The chapter linked below is a polemic - an aggressive attack on the influence of rigid orthodoxy in the City of Geneva (early to mid 1500's).
It is one chapter from Stefan Zweig's "The Right to Heresy: Castellio Against Calvin"
The Context:
- Geneva was a newly independent and politically fragile city-state, having just thrown off the rule of a Prince-Bishop and the Duchy of Savoy.
- Into this religious and administrative vacuum stepped John Calvin, who was invited to help build a new Protestant church from the ground up.
The Result:
- Under Calvin's leadership, Geneva was transformed into a tightly controlled society governed by a strict moral code.
It serves as a warning of what can happen in rigid church cultures.
It's also an object lesson on the dangers of Christian Nationalism.
The tragedy of Calvin's Geneva, as Zweig presents it, is that it likely began with sincere intentions. The goal was not tyranny but holiness; not misery but a community ordered rightly before God. But somewhere along the way, the means became the end.
Jesus also warned about this.
"You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life."
John 5:39-40
See: Calvin's Geneva
