Calvin College

Calvin College is a college of the Christian Reformed Church, a century-old denomination with a five-century-old heritage. It bases its whole faith and life on the sacred Scriptures, God’s holy, inspired, infallible Word, and thus takes its stand with the churches which have their roots in the Protestant Reformation.

In America the Christian Reformed Church traces its origin to a band of immigrants who sought freedom in the nineteenth century from the established church of the Netherlands. They settled in western Michigan and, after an early period of religious unrest among the thousands of Dutch settlers who soon joined the earlier immigrants, organized the Christian Reformed Church in 1857.

The Christian Reformed Church subscribes to three statements of faith (in addition to the early Christian Apostles Creed) which stem from the Reformation period: the Heidelberg Catechism, which is the most famous and widely translated of all Reformation creeds; the Confession of Faith written by the Belgian theologian, Guido de Brèges, in 1561; and the Canons of Dort.

The founding date of Calvin College and Seminary is 1876. In that year the Christian Reformed Church adopted a six-year curriculum for ministerial training. The first four of these years were spent in the Literary Department and the last two in the Theological Department. In 1894 students who were not pre-theological students were admitted to an expanded curriculum, and thus the school became a type of preparatory school or academy. In 1900 the curriculum was further broadened and made more attractive to students interested in teaching or in preparing for preprofessional courses in the universities. By 1906 the Literary Department, which provided the four years of preparatory and two years of college work, became known officially as the John Calvin Junior College. The two-year college in time became a four-year college, and the preparatory department was discontinued. In 1921 Calvin College awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degree.

Courses Offered
Undergraduate Programs

• Bachelor of Fine Arts

Graduate programs

• Master of Fine Arts

Centers

• Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship (CCCS)
• Calvin Center for Innovation in Business
• Center for Social Research (CSR)
• Enterprise Center at Calvin College
• H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
• Ministry Resource Center
• Seminars in Christian Scholarship (SCS)
• Van Lunen Center: Executive Management in Christian Schools

Institutes

• Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW)
• Integrated Science Research Institute (ISRI)
• Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching & Learning
• Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity
• Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics
• Spoelhof Business Institute

Contact Details
Calvin College
3201 Burton SE Grand Rapids,
MI 49546 (616) 526-6000
1-800-688-0122
Official Website: http://www.calvin.edu/