From Alister McGrath’s, A Life of John Calvin, pgs. 202-208:
In the sixth decade of the sixteenth century, a new expression entered the polemical literature of the churches of the Reformation. The term “Calvinism” appears to have been introduced by the German Lutheran polemicist Joachim Westphal to refer to the theological, and particularly the sacramental, views of the Swiss reformers in genearl ,and John Calvin in particular…The term “Calvinism” was thus introduced to refer to the religious outlook of Calvin’s followers by their opponents…
The precise relationship between Calvin and Reformed thought and polity, particularly in th eperiod after his deat, is considerably more complex tan might be expected, and the use of the term “Calvinism” to refer to that theology is fraught with potential danger. History, however, cannot be conducted in a psychological vacuum, in which words and their associated memoreis are set to one side. “Calvinism” remains firmly embedded within the historian’s vocabulary…
Similarly, to account for the origins and development of Calvinism, including ts successes and failures, it is necessary to ask in what manner and to what extent Cavlin’s ideas were appropriated by his followers. Hhow were these ideas found to be applicable to social, political and economic situations which bore little relation to those of the sixteenth-century Geneva, within which they were originaly formulated?…
The term “Calvinism” is thus potentially misleading, in that it suggests a movement primarily concerned with the appropriation of the intellecutal heritage of Calvin. Yet it may be shown that theologians historically regarded as “Calvinist” in their outlook regarded themselves at liberty to draw upon theological and methodolgical resources other than the writings of Calvin himself. Calvin may have been the most significant luminary in the Calvinist firmament; there were, nevertheless, others, whose ideas and methods modified him at points. It is for this reason that the term “Reformed” is perhaps to be preferred to “Calvinist,” in that it implies no exclusive dependence upon Calvin himself…
“Calvinism” thus came to mean something different in each of its local manifestations, reflecting local factors which combined to give it a different shape, a different persona, in its various locations…
So, if you hail from the Reformed/Calvinist Tradition, what do you consider yourself, Reformed or Calvinist?
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