Geneva, once nicknamed “Protestant Rome,” is this month marking the 500th birth anniversary of John Calvin, an influential figure in the historic schism of Christianity who left his mark on the city.
However, local authorities have struggled to find the best way to celebrate the birth of the controversial French theologian and leader in the Protestant Reformation.
The emaciated, bearded spiritual leader made for an unlikely idol, preaching austerity and repressing the slightest hint of sin, from flesh to alcohol or even merriment in the then-sulfurous city-state in the 16th century.
Calvin played a key role in religious history as a leader of one of the currents of the Protestant movement that split from the Roman Catholics, forcing him to flee to Switzerland.
He is being celebrated because he turned a “provincial town into a European intellectual capital that became renowned through the centuries,” the organizers of Geneva’s “Year of Calvin” said.
“It’s very revealing that Genevans like to speak of the ‘city of Calvin,’” said Olivier Fatio, a professor at the Institute of the History of the Reformation.
Fatio said he believes a myth has been built up around Calvin, giving Geneva “a brand name, something like Coca Cola.”
Some English language dictionaries to this day define “Genevan” as a follower of Calvin.
Nonetheless, his local legacy is controversial, dividing inhabitants between a traditional elite who honor the emblematic figure who shaped the city, and those who deride the 16th century preacher as a “little ayatollah,” as one blogger did.
To this day, much of Geneva’s influential private banking community — often built around family dynasties — and decision makers have Calvinist roots, lending a slightly austere or restrained flavor to life in the lakeside city in western Switzerland.
But the local religious balance has shifted, partly because of the subsequent influx of refugees and immigrants that largely began with the fleeing Protestants in Calvin’s era.
Nowadays, the majority of Geneva’s population is Roman Catholic.
“Calvin is not a hero,” Fatio said, acknowledging the difficulty in celebrating an austere personality who ultimately fought to impose his vision of a theocratic city on its reluctant inhabitants, who then numbered 25,000.
“He neither reinvented democracy nor capitalism, even if it’s a fact that by justifying loans with interest payments, he broke with a medieval outlook on money,” Fatio said.
“He was interested in theology, preaching and saving souls, and that’s hard to understand nowadays,” Fatio said.
John Calvin gave his name to Calvinism, a belief that humans are fundamentally depraved, and taught Protestants who, like him, sought refuge in Geneva during a period of persecution in France and several other countries.
Calvin imposed religious decrees in the city-state for 23 years until his death in 1564, setting up a consistory, a tribunal of elders and pastors who acted as guardians of the faith and morals.
But he also separated the ecclesiastical from “civil” life and his decrees also touched on education, visits to prisoners and the infirm, while his humanist ethic remains, Geneva’s International Museum of the Reform said.
The highlight of this year’s festivities is an outdoor play until July 26 called “Geneva Ablaze,” a less ambitious project than the city landmark, the Wall of Reformers, that was built at the last centenary in 1909.
The organizers said the play’s title reflects the fervor that gripped this corner of Switzerland under the influence of the reformer, and does not refer to Calvin’s decision to burn an opponent at the stake for heresy.
They promise “an hour and three quarters of mad energy, life, emotion suspense and humor.”
However, Calvin’s memory conjured up contrasting feelings on an online blog opened by the local newspaper, the Tribune de Geneve.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS