NOTE
At the risk of spoiling things, a bit of explanation. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English classicist, scientist, and political philosopher. He was a contemporary of many of the early Reformed orthodox writers and he capitalized on and corrupted the Reformed doctrine of the covenant of works. He read the fallen world back into the creational state or “the state of nature.” He was a materialist who rejected the Christian explanation of things but who capitalized on some Christian themes to his own end. Perhaps most famously he theorized that the natural state of humanity is a “war of all against all” and that, in the state of nature, life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Thus, he theorized that there must be a powerful central government, a leviathan, as it were, to suppress the state of nature. More about Hobbes» The strip also alludes to my favorite comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. —R. Scott Clark
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Harrison Perkins
Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, online faculty in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction.
More by Harrison Perkins ›R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
More by R. Scott Clark ›Sarah Perkins
Sarah Perkins (MSc Business and Management, University of Essex; BA Art, University of Montevallo) is a pastor’s wife, married to Harrison, and artist based out of Michigan. She recently changed from full-time work in education management to being a full-time mom to their son Scott. She is the artist behind Illustrated Theology, also doing all the art for The New Geneva, and enjoys reading, travelling, and remembering and reciting useless trivia.
More by Sarah Perkins ›
Can you please explain the imagery to me? I think the drawing on the left does look a litte like Thomas Hobbes’s protrait on Wikipedia, but I can’t for the life of me place the guy on the right.
John,
As was explained in the note, the strip is an allusion and homage to a great American comic strip by Bill Patterson, Calvin and Hobbes. If you’ve been following The Canons of Dork, then you will know that the principal character, was introduced in the Canons of Dork #1 as Gomer. He is dressed in the garb of a certain 16th-century French Reformed preacher.
Dressing up as JC — probably to go to the Renaissance Faire — is Peak Dork. We should expect nothing less from Gomer.
Could either of you please give me an url with JC wearing anything that looks like that?
John,
Every Protestant preacher in the 16th century wore, at least when preaching a preaching cap and they all wore a robe. Calvin is frequently pictured with a fur collar on his because that was common during the cooler months.
That this was the practice is a fact known for centuries.
We have only one authentic, contemporaneous drawing of Calvin. It was made by a bored student. It is a crude sketch.
Nevertheless, it shows him with a fur stole on his robe and the preaching cap.
Calvinus Authenticus
I took this photo, in Geneva, in 2009.
The depiction of Calvin used to market the beer named after him (which is funny because he was a wine drinker) is imaginary but strikes me as more likely than some:
Calvinus Beer
This drawing is supposed to date to 1562 but it’s not clear that he had seen Calvin.
Calvin 1562
This depiction is standard.
Another
Beza, in his Reformation picture book (Icones) pictured him in a preaching cap, robe, and fur stole.
Icones
I don’t think there is a depiction of Calvin without his preaching cap and robe.
I remember the C&H cartoon strip and the famous “transmogrifier.” Mr. Watterson was a genius.
On a side note; I’m curious as to the shoes of the dude on the right. They have a strange resemblance to mortar trowels.
The dude on the right is Gomer, our principal character. I think those are just his feet.
It’s a given that when you have to explain a joke, it just sucks all the humor out of it. Keep this going, it’s always time to have a bit of fun. Maybe have Gomer being chased by a great big imaginary tiger?