That's the actual doctrine, not Calvinism. In Antinomianism (Wikipedia article - missing citations and footnotes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism), the Elect don't have to obey laws meant for lesser people. Since they are Elect and therefore predestined to go to Heaven, they have carte blanche to do as they please. This can be conflated with a Calvin tenet, wherein someone is predetermined to be saved. However, the writings of Jonathan Edwards (difficult to get through, his religious ecstasy is so voluable!) show that a person who is predestined toward salvation actually wants to do what's right.
This doctrine can also be applied to political rather than religious causes: breaking the law for the "greater good", as in releasing other people's animals, trespassing to chain oneself to trees, etc. Even a revolution could be seen as in a way being Antinomian, in that the revolutionaries are definitely and deliberately breaking the laws of their country in order to change the regime and/or current laws.
In HP, this comes across when Harry uses Unforgivables without any repercussions of either conscience or law, and when he continually breaks school rules with little to no punishment and the apparent encouragement by authority when Dumbledore gives him the method of sneaking around undetected. This is the Elect breaking rules because they're Elect anyway and already guaranteed the goodies at the end, not a true Calvinist approach to humility and duty and self-examination.
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Date: 2008-03-12 01:43 pm (UTC)That's the actual doctrine, not Calvinism. In Antinomianism (Wikipedia article - missing citations and footnotes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism), the Elect don't have to obey laws meant for lesser people. Since they are Elect and therefore predestined to go to Heaven, they have carte blanche to do as they please. This can be conflated with a Calvin tenet, wherein someone is predetermined to be saved. However, the writings of Jonathan Edwards (difficult to get through, his religious ecstasy is so voluable!) show that a person who is predestined toward salvation actually wants to do what's right.
This doctrine can also be applied to political rather than religious causes: breaking the law for the "greater good", as in releasing other people's animals, trespassing to chain oneself to trees, etc. Even a revolution could be seen as in a way being Antinomian, in that the revolutionaries are definitely and deliberately breaking the laws of their country in order to change the regime and/or current laws.
In HP, this comes across when Harry uses Unforgivables without any repercussions of either conscience or law, and when he continually breaks school rules with little to no punishment and the apparent encouragement by authority when Dumbledore gives him the method of sneaking around undetected. This is the Elect breaking rules because they're Elect anyway and already guaranteed the goodies at the end, not a true Calvinist approach to humility and duty and self-examination.