Abstract

Nowadays Troeltsch's discussion of Calvinism is usually – if unjustly – regarded as a confessional typology which has had its day. An analysis of the relevant texts from Troeltsch's time in Heidelberg both clarifies his understanding in the context of his theory of Protestantism and at the same time its distinctiveness from Weber's famous study of Calvinism. Troeltsch's discussion can then be reconstructed as a good example of the application of his historical method. The interdependence of factors emerging from the history of ideas and social history reveals an ambivalent and distinct history of development which moves beyond confessional boundaries. On this basis Protestantism is shown to have a constructive relationship to western social ideas including democracy, human rights and pluralist society. In distinction to the over-emphasis on Lutheranism of his contemporaries, Troeltsch regards this series of developments as the contribution of Calvinism to a religiously-based culture of responsibility under the conditions of modernity.