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This year, the Reformed churches throughout the world -- that is, those churches that trace their lineage back to John Calvin -- are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth. 

In the United States, this includes such Reformed bodies as the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and the Reformed Church of America. (The last two are branches of what was formerly called the Dutch Reformed church.) 

In this age of improved ecumenical and interfaith relations, the anniversary of a reformer's birth is cause for celebration and reassessment by other Christians as well.

Indeed, both individual Catholics and the Catholic Church as an institution will be involved in various ways in the events of the coming year. In April, I will attend a conference for the centennial sponsored by the Calvin Studies Society. The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity will also participate in the worldwide celebration.

This is a good time for Catholics to become more familiar with Calvin and his significance in the history of Christianity. 

Most Catholics, if they know anything about Calvin, know that he taught predestination, which they take to be the central theme of his theology. Calvin did teach a doctrine of double predestination: that God has predestined some to salvation and others to damnation. 

But this was not his central theme. Calvin scholars argue over whether there is a central theme in his works, but even those who say "yes" would not identify it as predestination. 

Given their stereotype of Calvin as fixated on predestination, many Catholics would be surprised to learn that topics like gratitude, union with Christ, and God as the fountain of goodness are far more prominent in his thought. These ideas and others are found in his most famous work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, a systematic exposition of Protestant theology that has sometimes been called the "Protestant Summa." (The reference is to Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae.)

Calvin was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France. When he was in his early twenties, Calvin embraced the Reformation and had to flee Paris. 

Though his goal was to live a quiet scholarly life in Strasbourg, Calvin was detoured to Geneva, where he was pressed into service to help with the reform. But just two years later, Calvin's uncompromising views led to his eviction from the city.

After spending a few years as a pastor and teacher in Strasbourg, Calvin was invited back to Geneva, with the understanding that this time his word would prevail. Geneva became the "city of Calvin," administered according to his rigorous understanding of the Gospel. 

From these humble beginnings emerged the Reformed churches that we know today.

Formal Reformed-Roman Catholic dialogues have been taking place since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The current American panel, consisting of several Catholics (including me) and delegates from the Reformed churches, recently submitted a joint statement on the sacrament of Baptism. That statement is still being reviewed by the churches. Meanwhile, we have begun discussing the Eucharist.

The discussion of baptism proved to be more difficult than any of us had imagined. But the one on Eucharist will be even harder, since our differences are more profound here. These concern issues such as the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist and the relationship of the Eucharist to the church and to priestly ordination. 

The good news is that the participants approach the dialogue with good will and a genuine desire to understand and appreciate each other's beliefs and practices. Even if our work together doesn't lead to a reunification of our churches, at the least it opens the door to deeper friendship and -- dare we hope? -- common experiences of prayer and Christian witness.

(Rev. Dennis Tamburello, OFM, is a professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville. This column, written by people of various faiths, appears periodically courtesy of the diocesan Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.)[[In-content Ad]]

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