Derek Malone-France

"Intolerant believers embrace what we may call Calvin's contradiction, after the theologian who, perhaps, most brazenly weds the notions of religious certainty and textual interpretive 'inerrancy' with the directly contradictory notion of humanity's moral and epistemic 'fallenness.' John Calvin's steadfast refusal to consider the implications of his view of human 'depravity' for his own claims regarding the nature and meaning of scripture has conditioned Protestant belief ever since, setting the stage for the flight from anxiety that has helped to push the self-satisfied certainty of many Christians in tragically (and sinfully) aggressive and intolerant directions."