WAS JOHN CALVIN A TCK?: APPLYING MODERN SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON HIGHLY MOBILE POPULATIONS TO HISTORICAL STUDIES

• Authors: Raymond A. Powell
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Surprisingly little is known about the developmental years of the Protestant Reformer John Calvin, yet scholars agree that experiences in Calvin’s youth were critical to shaping his theology. It is possible that insights from TCK studies can aid Calvin scholars? Calvin does fit the profile of a TCK. He spent his teenage years living away from his family home in a distinct cultural enclave. Furthermore, he not only thought of himself as one foreign or apart, he exhibited a number of TCK characteristics. Assuming Calvin was a TCK, it is possible to analyze his personality, his theology, and his scriptural interpretation through the lens of modern socio-scientific research on highly mobile populations. Such analysis illumines the insights of Calvin scholars who have already identified Calvin’s experience of cultural and geographic mobility as the root of his patterns of social behavior, theological concepts such as an emphasis on the sovereignty of God, and his empathy with scriptural narratives involving pilgrimage. More importantly, the usefulness of TCK research in studying John Calvin suggests that modern socio-scientific studies of highly mobile populations may be equally valuable to historians working on other groups or individual or in other fields.

Keywords

EN

JOHN CALVIN; TCK; CULTURAL MOBILITY; GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY; REFUGEE; IMMIGRANT

• Publisher: Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego oraz Polska Akademia Umiejętności
• Journal: Studia Migracyjne - Przegląd Polonijny
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 3(153)
• Pages: 139-150

Contributors

author

Raymond A. Powell

• LCC International University, Klaipeda