Gareth McCaughan wrote (in uk.religion.christian):

> What is "Calvinism"?

A strand of Christian thinking that emphasises the sovereignty of God.

Its most controversial element is its treatment of predestination, election etc; Calvinists believe that (1) everyone God predestines to be saved will be, and (2) no one God doesn't predestine to be saved will be. This has some interesting consequences: for instance, Calvinists tend to say that the atonement was never intended to be effective for everyone; there are people who were always destined to be damned. Another for-instance: if you are saved then you are *always* saved, whatever may happen thereafter. (But Calvinists' opinions vary as to whether this means that some people who think they are saved aren't, or that some people who think they aren't saved are.)

Calvinism rejects the idea that people can `choose' to be saved in any very strong sense; and rejects the whole idea of free will as commonly understood. (As, incidentally, do many atheist modern philosophers; this is not an argument either for or against Calvinism.)

Calvinists tend to be evangelical in outlook; often extremely so.

The opposite of `Calvinist' is `Arminian' (*not* `Armenian'!).

Of course there is a lot more to the doctrine of Calvin than the above; but every time I've heard the word `Calvinist' used it has been with specific reference to predestination, election, and related issues.

I am not a Calvinist (there's an explanation of why on my web page, but you're cautioned against using it to define what Calvinism is); but I hope the above is a reasonably balanced exposition.

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Dept. of Pure Mathematics & Mathematical Statistics, Cambridge University, England.