Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

not told how, so why speculate? Komensky tries hard here to bring Catholic and
Protestant together here by talking of accepting transubstantiation in a metaphysical
sense, but this does not seem to be a satisfactory solution. But isn‟t Komensky‟s
principle in finding what is „agreed on‟ a sound one here?
• On infant baptism, Komensky believed both paedo-baptists and Anabaptists should
concede that their position could not, without contention, be argued from Scripture.
Infant baptism is neither specifically commanded not rejected by Scripture, so
toleration of each other‟s position should prevail. Again, the „both-neither‟ principle
rules!
Komensky is far too naive in his hope that the ‘both-neither’ principle would satisfy
protagonists in the 17 th Century, but perhaps he has something to say to us in the 21 st
Century.
A notable contemporary of Komensky was a German, Georg Calixtus (1586-1656), whom
the New International Dictionary of the Christian Church calls „an early ecumenist‟, and the
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church „a Protestant theologian.‟
He was Lutheran Abbot of Königslutter and, from 1614, professor of theology at Helmstadt
University. His view of what a true Christian is was remarkably like that expressed by John
Wesley in a letter to a Roman Catholic in 1749, except that Wesley did not mention baptism
in his letter.
Calixtus described a Christian as one who was baptised and who prays to God, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. He believes Jesus was the Son of God, born of a Virgin; that he redeemed us
by his sufferings and death; that he was raised from the dead and will return to earth as judge
of all. Such a Christian does not persist in wickedness (Wesley would have gone further on
this point!).
George Calixtus (his family name was the Danish „Kallison‟) lived, as did Komensky, in the
turbulence of the Thirty Years‟ War, and was all his life caught up in religious controversy.
Born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, he entered Helmstadt University as a young man and
studied mathematics, classics and philosophy. He came to see later in life that learning could
become a substitute for true faith and spirituality.
Graduating as Master of Arts after only two years at University, he began to teach. Between
1609 and 1613 he made a series of teaching tours around Germany and to England and
France. On his return to the Continent he was appointed Professor of Theology at Helmstadt
University, in which post he remained for the rest of his life.
In England he was impressed by the order of the Church of England and its bishops‟ libraries!
He took a doctor‟s degree in 1616 and three years later married a widow, the daughter of a
Helmstadt burgomaster.
Calixtus was greatly disturbed by the divisions among Christians: Protestants fought
Catholics and fought among themselves, Calvinists fought Lutherans and Melanchthon-
Lutherans fought hard-line Wittenberg Lutherans. Helmstadt‟s position, under Calixtus, was
that of a moderate anti-Papal Protestantism, yet it was open to contacts with Catholics, but
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