Timothy R. Scheuers’ study of conscience in the age of the Reformations starts out boldly by taking up Gerald Strauss’s question – did the consciences and minds of people change as a result of the Reformation? (1) In this careful and thoughtful study, Scheuers takes on that question through a variety of paths, including examining the theologies of several of the Reformers, as well as their pastoral care by scrutinizing specific treatises, and probing the effects of their ideals of conscience by exploring consistory records. The result is a fine first study that represents an extraordinary contribution to early modern theology, the discussion of conscience, and the devilishly difficult consideration of religious dissembling.
The author takes a classical style of proceeding. The first section, which is the first chapter, sets out the history that Calvin and other early modern theologians inherited by setting out the nature of oaths, religious coercion, and the doctrine of the conscience in the medieval world. Section two, which comprises chapters 2–4, sets out the issue of “conscientious objectors,” a discussion of Calvin and other Reformers’ models of dealing with Nicodemism, or pseudo-Nicodemism. This was a term used by Calvin, among others, to describe the choice of evangelical believers living in Catholic realms to hide their inward faith by outwardly complying with the cultic practices of Catholicism. Section three describes a different set of issues of conscience – the binding of citizen-believers through confessional subscription and other forms of the binding of consciences.
Nicodemism, pseudo-Nicodemism, or religious dissembling was a serious issue for ecclesiastical authorities of all confessions in the early modern period. John Calvin wrote against it in a number of treatises, as well as in letters. He is frequently seen as harsh and somewhat hypocritical, as someone who, from the safety of Geneva, would give advice to those who were living in situations where an outright profession of evangelical faith could bring financial ruin, social ostracism, and even criminal penalties. But Nicodemism also leads historians into a consideration of how oaths worked in the culture of the early modern world. Further complicating matters was the issue of adiaphora – those things that were indifferent. Many of the “Nicodemite” believers argued that their outward profession through participation in Catholic cultic practices amounted to adiaphora – they did not matter because they did not touch the inward spirit. For Calvin, however, true piety always led to true confession. Scheuers’ discussion of Calvin’s theology, how it fit the early modern world, and where he was unique is enormously helpful.
The book continues on to consider the conscience and the taking of oaths. A great part of the difficulty in early modern oath taking and conscience binding was the widespread theory of Christian freedom. While widely publicized and the title of one of Luther’s “Reformation treatises” in 1520, it was not always well understood. Many, both elected officials and those among the citizenry, believed that Christian freedom was a statement of their ability to choose to do what they liked, that Christian freedom meant that their consciences were freed from canon law and all ecclesiastical strictures. This was further complicated by those radical thinkers who argued that only the truth from God came directly through spiritual visions, rather than from the scriptures. But the magisterial Reformers never meant anything of the kind. For figures like Luther and Calvin, Christian freedom always meant freedom from the law, as Paul discussed in his letters. But that freedom was always tied to an obligation to love the neighbor, even sacrificially.
Scheuers’ study delves into Calvin’s efforts to craft a new evangelical community in Geneva. He began with the requirement that all would subscribe to the Geneva Confession, which Scheuers argues was part of the reasons that the Small Council of Geneva banned him in 1538. Returned to his post in 1541, Calvin turned to the use of the Consistory, variously described as a “morals court,” or “mandatory counseling service.” In the Consistory’s efforts to improve the morality of the Genevan populace, frequent pleas were made to conscience. Furthermore, at times, the Consistory asked that a particular citizen whom they believed to be recalcitrant, be put under oath by the Council. Scheuers’ recreation of the history shows both the development and continuity of Calvin’s thought about the role of the conscience in the individual believer’s life, and in the godly city.
Scheuers concludes that Calvin’s mature ecclesiology did not impose a new and harsher expansion of ecclesiastical power that undercut his theology of Christian freedom (229). Instead, Calvin defended “a modified form of individual liberty on the basis of a highly nuanced conception of the relationship between conscience and tradition” (229). Scheuers’ study thus enters the group of studies that seek to defend Calvin from poorly grounded histories, while also seeking to understand the Reformer better.
While Scheuers’ study is a fine contribution, it is not without problems, and some of them are significant. First, the secondary scholarship on which this is built has significant lacunae that are difficult to gloss over. Several books that are directly on the topic are simply missing, including Randall Zachman’s The Assurance of Faith: Conscience in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin (1993); and Francisca Loetz’ Dealings with God: From Blasphemers in Early Modern Zurich to a Cultural History of Religiousness (2009); and Elsie A. McKee’s works. Second, throughout his discussion of the Reformations, Scheuers accepts without qualification that the Reformers taught and believed in a model of sola scriptura. That’s simply out of touch with the trend of scholarship in early modern theology and history.
Timothy Scheuers has created a fine contribution to Calvin studies, and to the early modern analysis of the conscience, religious dissembling, and adiaphora. Scholars of Calvin will welcome an expansion of the meager resources available to understand Calvin’s response to the Nicomedites, while historians of early modern religion will appreciate the deeper consideration of conscience, how it functioned for early modern Christians, and how a signal Reformer used it in his theology and his pastoral work. Libraries will do well to get a copy – their researchers will thank them.
