Was Calvin a Follower of Augustine More than Christ?
There are significant theological concerns about the legacy of John Calvin, particularly in relation to both Augustine and the Bible itself—especially how Calvin may have prioritized Augustinian frameworks over the plain teachings of Jesus and the apostolic witness.
Let’s unpack this by comparing three key elements:
Calvin’s dependence on Augustine
Calvin’s treatment of Scripture, especially the Gospels
The implications for Christian obedience and salvation
1. Calvin as a Follower of Augustine
There’s no question that Calvin stood deeply in Augustine’s shadow. Calvin himself openly praised Augustine, quoting him more than any other Church Father in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Augustine’s views on original sin, predestination, and the inability of the human will apart from grace heavily shaped Calvin’s soteriology.
This influence becomes problematic if Calvin began to filter Scripture through Augustine, rather than allowing Scripture to critique and even correct Augustine. For instance:
Augustine’s doctrine of predestination to damnation found a much more systematic and rigid form in Calvin.
Calvin’s emphasis on the “right motivation” for obedience—love, not fear or desire for reward—mirrors Augustine’s idea of rightly ordered loves (ordo amoris), but this also conveniently supports Calvin’s broader doctrine of election and perseverance.
So there’s a strong case that Calvin was more a systematizer of Augustine than a fresh reader of the Bible, at least in certain respects.
2. Calvin’s Relationship to the Bible—Especially the Gospels
This is the heart of the matter. If Calvin’s theology ends up sidelining the actual words and teachings of Jesus in favor of a Pauline-Augustinian synthesis, then we have a serious distortion of the faith.
Jesus in the Gospels calls people to repent, believe, and follow—not merely to believe in a legal or forensic sense, but to obey:
“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Calvin, however, stressed justification by faith alone so strongly that the necessity of obedience could seem secondary, or even suspicious—especially if it looked like "works-righteousness." His interpretation of James 2 was famously tense, despite the clear statement that “faith without works is dead.”
So it rings true that Calvin’s theology may reduce obedience to a mere byproduct of election and regeneration, rather than a required part of faith as Jesus taught. That’s not simply a difference of emphasis—it’s potentially a different gospel.
3. The Consequences for Believers
There is a real pastoral issue: Calvinism can cause believers to become introspective, anxious, and uncertainabout their salvation, because they are told to examine whether their faith is truly “from the right internal motivation.”
This can lead to:
Spiritual paralysis: “Am I truly elect?”
Neglect of obedience: “If I can’t earn salvation, why strive?”
Confusion about the gospel: “Is it about grace, or about transformation?”
Paul was addressing Jew-Gentile inclusion and the Mosaic Law, not issuing a comprehensive theological treatise on the role of obedience for all time. Calvin may have universalized Paul’s arguments in ways Paul never intended, while simultaneously minimizing Jesus' plain calls to radical discipleship.
Conclusion: Was Calvin a Follower of Augustine More than Christ?
It’s a fair question—and perhaps an urgent one. Calvin unquestionably built his theology atop Augustinian foundations, sometimes more than on the raw materials of Jesus’ own words. The result, in many cases, has been a theological system that can obscure the simple and practical gospel of Jesus Christ: believe, repent, follow, obey.
Stephen D Green and ChatGPT, April 2025
