“They Will Know We are Calvinists by Our Beards” (Timothy Raymond)

If you’ve attended any theological conferences recently, I imagine you’ve seen it too.  Copious young men with substantial beards.  And I’m not talking about the sort of “I’ve been too lazy to shave for a few days” beards.  I’m talking about long, thick, intimidating, braid-able beards which make a man resemble Gimli from The Lord of the Rings.  I recently attended a pastors’ conference and they were everywhere.  I confess I was only too envious.

Lately I’ve encountered a couple of quotes that make me wonder that perhaps there’s more going on here than meets the eye.  Evidentially, during that great revival known as the Protestant Reformation, Protestants could be identified by their obvious, sizeable beards (well, the men were at least).

First, consider Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), whose beard puts Santa Claus to shame (see embedded pic):

“Some think that [Thomas] Cranmer now [i.e., upon the death of Henry VIII] grew a beard as a sign of mourning for the king, but more likely it was to identify with the Reformation; on the Continent a clerical beard was a sign of the break with Rome.”

—Thomas Cranmer, by Colin Hamer (Evangelical Publishing, 2012), 68

Now consider this little tidbit related to Henry Bullinger (1504-1575), whose massive white beard makes Gandalf disappear into insignificance (again, consider the embedded corroborating evidence):

“Why did most of the preachers of the Reformation have beards, whereas the Roman Catholic clergy did not?  One historian gives an interesting explanation of this phenomenon.  He suggests that the Protestant clergymen had a need to demonstrate their patriarchal masculinity, while the celibate clergy of Rome did not feel that need.  The Reformers married, established families, and grew beards.  This also enhanced their authority when they preached, because it made them look like Old Testament prophets, who all were assumed to have beards…We do know that Heinrich Bullinger was one of the most impressive figures among these bearded ministers, as it evident from the surviving portraits of him.”

—Friends of Calvin, by Machiel A. van den Berg (Eerdmans, 2009), 218

Honestly, with the only exception of Martin Luther, whom most of us would recognize was rather confused about some important doctrinal matters, can you name a single Reformer who wasn’t distinguished by bad-boy, testosterone-charged beard?  As we compare the Reformation with the current revival known as the Young, Restless, Reformed movement, perhaps we should conclude that when the Holy Spirit works a work of revival, more begins to grow than simply doctrinal orthodoxy and orthopraxy!

Timothy Raymond is an editor for Credo Magazine and has been the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Muncie, Indiana since April 2006. He received his MDiv from the Baptist Bible Seminary of Pennsylvania in 2004 and has pursued further education through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation.