#calvinism

[prokopetz]

The real central tension of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is that Homura Akemi is a Catholic living in a world where Calvinism is demonstrably correct, but only for girls.

[beardedmrbean]

So this is Calvinism, I feel like I've been mislead over the decades.

[rolkientolkien]

-Thomas Watson

[quiche-quibbles]

Not to start anything but I have a question for fellow Christians:

What is your opinion on Reformed Theology?

I want your opinions, not a thesis defense please. I’m not asking to be persuaded, I just wanna hear what you all think :)

[thisbibliomaniac]

David writing Psalm 22: Would You still love me if I was a worm?

[guavagyal]

it is nice to see Americans support Luigi and bring up how evil our healthcare system is, I think it will fall on deaf ears with the next administration. Americans need to decide if our current healthcare needs to change or stay the same. so far, a lot of people in this country are squeamish about socialized healthcare.

I don't think Americans have it in them to unite & fight against the elite like it's Les Mis. we let the police & feds attack us while peacefully sitting down in a designated free speech zone. how does a revolution start with that and the fact that a lot of groups have no strong leaders or are unorganized?

a majority of people in this country simp for rich people like they're gods and don't realize that those rich people see them as human cattle. it's not to sound hopeless (but I am a little apathetic), I'm just realistic about how Americans are. face it, us Americans mobilize quicker for Stanley Cups & getting angry over pronouns than our rights. our individualism will lead to our downfall.

[kleptozoology]

The queer movement has been co-opted by neo-Calvinists and moral Puritans. Its very disappointing. Reblogging someone's nsfw selfies that THEY posted OF THEMSELVES is not supporting rape. I can't believe I have to say this; these young queer people are playing right into the far right's hand. Everything I post is either clearly labeled fantasy or someone feeling sexy and wanting to show off their own body. Who are they to deny people that bodily autonomy? Who are they to label the human body impure? What's wrong with these people. They make the whole queer liberation movement unsafe by gentrifying and sanitizing it. Kink is a vital part of queer history of resistance. Only moral-Puritans want to oppress people's right to do what they please with their own body. It's bodily autonomy, which is the very core of trans liberation. What backwards people.

[creature-wizard]

A lot of self-proclaimed atheist leftists really seem to believe in the doctrine of total depravity, only they've replaced "original sin" with "born a white American." And then they spend every day hating themselves and wanting to die about it.

[famousinuniverse]

St. Paul's Church, Strasbourg, France: The St. Paul's Church of Strasbourg is a major Gothic Revival architecture building and one of the landmarks of the city of Strasbourg, in Alsace, France. Wikipedia

[thisbibliophiile]

[apilgrimpassingby]

My Biggest Objection To Calvinism

I think that Calvinism is, if taken to its logical conclusion, a nihilist theology.

Calvinists affirm, as per Westminster Catechism 1, that the purpose of human existence is the glorification of God. Furthermore, the standard Calvinist theodicy states that evil is permitted in order to glorify God by Him punishing and destroying it - hence, damnation is glorifying to God, because He is punishing evil. Furthermore, it is as glorifying to God as salvation, because if it were not God would be limiting His glory (which makes no sense when God is absolutely sovereign and created the universe to glorify himself) or universalism is true (which any orthodox Calvinist would deny, and rightly so).

The conclusion, hence, is that the damnation of the reprobate and the salvation of the elect are equally glorifying to God, and hence, within the logic and value system of Calvinism, equally good - which, in my opinion, is a transparently nihilist stance. Why work for the salvation of others or devote oneself to the Christian life if damnation is equally good?

A Calvinist might object that systems that include free will also have this problem, since they too assert that God permits evil for His glory (so that people can be free and hence do meaningful good). However, such systems (at least Eastern Orthodoxy, the one I belong to), deny that damnation is glorifying to God, and state that the greater good comes from the fact that humans following God of their own volition and cooperating with Him is far more glorious than humans doing so because of compulsion.

A Calvinist might also object that I've cut the Westminster Catechism short; it says "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" the latter of which people in Hell are obviously not doing; hence, damnation is worse than salvation. But that makes the problem worse, because if you say that enjoying God forever is one of the chief ends of man and there are many people who will not be enjoying God forever, you've conceded that it's possible for God's purposes to be thwarted - and once you concede that, the entire edifice of Calvinism is fatally compromised.

Any Calvinists here, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Tagging @greater-than-the-sword, @rabbits-of-negative-euphoria and @theexodvs for that purpose.

[forwheniamweak]

“When we are out of the way of our duty we are in the way of temptation…Idleness gives great advantage to the tempter. Standing waters gather filth.”

— Matthew Henry; Commentary on 2 Samuel 11

[agdistis-sanctified]

Clumsy, half-formed post: Shout-out to my fellow ex-calvinists and ex-calvinist-adjacents who relate to Children of Satan era Armand on the level of "you can fully believe in and follow God, believe with every part of yourself that you love Him, agonize in your mind to always do so completely, and scrape everything away about yourself in the attempt to be good and obedient and without doubts, and then still find out upon death that you were never one of the Elect, that you were always marked for eternal suffering by a perfect and loving God with a divine plan that never included you, that He could turn you away in the end for what was never in your control and say He never knew you, and that it would be the very definition of good for Him to do so, and it is still necessary for you in life to love and thank and suffer anything for Him, even though something might fundamentally separate you from Him, and you are too Totally Depraved to influence or understand or predict your fate in any way."

The Children of Satan's conception of being a vampire is that you are fundamentally broken/wrong, and that you are still meant to suffer for and serve God, and you might be saved in the end, maybe (you can't know, and God might have some secret), and you're certainly going to pray for that, but the plan is almost certainly Hell for you, which you deserve.

It just hits some nerves for me because that is what it feels like to be deep in that particular corner of calvinism while queer and human and questioning in moments despite your best attempts to thought-police yourself, feeling like your faith/love must not be real enough, so you can't possibly be one of the Elect. The begging, the suffocation, the self-abasement, the constant terror, the distant possibility of hope and acceptance that keeps you agonizing over it and denying yourself so many comforts/freedoms you also feel like you need like you need air, while becoming more and more numb.

and bitch guess what my first crush was based on my fascination with/need for the other person's heresy TOO

[rolkientolkien]

As Christians, we shouldn't be surprised when the world mocks Jesus or us. The world hated Jesus because He convicted people of their sin, the world will hate us for the same reason. One of the oldest depictions of Jesus is a piece of Roman graffiti. It shows Jesus, crucified with a donkey head and captioned, "Alexamenos worships his god." To quote Martin Luther, "They gave our Master a crown of thorns, why do we hope for a crown of roses?"

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

You know? Despite my misgivings about Calvinist theology, Calvinist poetry tends to be absolutely amazing. Anne Vaughan Locke, John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan. The earnestness of their poetry is unmatched. Richard Crashaw, one of my favorite poets, comes close to Donne in his use of baroque imagery, but nowhere does he even begin to touch the deep agony of Calvinist poetics. Some Reformed Christians have, incorrectly, argued that Calvinism makes one humbler. This is absurdly false: Christians in general are, ironically imo, quite bad at humility with a few exceptions and Calvinists tend to be among the worst. And unlike George Herbert, to call a man like John Donne “humble”, either in style or in character, is to require so many modifications that the word basically loses all meaning. However, even amidst his highly metaphysical wit there is a certain lowliness that epitomizes Calvinist aesthetics, whether or not that aesthetic is actually translated into lived action. A key motif of the Early Jesus Movement was the reference of the believer as a “slave of the Lord”, beginning with Mary of Nazareth and continuing with Jacob, Paul, and Peter’s epistles. And that motif is strong in Calvinist poetry: there is fervent understanding that we are horribly cycled in sin and that we stand completely at the mercy of God, entirely dependent on him for rest and peace and comfort. And aesthetically it is always sublime, without fail. If High Church architecture draws me towards Catholicism and Orthodoxy, then it could be said that poetry at least makes me have a deeper appreciation for Calvinism.