Calvinistic: from honorary nickname to term of abuse

At the start of the Year of Calvin, who was born 500 years ago, Lodewijk Dros investigates the fluctuating meaning of the term ‘Calvinistic’ in the Netherlands. ,,Regardless of how conflicting the meanings may be, they have one thing in common: They invariably entail a negative judgement."

Halfway through the radio report the commentator asks why the police in the border region can’t seem to stop to a particular type of crime. The answer is that the Belgian and German colleagues have their approach, and we, the Dutch, have our own. We are Calvinistic.

The commentator accepts this as sufficient explanation; he does not ask for clarification. But the listener is left with a question: what exactly are we?

In one of his ‘Kroeglopen’ [Pub crawling] volumes, writer Simon Carmiggelt (1913-1987) recounts a typical Dutch order in a snack bar. The greasy snacks are served up: ‘Twee ros, twee friek en een overreje’ [two roast, two fric and one road kill]. ,,Then I thought,” Carmiggelt writes, ,,that decoding this short sentence would have posed quite a problem for a brilliant Frenchman who has studied Dutch language and literature at the Sorbonne.” (By the way ‘overreje’ is a roll with ‘filet americain’, or raw minced meat.)

The same would be true had the Frenchman heard the radio report. For what does Calvinistic mean? The dictionary says that it is a ‘type of Protestantism’. But surely those Dutch coppers are not all members of the Dutch Reformed Church? The ’Van Dale book of synonyms’ adds one more possibility: Calvinistic can also mean ‘strict’. That still doesn’t tell the Frenchman anything – he has never encountered Calvinistic winters; strict policemen, yes, but in that respect Dutch coppers are no different from their German counterparts.

A century ago the term Calvinist was as innocent as it was clear in the Netherlands. ,,In the vernacular Calvinist and Reformed are synonymous.” This quotation is taken from ‘Het ontstaan, de beginselen en de geschiedenis van onze politieke partijen’ [‘The origin, principles and history of our political parties’] from 1904. ’Calvinist’ referred to that part of the nation that was inspired – theologically, politically, socially - by the reformist Calvin. Or the word referred directly to the source: Jean Cauvin, born 500 years ago.

As simple as that.

But if you want to understand to modern usage of the term ‘Calvinistic’, you are left pretty much empty-handed. The explanation does help a little when reading twentieth century Dutch literature. In ‘De ortolaan’ [The Ortolan] author Maarten ‘t Hart dismisses a philosopher ,,who, like Calvin, was suspicious of all pleasure, wanted to stamp out all joie de vivre” (which Calvin never did, by the way). In his book ‘A flight of curlews’ (Een vlucht regenwulpen) he adds a cruel God and an unfathomable sense of sin, and their messengers: the elders. ,,In their red faces I see many glasses of jenever in the shape of fine veins. Calvinism was invented for these people, the thin-lipped men with their piggy eyes and blotchy red cheeks.”

This is an image derived from what author Jan Siebelink calls ‘ the blackest Calvinism’: the strictest variant of what in the Netherlands is now the right wing of the rank and file of the Political Reformed Party (SGP). Here Calvinistic also means: no real separation between church and state, theocracy – although the less orthodox section of the SGP does not want that anymore. The merciless doctrine of hell and heaven of Maarten ‘t Hart’s elders had little to do with Calvin, unlike their strict discipline in matters of faith and their theocratic ideal.

To the nineteenth century Reformed community who chose the famous theologian, minister and politician Abraham Kuyper to lead them, Calvinism became an honorary nickname, and a successful one: it resulted in a political party (Anti Revolutionary Party, ARP), a university (VU), a newspaper (Standaard) and a church (Reformed Churches in the Netherlands). Prime minister Balkenende is one of its descendants, proud of his roots. Maarten ‘t Harts detests those roots, as do many writers from similar nests. To them ‘Calvinist’ is a term of abuse.

The meaning of the term started shifting; not in one, but in multiple directions.

You can tell these shifts by the way in which they were dealt with by three important post-war social-democrats, i.e. the three Ws: Willem Drees, Wim Kok en Wouter Bos.

„I have been told that my moral convictions still bear a Calvinist stamp,” Willem Drees (1886-1988) writes in ’Neerslag van een werkzaam leven’ [Consequence of an industrious life]. „While the word Calvinistic is too strong an expression for the moderately orthodox atmosphere I grew up in, it is likely that this atmosphere has had a lasting effect on me. And I dare say not in a negative sense.”

Drees, a former prime minister and on of the most important political leaders of the post-war period in the Netherlands, actually did not view the Calvinistic label as very positive. He was willing to put the label on himself, but would not tolerate anyone else doing the same: that made him feel annexed by the anti-revolutionary or Christian historical parties, something he resolutely refused.

It is remarkable that to Drees Calvinism represents orthodox-Protestant (even of the reformed kind) and that it includes a reference to ethics, to ‘moral convictions’.

In the days of Labour leader Wim Kok there was disagreement about shaking off the ideological feathers, and after his lengthy leadership the red cock had indeed lost quite a few of them.

© Trouw 2010, op dit artikel rust copyright.