What is this?
March 21, 2011, 9:21 pm
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
I seem to be weighed down by questions recently. Must be Lent. Today another puzzlement: Does anyone know what secular Calvinism is? What does the phrase mean? From whence does it come?
Hmm. Sounds like Puritanism without God. Emphasis on moral autonomy/freedom, hard work and money as criteria of success, pragmatism, logic/technology, capitalism, an elect/elite?
http://losthunderlads.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/secular-calvinism/
Maybe — ???
an interesting article comparing secular lutheranism and secular calvinism
http://www.elegant-technology.com/EToneN.html
hope it sheds some further light…
I suspect it’s a reference to Max Weber’s thesis about the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism–i.e., to the way in which capitalism is imbued with Calvinist presuppositions, in Weber’s understanding.
I think it’s like the “derivative Calvinism” that I think dominates US culture. I think there are two aspects.
First, economic individualism. Under derivative Calvinism, the poor are thought to suffer as a manifestation of God’s justice. If they were less sinful or worked harder or took better care of themselves, they wouldn’t be in their present condition. They are not entitled in justice to a share of what others have earned. The modern American right, which is actually a throw-back to old-style laissez-faire liberalism, embraces this individualism in a secular sense. The tea-party embraces it on steroids.
Second, a dualist mentality. Derivate Calvinism divides the world into good/bad, allies/ evildoers, freedom-lovers/ terrorists (variants of elect/ damned). Thus the latter can be legitimately destroyed, whether we are talking about native Americans in the 19th century of people in the Middle East today. American “torture” is not really “torture” if it is done by the good guys. The death penalty is deemed just. And America is the country with a mandate to shape the world in its own image.
Calvinism everywhere!
Morning’s Minion , http://www.voxnova.com
MM ==
Very interesting. Some still think the U.S. is that city on the hill. You’ve hit the Tea Partiers on the nose, so so speak :-)
The phrase “secular Calvinism” was dropped into a conversation yesterday. The speaker was focused on law and morality. We (the U.S.) were said to be living under the sway of secular Calvinism. Insofar as I understood the point, it was that law rules morality in this country. What is legal is moral and what is not legal is immoral. Not having a chance to question the point, which I’m rather sure I didn’t quite grasp, I posted my question. Further elucidation welcome.
“The tea-party embraces it on steroids.”
With all the usual disclaimers–I am not now, nor ever have been a member of the Tea Party, and I disagree with many of its ideals, particularly the John Galt faction–let me again caution more temperance re the tea party.
This is a movement, not a monolithic political party. As such, you will find many community-minded folks who are very willing to help their neighbors–and who do–they’re against the government doing it.
Some elected members of the GOP who have been styled “tea partiers” certainly seem to exhibit secular Calvinism as it has been defined here.
I think I need to second Jean. I am not an admirer of the Tea Party or its agenda; I believe they have a larger than normal share of racists among their membership-which they have not done a good job disowning- but I do also believe they are a people’s movement with the diversity that goes along with that. Like me, they believe that our government does not serve the people (where I would prefer that government be fixed, they seem to prefer it get out of the picture). I think the Democratic Party could have captured a lot of the Tea Party members in the early days of the movement; this is just another area where the Democratic Party just dropped the ball completely.