Calvin and Missions - World Evangelical Alliance

68 Calvin and World Mission
two lone Protestant missionary undertakings of the Reformation Era” a
failure. That of Gustav Wasa among the Lapps “was not really to pagans
and that of the French emigrants in Brazil was a mere colonizing venture.”
A different, although tragic, story is told regarding these three hundred
Calvinists who came to Brazil and attempted successfully to preach to the
Indians in 1558 but of whom a number were killed as heretics by the Roman
Catholic Governor Villegainuous.
As regards Melanchthon a recent monograph does justice to this great
Reformer, but grants that neither he nor Luther had the missionary spirit or
vision of John Calvin. 46 We learn from the introduction that there was general
ignorance of Islam in Europe for 500 years after the Hejira (A.D. 622).
Dante the poet puts Mohammed with Judas and Beelzebub in the lowest
inferno. Historians and theologians generally were ignorant not only of the
origin of Islam but of its teaching. Whatever accounts we have of this
world-religion are unhistorical, uncritical, and unsympathetic. The very
titles of the books written during this period are indicative of the general
attitude, for example: Confutation Improbatio, Cribratio Alchorani, Notationes
contra Mahometi dogmata.
At the time of the Reformation there was a slight change for the better.
Luther was deeply interested in Islam, the religion of the Turks. His writings
have been the subject of special studies in this respect by Vossberg,
Holston, Simon, and Barge. Melanchthon was a careful student of all that
Luther wrote on the subject. Melanchthon’s viewpoint is, however, of
greater importance because he was a historian as well as a theologian. The
material for Kahler’s study consists of Melanchthon’s letters, commentaries,
poems, and especially a number of introductions that he wrote to books
by various writers dealing with the Turks and Islam. We have an account
of Mohammed’s life, of Islam as a sect, and of the Turks as representing
the political power of this religion. Melanchthon points out that Islam is a
heresy based on fiction. The Moslem errs in his knowledge of God, in his
denial of the person and offices of Christ, in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit,
and especially in his soteriology. He accuses Islam of Eudaemonism and
Hedonism, and states that it is the enemy of true culture because of its social
ethics in regard to marriage and slavery. The concluding section (pages
105-164) gives a summary of Melanchthon’s position on the history of
religions. The author holds that Melanchthon, while emphasizing the abso-
46 Melanchthon und der Islam: Eine Beitrag zur Klärung des Verhältnisses zwischen
Christentum und Fremdreligionen in der Reformationszeit, by Manfred Kohler.
Leipzig: Leopold Klotz Verlag, 1938.