加爾文主義：正在改變世界的十大觀念之一 (ZT by 誠之）

加爾文主義：正在改變世界的十大觀念之一

近幾年來，美國的加爾文主義有復興的趨勢，《今日基督教》雜誌在2006年9月號曾加以報道。請看我當時寫的一個介紹。
根據時代雜誌最新的報道，加爾文主義是「正在改變世界的十大觀念」（10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now）之一，且排名第三位。
<IMG    alt="" src="http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2009/0903/ineocalvinism_0323.jpg"  border=0>
這是清單。
1.    Jobs Are the New Assets
2.    Recycling the Suburbs
3.    The New Calvinism
4.    Reinstating the Interstate
5.    Amortality
6.    Africa, Business Destination
7.    The Rent-a-Country
8.    Biobanks
9.    Survival Stores
10.    Ecological Intelligence

請看時代雜誌的報道：
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884760,00.html

If you really want to follow the development of conservativeChristianity, track its musical hits. In the early 1900s you might haveheard "The Old Rugged Cross," a celebration of the atonement. By the1980s you could have shared the Jesus-is-my-buddy intimacy of "Shine,Jesus, Shine." And today, more and more top songs feature a God who isvery big, while we are...well, hark the David Crowder Band: "I am fullof earth/ You are heaven's worth/ I am stained with dirt/ Prone todepravity."

Calvinism is back, and not just musically. John Calvin's 16thcentury reply to medieval Catholicism's buy-your-way-out-of-purgatoryexcesses is Evangelicalism's latest success story, complete with anutterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity,and the combination's logical consequence, predestination: the beliefthat before time's dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not),unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.

Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism,is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steadydeity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (orhome foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have tosecond-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simplyby "glorifying" him. In the 1700s, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwardsinvested Calvinism with a rapturous near mysticism. Yet it was soonovertaken in the U.S. by movements like Methodism that were moreimpressed with human will. Calvinist-descended liberal bodies like thePresbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discovered other emphases, whileEvangelicalism's loss of appetite for rigid doctrine — and the triumphof that friendly, fuzzy Jesus — seemed to relegate hard-core Reformedpreaching (Reformed operates as a loose synonym for Calvinist) to a fewcrotchety Southern churches.

No more. Neo-Calvinist ministers and authors don't operate quiteon a Rick Warren scale. But, notes Ted Olsen, a managing editor atChristianity Today, "everyone knows where the energy and the passionare in the Evangelical world" — with the pioneering new-Calvinist JohnPiper of Minneapolis, Seattle's pugnacious Mark Driscoll and AlbertMohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern BaptistConvention. The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible sold out its firstprinting, and Reformed blogs like Between Two Worlds are amongcyber-Christendom's hottest links.

Like the Calvinists, more moderate Evangelicals are exploringcures for the movement's doctrinal drift, but can't offer the sameblanket assurance. "A lot of young people grew up in a culture ofbrokenness, divorce, drugs or sexual temptation," says Collin Hansen,author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with theNew Calvinists. "They have plenty of friends: what they need is a God."Mohler says, "The moment someone begins to define God's [being oractions] biblically, that person is drawn to conclusions that aretraditionally classified as Calvinist." Of course, that presumption ofinevitability has drawn accusations of arrogance and divisiveness sinceCalvin's time. Indeed, some of today's enthusiasts imply thatnon-Calvinists may actually not be Christians. Skirmishes among theSouthern Baptists (who have a competing non-Calvinist camp) and online"flame wars" bode badly.

Calvin's 500th birthday will be this July. It will be interestingto see whether Calvin's latest legacy will be classic Protestantbackbiting or whether, during these hard times, more Christianssearching for security will submit their wills to the austerelydemanding God of their country's infancy.