Grace chooses first — sovereignty all the way down.
The Reformed branch of the Reformation: God's sovereignty carried to system by John Calvin's Geneva. Election before merit, scripture as the final rule, and a work ethic that — on one famous argument — built the modern world by accident.
DeitiesOne God in three persons
Founded1536 CE · Geneva
FounderJohn Calvin
AfterlifeResurrection and judgment
TextsBible · Institutes of the Christian Religion
The map
Calvinism (the Reformed tradition)’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1517 CE Protestantism 1536 CE Calvinism (the Reformed tradition) 1560 CE Presbyterianism
God is sovereign — entirely.
Nothing, including your salvation, begins with you. History is authored, not improvised.
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Grace is unconditional.
Chosen before the foundation of the world: election rests on God's will, not foreseen merit.
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The fall reaches every human faculty.
Total depravity — not that people are as bad as possible, but that no part of us is untouched enough to save the rest.
held by most
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Scripture is the final rule.
Sola scriptura carried to system: doctrine, worship, and church order all argued from the text.
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Expository preaching.
The sermon walks the text verse by verse — the pulpit as the room's center is Calvinist body language.
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Psalm singing.
For centuries, only the Psalter — God's own hymnbook — often unaccompanied, in meter.
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