Updated - Thank you all so very much for pointing me in directions I hadn't considered. I have a different direction now, but one influenced by all the great advice I got.
Help me, O Fellow Kossacks! I, a humble college student beseech your aid in research for my Political Theory term paper.
Little too much? OK
So here's the deal: I have a research/term paper coming due this week that I've been researching my butt off to no avail, and I'm looking for help. Since it is political in nature, I figure I'd turn to you all to hopefully point me in the right direction. But this isn't just about me, here... this particular topic is relevant to contemporary events and politics and a good discussion could serve us all well.
My assignment was rather open ended: Pick a topic relative to contemporary political issues, then pick a Classical/Medieval political thinker and a Rennisance/Modern thinker and construct a "debate" on the topic based on their respective writings.
My selected subject is Big Business/Free Market ideology (specifically deregulation and corporate personhood), and for the "pro" side I selected John Calvin and began my research.
This is when things started to not go according to plan.
See, though remarks I've read at Kos and comments made by Progressive talk show hosts (like Thom Hartman), I was introduced to the idea that a lot of the right wing, free market religious folks treat John Calvin as their patron saint. They have extrapolated his writings on predestination and material wealth as an indication that those who are successful with money are somehow favored by G-d. So I thought it would be a no-brainer to utilize my l33t Google-Fu Skillz to point me in the right direction and get me some juicy quotes and citations. I built it up in my head that Calvin was a very bad person who wrote tracts upon tracts of vileness extorting the virtues of greed unregulated by any sort of non-divine authority. I thought it would be easy.
I learned two things:
First, he's STILL a total douchebag in my mind;
Second, MF'er was PROLIFIC as all hell
What I did not learn, however, was anything that got me closer to my goal of completing my term paper.
It would seem that a lot of the ties between modern, free market ideology and John Calvin were actually the result of later students of Calvinism commenting on his writings. Unfortunately, I couldn't really find much in the way of good citation BACK to Calvin from these bits I collected on the Internet. I braved all manner of websites that I wouldn't normally in pursuit of this knowledge. Hell, I even clicked on FRACKIN' FREE REPUBLIC because it was the first hit from a particular Google Search string. Still nothing.
I've been pouring over Calvin, "Institutes of Christian Theology", but its big. REALLY big. Well over a thousand pages big. Though I've gone over what I think would be the most topical (Book 4, Chapter XX. "Of Civil Government"), I'm feel that I'm still no closer to my goal.
So, I ask you, my enlightened fellows in the blogosphere, for some help.
If anyone has any knowledge of this subject, please, lets get a discussion going. If nothing else, hopefully we can talk about the links between the Free Market and Religious Right wings of the Republican parties.