Overview

"The relationship between Calvinist political theory and John Locke's Two Treatises on Civil Government has been debated for some time, and the consensus is that Locke's theory constitutes the fur­ther development of Calvinist theory. But upon closer analysis, that conclusion proves entirely flawed. Calvinism proves to be worlds apart from the political phi­lo­­sophy of John Locke. It proves to be the mature fruit of the medieval ""two swords"" form of government, in which church and state share public power, rather than an early stage on the road to the dissociation of church and state, a road which Locke put us firmly upon with his own formu­lation of political power. Indeed, upon closer inspection Calvinism proves to be the product of a thousand-year tradition of Western political thought commenc­ing with Augustine and moving through the Carolingian Renais­sance and the Papal Rev­olution. That history is redis­covered and outlined in this book, as the preliminary means for recovering the true meaning of political Calvinism and its utter discontinuity with the modernism that commenced with Locke's paradigm. It also helps disabuse us of the notion that history is linear, and that progress is straightforward. Rather, it helps us to under­stand the deformational period of history in which we live, and the need for a return to a confess­ional under­stand­ing of law, the state, and constitutionalism."

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9789076660486

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This is an immensely worthy volume. Alvarado has deftly demonstrated the discontinuity between Calvinist political theology and Lockeanism. He has cleared the way for a fertile interaction with the sources of medieval and early modern political theology. Calvin and the Whigs will repay multiple readings and further interactions as one becomes more familiar with the times, places, and thinkers that Alvarado so ably syntheses here for the reader. - Jonathan Tomes, Baylor University, writing in Ad Fontes: A Journal of Protestant Resourcement Sophisticated and forcibly argued, this book is an important contribution to the debate on the place of Calvinism in the history of political thought and the rise of modernity. Questioning the popular narratives, Alvarado shows that the Calvinists, far from being proto-Lockeans, were steeped in history--looking to the past for political wisdom--and committed to restoring and conserving the ancient constitution the complex systems of laws, rights, and jurisdictions that served the people of feudal Europe well for centuries. Calvinist political thought was not a precursor to abstract rights, Lockean political philosophy, and modernity. Alvarado has provided a much-need corrective to scholarship. - Stephen Wolfe, Louisiana State University This book ... calls for some slow reading and serious attention.... The great concern in this book is the way that Christian political theology (as exemplified by Calvin, Augustine, Althusius, and others) has been submerged from political discussions. In its place, the teachings of John Locke have been posited as the founding ideas that impacted political theology in Britain and America. - Ben House, Veritas Academy, author of The Heavy Laden Bookshelf blog Book of the month: May 2017. Calvin and the Whigs is a stunning piece of historical political theology, for lovers of the Reformation and of the history of Europe and its political development. - Steve Hayhow, Teaching Elder, Emmanuel Church, Southgate, London, UK Mr. Alvarado has written an intriguing critique of the Lockean view of government and has instead proposed that government should not be based on a social contract but on the biblical principles of Calvinist polity. - Charlie J. Ray, author of the Reasonable Christian blog. Ruben Alvarado's Calvin and the Whigs obliges us to reconsider lines drawn from Calvin to Locke and to the American Revolution. The recovery of Grotius in his argument is especially welcome. - Glenn Moots, author of Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology

This is an immensely worthy volume. Alvarado has deftly demonstrated the discontinuity between Calvinist political theology and Lockeanism. He has cleared the way for a fertile interaction with the sources of medieval and early modern political theology. Calvin and the Whigs will repay multiple readings and further interactions as one becomes more familiar with the times, places, and thinkers that Alvarado so ably syntheses here for the reader. - Jonathan Tomes, Baylor University, writing in Ad Fontes: A Journal of Protestant Resourcement Sophisticated and forcibly argued, this book is an important contribution to the debate on the place of Calvinism in the history of political thought and the rise of modernity. Questioning the popular narratives, Alvarado shows that the Calvinists, far from being proto-Lockeans, were steeped in history--looking to the past for political wisdom--and committed to restoring and conserving the ancient constitution the complex systems of laws, rights, and jurisdictions that served the people of feudal Europe well for centuries. Calvinist political thought was not a precursor to abstract rights, Lockean political philosophy, and modernity. Alvarado has provided a much-need corrective to scholarship. - Stephen Wolfe, Louisiana State University This book ... calls for some slow reading and serious attention.... The great concern in this book is the way that Christian political theology (as exemplified by Calvin, Augustine, Althusius, and others) has been submerged from political discussions. In its place, the teachings of John Locke have been posited as the founding ideas that impacted political theology in Britain and America. - Ben House, Veritas Academy, author of The Heavy Laden Bookshelf blog Book of the month: May 2017. Calvin and the Whigs is a stunning piece of historical political theology, for lovers of the Reformation and of the history of Europe and its political development. - Steve Hayhow, Teaching Elder, Emmanuel Church, Southgate, London, UK Mr. Alvarado has written an intriguing critique of the Lockean view of government and has instead proposed that government should not be based on a social contract but on the biblical principles of Calvinist polity. - Charlie J. Ray, author of the Reasonable Christian blog. Ruben Alvarado's Calvin and the Whigs obliges us to reconsider lines drawn from Calvin to Locke and to the American Revolution. The recovery of Grotius in his argument is especially welcome. - Glenn Moots, author of Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology

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