Images of Intolerance: John Calvin in Nineteenth-Century History Textbooks
The name “John Calvin” and the movement associated with him, Calvinism, serve as rhetorical negatives in the popular language of American culture. In a society often regarded as the most ahistorical in the Western world—an important American proclaimed that “history is bunk”—the name of Calvin, the...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1996
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| In: |
Church history
Year: 1996, Volume: 65, Issue: 2, Pages: 234-248 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The name “John Calvin” and the movement associated with him, Calvinism, serve as rhetorical negatives in the popular language of American culture. In a society often regarded as the most ahistorical in the Western world—an important American proclaimed that “history is bunk”—the name of Calvin, the sixteenth-century Protestant reformer who worked mostly in Geneva, is common enough coinage to show up in a variety of contexts. One can read newspaper stories on baseball, and Calvin is there. Or one can look at a popular book on the drug Prozac and there read about “pharmacological Calvinism.” A moving analysis of the AIDS crisis in the New York Times mentions Calvin. All of the references carry negative connotations of fatalism, guilt, and so on. The word “Calvin” seems to be shorthand for a range of negative thoughts and feelings in the American cultural consciousness. |
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| ISSN: | 1755-2613 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Church history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3170290 |