The Forgotten Calvin

More Zachman:

The laying on of hands, which Calvin causticly dismissed in 1536 as Rome’s “aping” of the apostles, is described as a sacrament with regard to ordination, and a useful rite with regard to confirmation, by the third edition of the Institutes in 1543. The gestures of prayer, such as the uplifting of hands and eyes and the bending of the knee, are increasingly seen as both expressing and stimulating piety in ourselves and others. Calvin even recognizes the legitimacy of the pious use of the cross, though he thought that too much superstition was attached to it to restore in in his day. [see Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice trans. Beaty & Farley, John Knox Press, 1991, p74] His willingness to adopt and endorse sacraments and rites he initially rejected has not been fully appreciated, and can serve as an important resource for ecumenical understanding. (Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin, p438)