From Martin Luther to Jean Calvin. On the Significance of Protestantism in the Origin of Modernity

Abstract

The year 2009 is to be celebrated at 10th July the fifth centenary of Jean Calvin’s birth. Born in Noyon (France), Calvin was raised in a Roman Catholic family: his father,an administrator in the town’s cathedral, wanted Jean to become a priest. However he had disengaged himself from the Roman Catholic faith 1536 and became one of main reformers of the Church. Although Luther and Calvin were more less contemporaries of one another, Calvin represents the second wave of the Protestant Reformation. From Luther to Calvin it is a obvious development that this article tries to show with ecumenical attitude just as the significance of Protestantism in the origin of Modernity.