Anti-Calvin?

I get a fair amount of (mostly nice) flak from friends because I lean Calvinist. I'm generally amazed at how many "experts" condemn Calvin without having read him, or tried to think through the Biblical texts. TULIP was not his invention, but shorthand that came later. Calvin is incorrectly labeled as a cold, heartless theologian, but anyone who has read Calvin's writings will experience his passion for pastors, evangelism, and missionaries.

My general proposition is that I encourage people to develop convictions about theological points, but not let these convictions divide the greater Body of Christ. For example, I have studied baptism and have strong convictions -- but I refuse to break fellowship with other Christians over disputes on when or how water is used. It's taken me over twenty years to reach some of my convictions, so I need to be careful about my assessments of others who haven't come to the same point of understanding, especially in the same timeframe. Plus, I have shifted positions after more study, so I'm humble about our ability to comprehend the depths of God's work.

John Piper has a curious column recommending G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy book.

Chesterton was solidly anti-Calvin, but a great writer and brilliant thinker. Piper points out that reading Chesterton actually opened his eyes to wonder and mystery:

Nothing in this Calvinism-abominating book came close to keeping me from
embracing the glorious sovereignty of God. On the contrary, the poetic
brightness of the book, along with the works of C. S. Lewis, awakened in me an
exuberance about the strangeness of all things—which in the end made me able to
embrace the imponderable paradoxes of God’s decisive control of all things and
the total justice of his holding us accountable.
One of the reasons that Calvinism is stirring today is that it takes both truth and mystery seriously. It’s a singing, poetry-writing, run-through-the-fields Calvinism.
It’s the Arminians that are the rationalists. Arminianism trumps biblical sentences with metaphysics: God can’t control all things and hold us responsible. God can’t choose some and love all.” Why? Metaphysics. Out with mystery! It just can’t be!

Love our great God, and love one another.