The Reformation of Rights
Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism

Calvin's teachings spread rapidly throughout Western Europe shaping the law of early modern Protestant lands.

John Witte, Jr (Author)

9780521521611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 January 2008

406 pages, 7 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15 x 2.3 cm, 0.64 kg

'… essential reading for scholars and students of history, law, religion and politics, ethics and human rights, and the Reformation.' Journal of Reformed Theology

John Calvin developed arresting new teachings on rights and liberties, church and state, and religion and politics that shaped the law of Protestant lands. Calvin's original teachings were periodically challenged by major crises - the French Wars of Religion, Dutch Revolt, the English Civil War, American colonization, and American Revolution. In each such crisis moment, a major Calvinist figure emerged - Theodore Beza, Johannes Althusius, John Milton, John Winthrop, John Adams, and others - who modernized Calvin's teachings and translated them into dramatic new legal and political reforms. This rendered early modern Calvinism one of the driving engines of Western constitutionalism. A number of basic Western laws on religious and political rights, social and confessional pluralism, federalism and constitutionalism, and more owe a great deal to this religious movement. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of history, law, religion, politics, ethics, human rights, and the Protestant Reformation.

Introduction
1. Moderate (religious) liberty in the theology of John Calvin: the original Genevan experiment
2. The duties of conscience and the free exercise of Christian liberty: Theodore Beza and the rise of Calvinist rights and resistance theory
3. Natural rights, popular sovereignty, and covenant politics: Johannes Althusius and the Dutch Revolt and republic
4. Prophets, priests, and kings of liberty: John Milton and the rights and liberties of all Englishmen
5. How to govern a city on a hill: covenant liberty in Puritan New England
6. Concluding reflections: the biology and biography of liberty.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Political science & theory [JPA], Christian theology [HRCM], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]