Letter writing as a discipline helped Calvin consider his words and his calling, preserved his connection to the ministry in Geneva, and kept his friendships flourishing both in Strasbourg and beyond. While he remained in Strasbourg for a short time, it was because of his correspondences that his return to Geneva was smooth and his partnership with the Reformed ministries throughout Europe had yielded fruit—simply through the means of sincere words on paper.

Reading the mail of significant figures is a long-treasured practice, no matter the distance in time or difference in culture. Some of the most beloved letters among Reformed thinkers include those of John Calvin (1509–64). Calvin’s correspondence reveals his inward meditations; he utilized letter writing as a form of self-examination, in the context of both his friendships and his congregational affiliations.

One particular season of Calvin’s correspondence (the so-called Strasbourg years of 1538–41) allows us to examine Calvin’s theological development.

Calvin didn’t practice letter writing absent from theological implications. These implications can be identified in three particular contours—Calvin’s views on friendship, the church, and the unifying power of faith.

Friendship

While Calvin believed union with God brings an experiential knowledge of God, the nature of this union isn’t situated in some kind of personal monastery, isolated from others.

A perseverance rooted in regular correspondence was one way in which despondency, accrued through isolation, was blunted—particularly for him while ministering. The isolation felt during the Strasbourg years accentuated this facet of friendship for Calvin. He realized on a deeper level that to experience union with God is to be in union with God’s people.

Developing a deeper bond in Christian friendship and mutual union with God, therefore, is how one develops a greater sense of satisfaction in the circumstances of life. This stands in stark contrast to the worldly friendships devoid of the divine component, as Calvin expressed when he said that Christ “will no more allow his believers to be estranged from him than that his members be rent and torn asunder.”

Church

As a functional shepherd for the flock of Geneva (though in Strasbourg, and while William Farel was in Neuchâtel), Calvin contended he and Farel may, as a conduit of blessing, bind the people of Geneva to the pastors who were serving over their churches—with sincere and friendly affection. 

The fact that Calvin issued advice to the Geneva church in absentia reveals his mentality toward the church and the intimacy he felt for them, as well as the spiritual obligations of stewardship he felt for those churches. He was one who could instruct and appeal to them as an overseer from a distance.

He wrote with what may be considered brazen spiritual authority, “I require you, in the first place, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that so far as may be, you will first of all weigh the matter in your mind, and without any hastiness of judgment.”

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