{"id":538,"date":"2010-03-09T10:02:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T17:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastormathis.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2015-09-09T10:03:30","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T16:03:30","slug":"the-five-points-of-political-calvinism-summarized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/2010\/03\/09\/the-five-points-of-political-calvinism-summarized\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Points of Political Calvinism Summarized"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A summary from a Dartmouth historian Herbert Foster about a century ago noted the following as hallmarks of Calvin\u2019s political legacy, and most are exhibited by the works of his closest disciples referenced above:<\/p>\n

(1) The absolute sovereignty of God entailed that universal human rights (or Beza\u2019s \u201cfundamental law\u201d) should be protected and must not be surrendered to the whim of tyranny.<\/p>\n

(2) These fundamental laws, which were always compatible with God\u2019s law, are the basis of whatever public liberties we enjoy.<\/p>\n

(3) Mutual covenants, as taught by Beza, Hotman, and the Vindiciae, between rulers and God and between rulers and subjects were binding and necessary.<\/p>\n

(4) As Ponet, Knox, and Goodman taught, the sovereignty of the people flows logically from the mutual obligations of the covenants above.<\/p>\n

(5) The representatives of the people, not the people themselves, are the first line of defense against tyranny.<\/p>\n

I have summarized the five points of political Calvinism slightly differently, referring to:<\/p>\n

Depravity as a perennial human variable to be accommodated;
\nAccountability for leaders provided via a collegium;
\nRepublicanism as the preferred form of government;
\nConstitutionalism needed to restrain both the rulers and the ruled; and
\nLimited government, beginning with the family, as foundational.<\/p>\n

The resulting mnemonic device, DARCL (though not as convenient as TULIP), seems a more apt summary if placed in the context of the political writings of Calvin\u2019s disciples.”<\/p>\n

David Hall<\/p>\n

(full article here<\/a>)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A summary from a Dartmouth historian Herbert Foster about a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-society","tag-resisting-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}