31 Luther Rice Journal of Christian Studies
John Calvin the Refugee Theologian: Reflections on Shepherding with a Graceful Hospitality by Justin McLendon Calvin and Pastoral Awareness On March 2, 1556, John Calvin wrote a lengthy letter to Lutheran church leaders in Frankfurt, Germany. Calvin did not know the recipients of this letter, but his concern for the Church and the lingering complications between Lutheran and Reformed Protestants compelled him to intervene. Calvin offered to travel to Germany and defend his views of Communion (over and against the Lutheran view), and his letter explained his concern over a group of recently arrived refugees. For a variety of reasons, Calvin feared the German Lutherans would not welcome these refugees because their practice was to accept only those refugees that were “theologically acceptable.” This glimpse into the practical intervention of Calvin’s ministry is not surprising, for the Reformers maintained an active ministry of pastoral care and advocacy. Calvin’s intercession in this instance sheds light on the sort of work Reformation pastors engaged in beyond their weekly pulpit responsibilities.
Assistant professor of theology at Grand Canyon University and Grand Canyon Theological Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona Elsie McKee, “A Week in the Life of John Calvin,” in Calvin: The Man and the Legacy, eds. Murray Rae, Peter Matheson, and Brett Knowles (Hindmarsh, AU: ATF Press, 2014), 66-67. Ibid., 66.
For a robust treatment of the Reformation’s renewal of pastoral theology, see Scott Manetsch, Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 145-181.
