Calvin as Theologian of Consolation, Part 1 R. Scott Clark
Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship,
defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to
get something of higher value....” That is precisely the
opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by
“consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to
his people, by the gospel, through the Spirit, is not second
prize but to be valued above that which we lost. When we
consider Calvin, “consolation” might not be the thing we first
associate with him. The dominant perception of Calvin in our
culture is that of a tyrannical, dyspeptic fellow, who delighted
in nothing more than to dispatch a few heretics to the flames
before breakfast. That caricature, however, was one drawn by his
enemies during his lifetime and sadly, despite the facts, it has
stuck for a variety of reasons. First, the modern picture of
Calvin has been skewed badly by the uncritical acceptance by
earlier modern historians of partisan caricature