What’s in a name?

 

Lake Geneva from atop Calvin's Cathedral

You might be wondering why the name of this blog is Geneva Redux.  Let me explain.  It is named after Geneva because this is the city where John Calvin pastored St. Peter’s Cathedral in the 16th Century.  It was the centerpiece of the reformed world.  Not only did it contain Calvin’s Cathedral, as it has come to be known, it was also the home of the academy led by Theodore Beza, Calvin’s close colleague.  This institution was founded in 1559 and later became the University of Geneva.  Calvin founded the school to train pastors to preach the gospel and spread reformation theology to the ends of the earth.  John Knox, the Scottish preacher who fled to Geneva to escape persecution, called the academy, “The most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles.”  

 

St. Peter's

Redux as defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary means, “brought back; revived.”  That is the intention of this blog: to revive Genevan theology.  The goal is not to reproduce Geneva in every aspect.  I do not believe in theocracies nor do I speak French.  While the Geneva of the 16th Century is very misunderstood and caricatured by many anti-calvinists, it was admittedly not a perfect place.  Rather, the goal here is to revive the theology of Geneva as expressed in the reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries (most notably the Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of the Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Standards).  

While I do not want to see any anti-trinitarians burned at the stake, I do want to promote and defend the teachings of Scripture in the manner and spirit of those who lived in this capital of the reformed world.