Calvin, Theocracy, and Holy War

There is no question that John Calvin was the most influential of the Reformed theologians of the sixteenth century. At the same time, he is probably the most distorted in contemporary portraits of his political teaching. As the popular telling goes, Calvin ruled the Republic of Geneva as theocrat in addition to believing in that wars fought in the name of God should be prosecuted without restraint. In reality, neither of these commonly-held beliefs are true. In truth, Calvin rejected theocracy, granting Genevan church leaders a limited spiritual jurisdiction to focus upon the moral conduct and doctrinal beliefs of the church members in Geneva. He also deliberately positioned himself in the medieval just war tradition as developed by Augustine of Hippo, which precludes the concept of holy war.