Calvinism

in the fourth place, as a scientific name, either in a historical, philosophical or political sense. Historically, the name of Calvinism indicates the channel in which the Reformation moved,so far as it was neither Lutheran, nor Anabaptist nor Socinian. In the philosophical sense, we understand by it that system of conceptions which, under the influence of the master-mind of Calvin,raised itself to dominance in the several spheres of life. And as apolitical name, Calvinism indicates that political movement which has guaranteed the liberty of nations in constitutional statesman-ship ; first in Holland, then in England, and since the close of the last century in the United States. In this scientific sense, the name of Calvinism is especially current among German scholars. And the fact that this not only is the opinion of those who are them-selves of Calvinistic sympathies, but that also scholars who have abandoned every confessional standard of Christianity, nevertheless assign this profound significance to Calvinism. This appears from the testimony borne by three of our best men of science, the first of whom, Dr. Robert Fruin, declares that : "Calvinism came into the Netherlands consisting of a logical system of divinity, of a democratic Church-order of its own, impelled by a severely moral sense, and as enthusiastic for the moral as for the religious reformation of mankind." 1 ) Another historian, who was even more outspoken in his rationalistic sympathies, writes : "Calvinism is the highest form of development reached by the religious and political principle in the 16th century."— Abraham Kuype, 1898
One of the stranger features of religion in the United States is the 
level of comfort that Americans seem to have with Calvinism even though 
it is a version of Christianity that many, along with H. L. Mencken, 
place in their “cabinet of horrors” – the Baltimore journalist put it on
 the shelf right next to cannibalism.
— Joe Carter 31o13
== Authors ==
Nick Land on Calvinism: «Double Predestination» 31o13
== Branching ==
* See more generally: Protestantism.
* See conversely: Catholicism.