In this lecture/discussion video from my Spring 2014 Religion in America class at Marist college, we begin to discuss the textbook for the class (America's Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-first Century 3rd. ed., by Peter Williams), focusing on Chapter 10, "Calvinism and the Reformed Tradition".
In this chapter, we turn to one of the main branches of the Radical Reformation, the movement spurred by John Calvin, which spread through Switzerland, France, Germany, the Low Countries, Hungary, and into England and Scotland.
We discuss some of Calvinist distinctives, including the doctrine of predestination, biblical warrant required for all church practices and doctrines, limited atonement, and presbyterian church governance. We also touch on Arminius, noting that his theology, opposed to Calvinism, will play a role in some later Baptist theology.
Since videos discussing religion tend to get a number of polemical, poorly informed, and off-topic comments, I've set comments to require review and approval before they'll be publicly posted.
The textbook used for this class can be purchased from Amazon here: http://amzn.to/LS32U4