A long list of labels is used to describe various views on this topic: Calvinism, Arminianism, Pelagianism, synergism, and monergism. With each of those categories, subgroups exists: hyper-calvinism and semi-pelagianism, for example. The wisest course to investigating the matter is to strive for clear definitions for these bits of jargon.
John Calvin was born in France, but spent much of his career in Switzerland. Directly and indirectly, he influenced the formation of many churches and many theologies, from the Presbyterians in Scotland to the Dutch Reformed Church. Author Michael Horton writes:
The label "Calvinism" came into use around 1588 in Lutheran polemics against the Reformed view of the Lord's Supper articulated especially (but far from exclusively) by John Calvin (1509 - 1564). Although Luther's name became incorporated in Lutheran churches, "Calvinist" churches have been identified historically as "Reformed." Calvin has never occupied the unique and decisive role in the development of the Reformed tradition that Luther has had in Lutheranism. In spite of his obvious importance, none of Calvin's writings is subscribed in Presbyterian and Reformed churches, whereas the Lutheran Book of Concord includes several of Luther's writings and John Wesley's sermons are included in the Methodist statement of faith.
Historians note that there is some laxness in the relation between Luther and Lutheranism; not all that came from Luther's pen is Lutheran orthodoxy, and orthodox Lutheranism includes some propositions which neither came from Luther's pen nor would elicit his agreement. But in any case, the relationship between Calvin and Calvinism is decidedly looser.
Although there exist varieties of Lutheranism, and academic representatives of each heatedly debate about which of them has the right to wear the name of the authentic 'Lutheran' church, the ambiguities arising from any use of the words 'Calvinism' or 'Reformed Theology' are greater by an order of magnitude. Author Roger Olson, in his critique against Calvinism and Reformed theology, writes:
Before plunging into my critique of Calvinism, it is incumbent on me to explain as carefully and precisely as possible what Calvinism I am criticizing and what Reformed theology I am against. But the categories themselves are used in such different ways by different theologians and historians that it is difficult to treat them as boxes - closed categories in which every belief either wholly fits or does not. There is much fluidity and ambiguity in these terms and the phenomena which they describe.
Many of the binary theological propositions which can be used to clarify an ecclesiastical theology - infant baptism, the real presence of the body and blood in the sacramental bread and wine, the foundational nature of Scripture, spiritual regeneration, the nature of grace - do not help us to mark out the boundaries of Calvinism. Reformed theology is characterized by Olson as a
type of Protestant theology tied to a historical branch of the Protestant Reformation stemming from the reforming efforts of primarily the Swiss theologians Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin (and their associates) but also of Strassburg theologian Martin Bucer. Strains of it may be found in denominations as diverse as Congregationalism and Anglicanism.
Defining Calvinism historically allows us to identify it genealogically, which explains its presence and influence, while allowing for some intellectual inconsistency among its various particular instances. There may be, and are, contradictions between its various manifestations despite the fact that they trace their roots to the same source. While such a characterization of Calvinism is helpful from a historical perspective, it does little to aid an investigation of Calvinism as a systematic theology. Olson notes that
common to all Reformed theologies is an emphasis on God's supremacy and sovereignty, although this is interpreted in different ways.
A frequent feature of analyses of Calvinism is a comment about the relative emphasis placed upon God as sovereign versus God as loving - lord versus savior. Like most theological slogans, it is deceptively simple, and unfolding its implications requires many gallons of ink.
Calvinism as a whole does not define itself by a unified set of documents, in contrast to the many manifestations of Lutheranism which nonetheless adhere to a common set of confessional texts. Individual Reformed churches do, in fact, have their peculiar confessions; a larger set of these makes a loose core of Calvinist texts, and would include documents like the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith.
