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Today is the commemoration of John Calvin. Lots of people have strong opinions about Calvin, sometimes (I suspect) without even having read him.
I’m not an expert, but here are three things I found helpful when I started studying him:
I’m not an expert, but here are three things I found helpful when I started studying him:
1. Calvin as reformer and renaissance man
I liked MacCulloch’s sketch of Swiss Reformed theology below. Imho there’s a what-piece-of-work-is-man kind of tension in C between optimism and pessimism. As M also implies, this negativity can be for a reason—to drive positive changes.
I liked MacCulloch’s sketch of Swiss Reformed theology below. Imho there’s a what-piece-of-work-is-man kind of tension in C between optimism and pessimism. As M also implies, this negativity can be for a reason—to drive positive changes.
(As a postscript to the above: although C is nowadays viewed as a grim, joyless theologian, he certainly sees his own theology as comfort for consciences; and the Institutes has some wonderful, lyrical passages of prose, eg Inst III.x.2 on “delight and good cheer” below)
2. Calvin as reader
A brief mention in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology of Calvin’s turn to “humanist linguist analysis of scripture” instead of “scholastic reliance on reason” opened my eyes to why he ‘feels’ so different to eg the Summa Theologiae https://twitter.com/richardmagrath/status/1213186166318604289?s=21
A brief mention in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology of Calvin’s turn to “humanist linguist analysis of scripture” instead of “scholastic reliance on reason” opened my eyes to why he ‘feels’ so different to eg the Summa Theologiae https://twitter.com/richardmagrath/status/1213186166318604289?s=21
3. Calvin as Chalcedonian
Zachman makes an intriguing case that C’s very way of thinking is ‘Chalcedonian’ (see below). On a more basic level, C is always mindful of Jesus’ true divinity & humanity, reflected in the importance given to the details of what happens in the OT & NT
Zachman makes an intriguing case that C’s very way of thinking is ‘Chalcedonian’ (see below). On a more basic level, C is always mindful of Jesus’ true divinity & humanity, reflected in the importance given to the details of what happens in the OT & NT
Anyway, that’s just a personal reflection on some things that have helped me. I’m sure there’s more to say—on Calvin’s ‘theocentrism’, his ‘ad fontes’ return to the sources (the bible, ofc, but also detailed church history), his practical pastoral context—but I’ll stop there.
