But that doesn’t necessarily explain why Calvinists are looking to Luther, or Baptists are looking to Calvin, figures outside the center of their own traditions, rather than looking deeper into their own. I suspect at this point Skip Stout would remind us that, in one way, this isn’t surprising at all. Calvin, and those who followed after him, have historically considered themselves heirs to what Luther started. And Baptist roots can be traced to the Puritans, who undoubtedly considered themselves incredibly strict Calvinists.

Let me say upfront that I’m not the best person to answer the question. I’d love to hear how Mark Noll or Skip Stout, two of our foremost American religious historians, would answer it. Nonetheless, the best I bring to the table is a keen curiosity. So, allow me to elaborate on the question.

Consider, for instance, the case of Tullian Tchividjian. Tchividjian (pronounced “cha-vi-jin”) is the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, the church started and made famous by the ministry of James Kennedy. Tchividjian also happens to be the grandson of Billy Graham. Lately, he has been making it well known that he has been reading a lot of Martin Luther, and some of the scholars who understand Luther very well, including two Concordia Seminary locals, Charles Arand and Bob Kolb.

A Calvinist reading Luther? In church circles, that’s curious.

Or consider a recent trend among young pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. According to Mark Oppenheimer’s reporting in the New York Times, there is a trend among certain strands of evangelicals, particularly Baptists, to (re-)claim John Calvin as their theological forebear. In a country whose religious traditions and history are overwhelmingly Calvinist, that’s not so surprising. Except that the ones who are claiming Calvin are the ones who divorced themselves from him a century or so ago, in favor of what we might call a more Armenian “decision theology.” I’ll leave it to Oppenheimer to spell out the particulars. Let’s just say it’s causing a bit of a ruckus.

In other words, a Southern Baptist reading Calvin? That’s even more curious.

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