Originally Posted by
Colonel
It's possible to interpret Catholic doctrine as sufficiently imprecise on this topic that a clarification was needed and that Calvinism was a clarification in the wrong direction. Martin Luther, the first Reformer, was correspondingly unclear and after his death there was a huge discussion among his pupils on what to place emphasis on in Luther's teachings, predestination or free will. Philip Melanchton prevailed with his emphasis on free will and that is the version that the Norwegian Lutheran church holds to. The Reformation process here in Norway during the 1500s pretty much eradicated both Catholicism and Calvinism. The majority of Norwegians are members of the Lutheran church, which was until a decade ago the state church. A very small minority of its members hold to anything that resembles Calvinist doctrine.