John Calvin: Did he look out the window?

CAN a moral revolution ever come from the upper classes of society? This is an interesting question. The wealthy, it seems, are generally too distracted, too cushioned from the consequences of de-moralizing forces. Philip Rieff, in his book The Triumph of the Therapeutic, writes:

Moral reform, no less than social, must push up from below…. [T]he cultivated, with their high arts and literature, are too comfortable to deploy righteous indignation; and the lowly are sunk too far  into their peculiar resorts of comfort. Moralizing belongs to the ambitious middle range of the Western social structure, if it may be properly located anywhere at all. Not class position, but creedal preoccupation, as an alternative to refinement and aesthetic perception, is the driving force of moralizing movements. In all the writings of Calvin there is scarcely a reference to the beauty of the landscape surrounding Geneva. He was far too busy regulating the manners of Genevans, including the exact length of the ladies’ skirts.

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