Calvin, John (1509–64)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Feenstra
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Religious Epistemology ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Self Knowledge

John Calvin, French Protestant reformer and theologian, was a minister among Reformed Christians in Geneva and Strasbourg. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (first edition 1536) – which follows the broad outline of the Apostles’ Creed and is shaped by biblical and patristic thought – is the cornerstone of Reformed theology. Calvin’s religious epistemology links self-knowledge and knowledge of God. He identifies in humans an innate awareness of God, which is supported by the general revelation of God in creation and providence. Because sin has corrupted this innate awareness, Scripture – confirmed by the Holy Spirit – is needed for genuine knowledge of God. Scripture teaches that God created the world out of nothing and sustains every part of it. Humanity, which was created good and with free will, has defaced itself and lost significant freedom due to its fall into sin. Calvin sees Christ the mediator as the fulfilment of the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest and king. Calvin insists that God justifies sinners on the basis of grace and not works, forgiving their sins and imputing Christ’s righteousness to them. Such justification, received by faith, glorifies God and relieves believers’ anxiety about their status before God. On the basis of his will alone, God predestines some individuals to eternal life and others to eternal damnation. Calvin dignifies even ordinary occupations by seeing them as service to God. He recognizes the distinction between civil government and the Church, although he says that government should protect true worship of God and Christians should obey and support their government. Calvin’s thought was dominant in non-Lutheran Protestant churches until the eighteenth century and has enjoyed a resurgence since the mid nineteenth century.

scholarly journals Biblical hermeneutics as the structuralist of the poetics of "The Word of Law and Grace" of Ilarion

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Law ◽  
Allegorical Interpretation

The article states that, for the purpose of interpreting the Biblical topos of the Law and Grace, Hilarion refers to the genre of the word. Hilarion takes first place in the title, and then in the text of the work God brings out wisdom. By law, he believes the Old Testament, which has already fulfilled its task, and Grace - the New Testament, which outlines the existence of man, his relationship with God, gives hope for eternal life. The subject of the "Word" breaks the sermon into four fragments. In the first of them, we notice the allegorical meaning of reading the Scriptures in relation to the history of mankind. The second part is devoted to the interpretation of the image of Jesus Christ, which appears as a synthesis of God and human nature. The third fragment depicts events beyond the boundary of the Bible. It is devoted to the baptism of Rus. In the fourth fragment Prince Volodymyr is glorified. Following the best traditions of Byzantine oratory prose, the author of the Word simply pours his text into quotations from the Bible and adds to them a predominantly allegorical interpretation, emphasizing that the work is not intended for proclamation, but for reading, which enabled the author to interpret the Scriptures and in the literal, and in allegorical sense. The advantage of the New Testament over the Old Testament is embodied by the author in the images of the free wife of Abraham Sarah - Grace and his servant Hagar - Law. Laconic retelling of God-inspired text, Hilarion interprets the old-czarist images, as those that represent the new covenants at the level of allusions, presented them in the form of additional parallel antithesis. The same anti-colored color is also depicted by the images of their children. Isaac was born from a free woman, which means that he represents freedom, Ishmael is from a slave, hence his image symbolizes slavery. He who receives Grace receives goodness, love, becomes the son of God, and begins to live a new life in the Holy Spirit through which the believer is through. The overcoming of the Law and the perception of Grace means, according to Hilarion, the acquisition of spiritual freedom.

scholarly journals Demarcating Deification and the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Reformed Theology

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98
Author(s):  
Joanna Leidenhag
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
The Holy Spirit

AbstractThe recent interest in exploring whether authoritative figures of the Reformed tradition employed a concept of theōsis or deification in their soteriology continues to grow. However, it is yet unclear how the supposed implicit Reformed doctrine of deification relates to the more explicit concept of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, many of the arguments for theōsis in the theology of John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, or T. F. Torrance seem to rely on confusing these two soteriological concepts. This makes it almost impossible to assess if it is theōsis or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (or some interesting combination) that is being appealed to in Reformed thinking. This paper makes a step towards unpicking the knot between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and theōsis in Reformed theology by offering five possible ways to demarcate these two concepts. It is concluded that the final ‘Mereological Demarcation’ is currently the most acceptable.

The Consolation of History in Calvin’s Sermons on Second Samuel

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-218
Author(s):  
Barbara Pitkin
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Legal History ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of

In May 1562, John Calvin began a series of sermons on Second Samuel, seeking to shape the response of ordinary Genevans to the first French religious-civil war by appealing to biblical history to illuminate the present. Calvin teaches how to learn from scripture and distinguish elements of perpetual significance from anachronisms relevant only to the history of Israel. He presents sacred history as a unique record of the past that, unlike profane history, can speak to the present through its chronicle of past events. Calvin urges his listeners to compare the events depicted in Second Samuel to their own experience. This historical vision, in which biblical history becomes a living and lived lesson, also shapes a treatise written during the third war by François Hotman, Calvin’s colleague and theorist of legal history. Hotman also sought and found the consolation of the Holy Spirit through Old Testament history, viewed afresh from the experience of wartime affliction. For both Reformed thinkers, the biblical past and the experience of war combined to forge a key spiritual weapon: a historical vision of the present tied into divine providence throughout the ages.

scholarly journals Kesaksian Internal Roh Kudus menurut John Calvin

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-253
Author(s):  
Thio Christian Sulistio
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
The Holy Spirit

Doktrin kesaksian internal Roh Kudus merupakan doktrin yang sangat penting bagi kekristenan terutama kalangan Reformed, terutama dalam membentuk epistemologi Kristen. Mengapa kita menerima kekristenan sebagai pengajaran yang benar dari Allah? Mengapa kita menerima Alkitab sebagai firman Allah? Jawabannya ada pada kesaksian internal Roh Kudus. Di dalam artikel ini kita akan membahas doktrin kesaksian internal Roh Kudus menurut salah seorang tokoh Reformator, yaitu John Calvin. Dibandingkan Luther, Calvin mengajarkan doktrin ini lebih jelas. Setiap kali orang berbicara mengenai otoritas Alkitab maka ia juga akan berbicara tentang kesaksian internal Roh Kudus menurut Calvin. Doktrin ini juga penting bagi kita untuk memahami seluruh doktrin pengetahuan akan Allah dan seluruh sistem teologi Calvin. Bagi Calvin sendiri doktrin ini merupakan dasar dari seluruh pengetahuan akan Allah. B. B. Warfield mengatakan demikian, “His doctrine of the testimony of the Holy Spirit is the keystone of his doctrine of the knowledge of God.” Meski demikian doktrin ini bukan tanpa kritikan. David Friedrich Strauss, misalnya, pernah mengatakan bahwa doktrin ini merupakan titik lemah dari teologi Protestan. Karena tidak ada dasar rasional bagi seseorang untuk percaya kepada Alkitab sebagai firman Allah ketika seseorang hanya menunjuk kembali kepada Allah.2 Argumen demikian diangap argumen sirkular dan lemah. Bagaimana sebenarnya doktrin ini menurut Calvin? Apa kaitan antara doktrin ini dan otoritas Alkitab? Apakah doktrin ini mengabaikan “pembuktian rasional”? Artikel ini akan mencoba menjawab pertanyaan tersebut. Untuk itu yang pertama-tama akan dibahas adalah konteks historis doktrin ini dan konteksnya di dalam Institutio. Setelah itu akan dibahas kaitan doktrin ini dengan otoritas Alkitab kemudian kaitannya dengan “pembuktian rasional” menurut Calvin.

Function and Nature of the Heavenly Sanctuary/Temple and its Earthly Counterparts in the New Testament Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles: A Motif Study of Major Passages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Leonardo Nunes
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
New Covenant ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Canonical Order

The present dissertation examines the function and nature of the heavenly sanctuary/temple and its relationship to the earthly counterparts in the major passages of the New Testament (NT) Gospels, Acts, Pauline and General Epistles where the sanctuary/temple motif is found (a total of twenty-two passages). After the introductory chapter, chapters 2, 3, and 4 are devoted to the exegetical analysis of these major passages following canonical order and divisions of the NT. This exegetical analysis has detected the relevance of the heavenly sanctuary/temple motif for NT studies, i.e., how its function, nature, and relationship to the earthly counterparts influence the understanding of important themes of the NT such as salvation, intercession, spiritual gifts, love, holiness, eradication of evil, among others. This investigation has identified that the heavenly sanctuary/temple in the NT function as God’s dwelling place. It is a place for reunion, reconciliation, and sending of the Holy Spirit, from where every spiritual blessing is bestowed upon the believers. In the heavenly sanctuary/temple Jesus is enthroned to exercise authority, power, sovereignty, and rulership; it is where judgment and vindication are made, the new covenant is ratified. It is a place to present praise and worship to God, celebrating Christ's victory over evil. The heavenly sanctuary/temple is where Christ presents His once-for-all sacrifice, "obtains eternal redemption," and intercedes in our behalf, giving assurance that God's salvific purpose and the heirs' hope will be fulfilled. The heavenly sanctuary/temple also functions as the motivation and ground for holy living, the driving force for sacrificial service and endurance of suffering for Christ. The heavenly sanctuary/temple is also the final destination of the Christian journey where all believers will gather together with the godhead and the angels in a festal assembly. Regarding the nature of the heavenly sanctuary/temple in the NT, the passages surveyed show that architecture is not the main concern of the NT writers. However, in tune with the Old Testament (OT), they describe the heavenly sanctuary/temple in terms of a spatiotemporal reality where the corporeal resurrected Jesus is at work and the bodily resurrected believers will live. This NT ontological perspective safeguards the actuality of the heavenly sanctuary/temple many functions. The spatiotemporal nature of the heavenly sanctuary/temple is strengthened when one looks at its relationship to the earthly counterparts. The NT passages examined demonstrate that there is structural and functional correspondence between OT and NT heavenly and earthly counterparts within a typological framework, as well as dynamic interaction among them. Chapter 5 offers a theological synthesis of the heavenly sanctuary/temple motif presented in the previous chapters. A summary of the findings is first provided followed by inferences of theological implications in the three main areas of this dissertation (function, nature, and relationship). After these concluding remarks, an appendix is provided with a brief treatment of twenty-five NT passages not dealt with in the main text (including thirteen passages in the book of Revelation) in order to give the reader a more comprehensive perspective of the pervasiveness of the heavenly sanctuary/temple motif in the NT. In conclusion, the study of the heavenly sanctuary/temple motif in the NT seems to be needed in order to have a sound and balanced understanding of NT theology.

scholarly journals John Calvin on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his commentary on Acts

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik van Alten
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Initial Phase ◽  
Human Error ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
General Sense ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

John Calvin is often considered to have taught the cessation of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. This certainly does not give the complete picture of how Calvin wrestled with those passages from Scripture which deal with the extraordinary gifts. In his commentary on the book of Acts Calvin makes a conscious effort to show that in most of the cases where the gifts of the Spirit are mentioned, the focus is not on the gifts in a general sense, but in an extraordinary sense. These extraordinary gifts had been limited to the initial phase of the church. The reasons that Calvin provides for this cessation is somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand Calvin indicates a very specific, divine purpose for the gifts, which limits its usefulness and existence until the point when the purpose had been achieved. However, there are also passages where one gets the impression that the cessation of the gifts was not necessarily divinely intended, but was due to human error. Of great importance is the way Calvin subsequently applies these texts to the readers of his own day. Johannes Calvyn oor die gawes van die Heilige Gees in sy kommentaar op Handelinge Dikwels word aangeneem dat Johannes Calvyn die beëindiging van die buitengewone gawes van die Heilige Gees voorgestaan het. Dit gee egter nie die volle prentjie van hoe Calvyn met daardie Skrifgedeeltes, waarin die buitengewone gawes behandel word, geworstel het nie. In sy kommentaar op die boek Handelinge wys Calvyn bewustelik daarop dat in die meeste gevalle waar die gawes van die Gees genoem word, die fokus nie op die gawes in ’n algemene sin is nie, maar eerder op die gawes in ’n buitengewone sin. Hierdie buitengewone gawes is beperk tot die beginfase van die kerk. Die redes wat Calvyn vir hierdie beëindiging aanvoer, is egter dubbelsinnig. Aan die eenkant wys Calvyn op ’n baie spesifieke, Goddelike doel met die gawes, waardeur hulle bruikbaarheid en voortbestaan beperk word tot die tyd toe die doel bereik is. Aan die anderkant, egter, is daar ook gedeeltes wat die indruk skep dat die beëindiging van die gawes nie noodwendig Goddelik bepaal is nie, maar ’n gevolg was van menslike sonde. Van groot belang is hoe Calvyn hierdie tekste vervolgens toepas op die lesers van sy eie tyd.

The Spark That Still Shines: John Calvin on Conscience and Natural Law

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance Y Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Moral Discernment ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Sufficient Knowledge

Abstract John Calvin (1509–64), a central figure in Reformed theology, is perhaps best known for his bleak doctrine of total human depravity. This dismal view of human reason has commonly overshadowed his statement that ‘some sparks still shine’. This article proposes that Calvin’s account of conscience, by conserving an illuminated space in human nature, makes possible a formal doctrine of natural law. Calvin enlists the interconnectedness between the knowledge of God and human reason to frame his anthropology. According to this, human reason was originally created to perfectly access knowledge of God but after the Fall, can only attain imperfect access. Within this broader framework, by adopting a dialectic of dual perspectives, Calvin maintains that, however fallen, human nature still partially reflects the Imago Dei as first intended. As through a glass darkly, this divine image is reflected in human conscience endowing it with sufficient knowledge for moral discernment. Calvin’s emphasis on ‘common grace’ in the preservation of this knowledge allows him to simultaneously maintain human ignorance and their universal accountability to objective norms. In this way, Calvin’s account of conscience enables him to hold both apparent extremes in tension: the immanent fallibility of human beings with the external normative standards they ought to pursue.

The Holy Spirit and Eschatology

Pneuma ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
J. Rodman Williams
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
The Holy Spirit

AbstractThis article on "The Holy Spirit and Eschatology" was written by Melodyland School of Theology just following the last session of a seminar on eschatology. For almost three months some dozen graduate students had been meeting twice a week to study and reflect upon the whole range of matters having to do with eschatology, or the "last things." As their leader I told them at our final meeting of my intention to write an article on "The Holy Spirit and Eschatology," and asked them for their suggestions. The seminar had not really focused on the Holy Spirit as such: it was much more on such matters as Jesus Christ our "blessed hope," the Kingdom, eternal life and so on. However, the seminar was quick to express a number of ideas concerning the Holy Spirit and eschatology. So I shall summarize some of these, along with a few additional reflections. For brevity these will be listed under several headings.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document