and on the history and character of
our culture, this position is less odd than it may seem to modern people. In any case, this
belief in Gods providence in general has not caused passivity among its adherents with
respect to the protection of life and to health care. It is clear that the belief in Gods guidance
and care provides strong comfort and strength to the believers who experience it.
The belief in Gods providence also holds that in spite of the corruption as a consequence of
human disbelief and sin, the ultimate normative structures of creation have not been fully
abolished, because God maintains his creation in a certain ‘fallen order’. God also restricts the
power of evil in the sense that superpowers that tend to destroy all humanity sooner or later
(often too late in our experience) crumble down and pass away.
Gods providence is not a kind of fate, but from the perspective of salvation and restoration it
is the power of God by which He leads the world and individual people to their fulfilment in
His Kingdom. Faith in Gods providence harbours the confidence that God, also where He
remains a mystery in His being and work, is a God of love. This does not solve all the
enigma’s and problems that the belief in Gods goodness and providence entail. We often
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remain stunned, we have no final answers. But this faith does imply that we have Someone to
go to with those problems; against all powers and all ‘bad luck’ there is the possibility of
appeal to One whose very essence is love. And we do realise that any other position on evil
and human suffering has its own enigma’s. The problem of evil and suffering is just too heavy
to bear by humans. Therefore, we want to leave it for Christ to bear, which He did!
Henk Jochemsen
Published as: H. Jochemsen. Calvinist spirituality and its meaning for ethics. In: H
Blommestein, Ch Caspers, R Hofman, F Mertens, P Nissen, H Welzen (eds). Seeing the
seeker. Explorations in the discipline of spirituality. Studies in spirituality Suppl. 19.
Leuven: Peeters 2008;463-474.
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