The Liturgy and Worship Philosophy of John Calvin
John Calvin is well-known throughout Protestantism as the most influential Reformer behind Martin Luther. His Christian doctrines, values, and worship practices have heavily influenced the modern Christian world, even to this day.
Jehan Cauvin was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyon, Picardy, France. He was raised in a Roman Catholic household, like the many Europeans before him. His father held close ties with the Catholic church, being a lay administrator for the bishop, and had greatly encouraged his son to be trained as a priest. After attending the College de Marche as a fourteen year-old for some time, he transferred to College Montaigu in the early 1520s. Throughout those years he began to be formed by various peers who were influenced by the Reformation. This quickly began to shift Calvin’s well-educated mind. Closely related, his father at this time convinced him to study law, rather than join the priesthood. From there he moved about to various places, continuing to study and later began to write on philosophy and theology, which led to his leaving of the Roman Catholic church by 1536. This is also the same year when he first published his most famous work entitled, Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Calvin’s ministry took place in two different cities. He was called to preach in Geneva, Switzerland, though it was brief. He was asked to leave after a couple of years due to theological differences within the church. From there he traveled to Strasbourg in eastern France, where he served for about three years. Finally, he felt a yearning to return to Geneva, where he ultimately stayed until his death on May 27, 1564. During this time he preached, taught, and wrote a number of instrumental works on the faith, including various editions of Institutes of the Christian Religion.
John Calvin cared deeply about the worship of God. He held strongly to the regulative principle of worship, meaning only what is explicitly authorized in Scripture should be employed in corporate worship. This worship philosophy often leads to a more simplistic form of worship with a heavy emphasis on the Word of God and the Table (Lord’s Supper). He taught that corporate worship should be performed in the vernacular and that the congregants should absolutely participate in the various parts of the worship service.
Two works which specifically speak on Calvin’s worship and liturgical philosophy are The Form of Prayers; According to the Custom of the Ancient Church (1541) and the Preface to the Genevan Psalter (1543). He was very adamant that Psalms should be the only thing sung in corporate worship, though the Apostle’s Creed and Nunc Dimittis were sung in his Upper Room service. This implementation did take time, since he helped create the Genevan Psalter which took a number of years to finish. Though he had his suspicions about music, partially due to Platonic influences, he believed that congregational singing helped nourish Christian piety among believers and singing distracted them from the negative influences of the world.
An Interesting View of Singing in Church
He worked with both Clement Marot and Theodore de Beze, two famous French poets of the day, on setting the psalms metrically to be sung in church. With the help of French composer Louis Bourgeois, all 150 psalms in the Genevan Psalter were finally completed in 1562.
As previously stated, Calvin was all about simplicity in worship. He did not want any aspect of worship to distract or take away from the sincerity and biblical nature of the service. Calvin began each service with a short Scripture (generally Psalm 124:8) and then immediately moved into a reverent prayer time of confession of sin. This set the tone for the entirety of the service for Calvin. He cared much more about the spiritual nature of the congregants and their attitudes towards God than the actual liturgy itself. Like the other European Reformers, Calvin rejected the sacramental nature of the Mass and its images and relics used in Catholic worship. Though there were some adjustments in his Strasbourg and Genevan liturgy, there was a great deal of continuity between the two.
Calvin desired to practice communion weekly, but that was rejected due to its similarity with the Catholic Mass. He settled to practice about four times a year (once every three months). He believed in a “real presence” view of the Lord’s Supper, meaning that Christ was spiritually present in the process of taking the elements, but the elements themselves remained ordinary. This view was very similar to Martin Bucer’s sacramental union view of the Table. He had two separate liturgies: one for the Word and one for the Upper Room. There was also a heavy emphasis on the congregational singing of Psalms and the Ten Commandments, as well as the Apostle’s Creed. Some Catholic elements were still used in Calvin’s liturgy, but the theological weight was placed much differently.
In summation, Calvin’s heart and passion was to strengthen the church body so that they would freely participate in the worship of God as a body of believers that seek to give all glory, honor, and praise, to Christ our Lord.
