Calvin’s Apology, his institutes concerning our most precious faith
Reflection on the first volume of Calvin’s institutes
Motivation and nature:
Even though Calvin’s work ‘the institutes’ is understood to be systematic theology, it can also be very well seen as an apology to the Christian faith and especially of the reformed faith. It’s obvious that it was written as a defense against the Romanism of the times. This is evident from its content and from the main motivation stated in the opening of Henry Beveridge’s translation. In 1536 Calvin was in exile and thousands of his protestant brothers also known as the Huguenots were facing dire persecutions from an apostate Catholic Church and those under its sway. The principles for which they were fighting for had to be explained before the governing authorities and judges while still in the face of attacks by a formidable and well-entrenched enemy. In the opening letter to the king of France, Calvin discounts his motivation not to be for his own selfish desire, that of overturning his exile and preparing a return for himself to his native France. Calvin relates how he undertakes this task through God’s grace attributing his success in the work to His maker. The work was intended to become a match, an answer and shield against an overshadowing and formidable Roman Catholic Church, which had run a full course of heresy, corruption, tyranny and unorthodoxy. Once written, Calvin’s work becomes influential even beyond the times of the conflicts in France even up until today, especially among reformed circles.
The evidences of God in creation that is made clear to the conscience of every individual, along with the wholesomeness and truth of the scriptures are stated and defended with skill no par. This Calvin does in the first book of his humongous four-volume work, which he refers to as the knowledge of God and man, which he explains to be the sum of all wisdom.[1] Calvin here is defending the faith once delivered to all of us. Therefore, his apologetics goes beyond classical apologetics about the existence of God to further establish this only and true God to be the Christian God. Therefore, his statements and arguments along with the numerous inferences from scripture are compatible with pre-suppositional apologetics[2] (see Baird p.1) even though there are smatterings of classical apologies in his work. There is no doubt that he most vigorously states and defends the Christian faith with exacting deduction and thoroughness.
The Nature of Calvin’s Institutes: Defense
These initial chapters of the institutes are deep, well-rounded reflections of someone who has meditated all their lives on such issues, alongside of the scriptures, to come up with a sweeping and epic work about the knowledge of God and man. For example, Calvin starts out his treatise by saying the profound idea that man can only know himself through God. He states,
For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.[3]
These meditations or if we can call them vignettes or theological pieces, reveal a mind that is well versed in the scriptures as well as disciplines like theology, philosophy, psychology and logic, just to mention a few. Calvin succeeds in combining all the disciplines at his disposal to create masterful explanations for all of reality, which done well can be the ultimate apology and defense. He comes very close to succeeding in this formidable task of putting Christianity’s truth beyond the reach of any opposition. Calvin makes such arguments like the one quoted above throughout his treatise, as one grappling with any and all doubts, real or imagined, to answer and settle them once and for all in order to bring them captive to Christ.[4]
Its almost as if he means to leave no rock to be left unturned or no argument is to be left unanswered; all issues are dealt with and all doubts are repelled, resulting in a sizable work that surpasses the regalia and fodder of Roman hypocrisy. Of course he could not have foreseen the opposition and attacks that would arise in the centuries that followed his time. Others would have to have risen to answer those challenges when they materialized. What he deems as “perfectly obvious” in the above quote would get challenged in modern times as a presupposition, when Christianity becomes vilified by modern philosophies and so called sciences. Evolution, Marxism and secular psychology begin to have a grip on the thinking of modern man and a type of Biblical scholarship gets formulated in Europe that discounts the claims of the Bible. It then must follow that, new and even stronger apologetics needed to be developed and apologetics has to evolve to answer the objections and heresies of its times.
Its influence on Church Doctrine
In one place, Calvin explains how Augustine’s statement was misunderstood when he said, “he would not have been saved apart from the authority of the church” Calvin does this by putting Augustine’s statements in the proper context of the Manichean controversy which Augustine had been involved with.[5] This idea misconstrued had found itself into Catholic theology and lead to much abuse by the church whose practices were a far cry from what Paul had meant when he said,
Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 2 Cor. 1:24 (KJV) [6]
. Its obvious Augustine was dear to Calvin and he explains what the Bishop from Hippo had meant without compromising the reformation idea of salvation by grace alone through faith. By doing so he also defended the scriptures and the budding growing reformation movement against the prevailing, oppressive, Roman thinking and dogma.
Criticisms of Calvin’s Work:
It is often stated that the over arching theme of Calvin’s institutes is the sovereignty of God. While this as a whole is a true, great and wonderful principle under which to systematize theology, some of its parts like predestination and election can be employed to an extreme to create theologically sticky positions. The main opposing view to these ideas is that, human drama in history is not precisely and robotically pre-planned by God but its dynamic requires the input of human actors and players, who have a part in molding destinies, theirs as well as others. The strength of this opposing view is that it puts human responsibility on par with what scripture says about it.
Two things however are true, whether or not we can harmonize them, namely the sovereignty of God, and the free will of man. Neither of this can cancel out the other. They are both thought in scripture, and exemplified in experience (Scroggie P. 143)[7]
The Little Foxes that Divide:
Calvin often employs scripture in expounding these truths and so we can say he is biblically based. However, smatterings of the philosophy of former greats like Augustine have obviously influenced him and are found quoted in the body of his work. Human opinion and reflection or even bias can creep into a theological body of work. Therefore, it becomes necessary to state that no human theological work, not even an influential one like Calvin’s can be put on the same level as God’s word but should only at best be subservient to it. It also becomes necessary to measure all of its parts, even the minute ones, alongside of the scriptures to determine whether they are totally free from error. While works like Calvin’s can be valuable due to their clarity of exposition and certain degree of doctrinal correctness found within them, their inerrancy cannot and should not be exaggerated.
We should therefore rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God for guidance while we employ all such works. As Daniel says, “Knowledge shall increase”. It follows that when we have a better vantage point and better linguistic and theological tools at our disposal, it should not be beyond the realm of possibilities for us to revise or critique a great reformer and theological mind like Calvin, in some of the ideas he has posited that have been less than illumining. For example, when Calvin famously states double predestination in Ch. 21 of the institutes, he is saying something not explicitly stated in scripture but one he had synthesized from scripture albeit correctly or not. The implications of this view have polarized evangelicals into two camps even unto this day.
Calvin had said,
By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.[8]
Not all of the other 1st generation of reformers had agreed to it and even if Paul seems to have mentioned both predestination pair they are not thought to unfold in the same manner or to be equally weighed (Berkhof, 110)[9] As someone who is of reformed faith and who has himself written a great sweeping work, Phillip Shaff says the following, in his discussion of the Calvinistic system, In Book VIII of his eight-volume church history work,
Calvinism has the advantage of logical compactness, consistency, and completeness. Admitting its premises, it is difficult to escape its conclusions. A system can only be overthrown by a system. It requires a theological genius of the order of Augustine and Calvin, who shall rise above the antagonism of divine sovereignty and human freedom, and shall lead us to a system built upon the rock of the historic Christ, and inspired from beginning to end with the love of God to all mankind [10]
Conclusion
Calvin’s work in the institutes provides us with a working philosophy of how God can be known and how we are to know ourselves. The institutes can be viewed as a defense of the reformed faith against the errors of the then prominent Catholic church but goes far beyond in its sweep to be an enduring work of theology and philosophy. Its one of the greatest stabs ever made at the question of what reality is from a Christian’s point of view. Therefore, it is also a defense against philosophical atheism and therefore can also be classified as a work of apologetics or at least as one that includes apologetics. Notwithstanding its greatness, the work has certain limitations in stating and holding a strict view of election and predestination that leaves little room for human impetus, responsibility or will in the process of salvation. While it reinforces the idea that salvation is (wholly) of the Lord[1] it also baffles the issue of why the punishment of the lost becomes deserved. It therefore creates a conundrum that may not be solved and these ideas may never reconcile in a Calvinistic model to one’s satisfaction. One will have to wait until eternity ensues and Jesus comes with the answer. A simpler model that can serve us well might be one that leaves room for human responsibility while it leaves the answer to the question of how God elects before the foundation of the world, as one that we can only wonder about and one which we can only peer through darkly as one looking through a glass.
[1] KJV Jonah 2:9
Bibliography
Bibles
The King James Version of The Holy Bible
Books
Berkhof, Louis: Systematic Theology, Banner of Truth 2005
Calvin, John The Institutes of The Christian Religion Arnold Hatfield, London 1599
(Online versions)
http://www.reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/books/institutes/
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.txt
Schaff, Phillip History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity. The Swiss Reformation, Charles Scribner & Sons 1910
Scroggie, W. Graham, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption, Kregel 1994
Online resources
Baird, Bryan Neal, An Apology for my Theology, The inseparable link between Reformed Theology and Presuppositional Apologetics
http://www.reformed.org/apologetics/index.html
Calvin, John The Institutes of The Christian Religion http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.txt
Schaff, Phillip History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity. The Swiss Reformation.
http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/About.htm
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8.iv.xiv.ii.html
[1] Calvin Calvin's Institutes, CH. 1, P.1
[2] Baird, The inseparable link between Reformed Theology and Presuppositional Apologetics p.1
[3] John Calvin, The Institutes of The Christian Religion Ch. 1 sec. 1
[4] KJV, 2Cor 10:5
[5] John Calvin, The Institutes of The Christian Religion, Ch 2 sec 4?
[6] KJV 2 Cor. 1:24
[7] W. Graham Scroggie, The unfolding drama of redemption, Kregel 1994
[8] John Calvin, Calvin's Institutes, CH. 21, John Calvin P.568
[9] Berkhof, P. 110
[10]Schaff, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8.iv.xiv.ii.html
[11] KJV Jonah 2:9
Reflection on the first volume of Calvin’s institutes
Motivation and nature:
Even though Calvin’s work ‘the institutes’ is understood to be systematic theology, it can also be very well seen as an apology to the Christian faith and especially of the reformed faith. It’s obvious that it was written as a defense against the Romanism of the times. This is evident from its content and from the main motivation stated in the opening of Henry Beveridge’s translation. In 1536 Calvin was in exile and thousands of his protestant brothers also known as the Huguenots were facing dire persecutions from an apostate Catholic Church and those under its sway. The principles for which they were fighting for had to be explained before the governing authorities and judges while still in the face of attacks by a formidable and well-entrenched enemy. In the opening letter to the king of France, Calvin discounts his motivation not to be for his own selfish desire, that of overturning his exile and preparing a return for himself to his native France. Calvin relates how he undertakes this task through God’s grace attributing his success in the work to His maker. The work was intended to become a match, an answer and shield against an overshadowing and formidable Roman Catholic Church, which had run a full course of heresy, corruption, tyranny and unorthodoxy. Once written, Calvin’s work becomes influential even beyond the times of the conflicts in France even up until today, especially among reformed circles.
The evidences of God in creation that is made clear to the conscience of every individual, along with the wholesomeness and truth of the scriptures are stated and defended with skill no par. This Calvin does in the first book of his humongous four-volume work, which he refers to as the knowledge of God and man, which he explains to be the sum of all wisdom.[1] Calvin here is defending the faith once delivered to all of us. Therefore, his apologetics goes beyond classical apologetics about the existence of God to further establish this only and true God to be the Christian God. Therefore, his statements and arguments along with the numerous inferences from scripture are compatible with pre-suppositional apologetics[2] (see Baird p.1) even though there are smatterings of classical apologies in his work. There is no doubt that he most vigorously states and defends the Christian faith with exacting deduction and thoroughness.
The Nature of Calvin’s Institutes: Defense
These initial chapters of the institutes are deep, well-rounded reflections of someone who has meditated all their lives on such issues, alongside of the scriptures, to come up with a sweeping and epic work about the knowledge of God and man. For example, Calvin starts out his treatise by saying the profound idea that man can only know himself through God. He states,
For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.[3]
These meditations or if we can call them vignettes or theological pieces, reveal a mind that is well versed in the scriptures as well as disciplines like theology, philosophy, psychology and logic, just to mention a few. Calvin succeeds in combining all the disciplines at his disposal to create masterful explanations for all of reality, which done well can be the ultimate apology and defense. He comes very close to succeeding in this formidable task of putting Christianity’s truth beyond the reach of any opposition. Calvin makes such arguments like the one quoted above throughout his treatise, as one grappling with any and all doubts, real or imagined, to answer and settle them once and for all in order to bring them captive to Christ.[4]
Its almost as if he means to leave no rock to be left unturned or no argument is to be left unanswered; all issues are dealt with and all doubts are repelled, resulting in a sizable work that surpasses the regalia and fodder of Roman hypocrisy. Of course he could not have foreseen the opposition and attacks that would arise in the centuries that followed his time. Others would have to have risen to answer those challenges when they materialized. What he deems as “perfectly obvious” in the above quote would get challenged in modern times as a presupposition, when Christianity becomes vilified by modern philosophies and so called sciences. Evolution, Marxism and secular psychology begin to have a grip on the thinking of modern man and a type of Biblical scholarship gets formulated in Europe that discounts the claims of the Bible. It then must follow that, new and even stronger apologetics needed to be developed and apologetics has to evolve to answer the objections and heresies of its times.
Its influence on Church Doctrine
In one place, Calvin explains how Augustine’s statement was misunderstood when he said, “he would not have been saved apart from the authority of the church” Calvin does this by putting Augustine’s statements in the proper context of the Manichean controversy which Augustine had been involved with.[5] This idea misconstrued had found itself into Catholic theology and lead to much abuse by the church whose practices were a far cry from what Paul had meant when he said,
Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 2 Cor. 1:24 (KJV) [6]
. Its obvious Augustine was dear to Calvin and he explains what the Bishop from Hippo had meant without compromising the reformation idea of salvation by grace alone through faith. By doing so he also defended the scriptures and the budding growing reformation movement against the prevailing, oppressive, Roman thinking and dogma.
Criticisms of Calvin’s Work:
It is often stated that the over arching theme of Calvin’s institutes is the sovereignty of God. While this as a whole is a true, great and wonderful principle under which to systematize theology, some of its parts like predestination and election can be employed to an extreme to create theologically sticky positions. The main opposing view to these ideas is that, human drama in history is not precisely and robotically pre-planned by God but its dynamic requires the input of human actors and players, who have a part in molding destinies, theirs as well as others. The strength of this opposing view is that it puts human responsibility on par with what scripture says about it.
Two things however are true, whether or not we can harmonize them, namely the sovereignty of God, and the free will of man. Neither of this can cancel out the other. They are both thought in scripture, and exemplified in experience (Scroggie P. 143)[7]
The Little Foxes that Divide:
Calvin often employs scripture in expounding these truths and so we can say he is biblically based. However, smatterings of the philosophy of former greats like Augustine have obviously influenced him and are found quoted in the body of his work. Human opinion and reflection or even bias can creep into a theological body of work. Therefore, it becomes necessary to state that no human theological work, not even an influential one like Calvin’s can be put on the same level as God’s word but should only at best be subservient to it. It also becomes necessary to measure all of its parts, even the minute ones, alongside of the scriptures to determine whether they are totally free from error. While works like Calvin’s can be valuable due to their clarity of exposition and certain degree of doctrinal correctness found within them, their inerrancy cannot and should not be exaggerated.
We should therefore rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God for guidance while we employ all such works. As Daniel says, “Knowledge shall increase”. It follows that when we have a better vantage point and better linguistic and theological tools at our disposal, it should not be beyond the realm of possibilities for us to revise or critique a great reformer and theological mind like Calvin, in some of the ideas he has posited that have been less than illumining. For example, when Calvin famously states double predestination in Ch. 21 of the institutes, he is saying something not explicitly stated in scripture but one he had synthesized from scripture albeit correctly or not. The implications of this view have polarized evangelicals into two camps even unto this day.
Calvin had said,
By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.[8]
Not all of the other 1st generation of reformers had agreed to it and even if Paul seems to have mentioned both predestination pair they are not thought to unfold in the same manner or to be equally weighed (Berkhof, 110)[9] As someone who is of reformed faith and who has himself written a great sweeping work, Phillip Shaff says the following, in his discussion of the Calvinistic system, In Book VIII of his eight-volume church history work,
Calvinism has the advantage of logical compactness, consistency, and completeness. Admitting its premises, it is difficult to escape its conclusions. A system can only be overthrown by a system. It requires a theological genius of the order of Augustine and Calvin, who shall rise above the antagonism of divine sovereignty and human freedom, and shall lead us to a system built upon the rock of the historic Christ, and inspired from beginning to end with the love of God to all mankind [10]
Conclusion
Calvin’s work in the institutes provides us with a working philosophy of how God can be known and how we are to know ourselves. The institutes can be viewed as a defense of the reformed faith against the errors of the then prominent Catholic church but goes far beyond in its sweep to be an enduring work of theology and philosophy. Its one of the greatest stabs ever made at the question of what reality is from a Christian’s point of view. Therefore, it is also a defense against philosophical atheism and therefore can also be classified as a work of apologetics or at least as one that includes apologetics. Notwithstanding its greatness, the work has certain limitations in stating and holding a strict view of election and predestination that leaves little room for human impetus, responsibility or will in the process of salvation. While it reinforces the idea that salvation is (wholly) of the Lord[1] it also baffles the issue of why the punishment of the lost becomes deserved. It therefore creates a conundrum that may not be solved and these ideas may never reconcile in a Calvinistic model to one’s satisfaction. One will have to wait until eternity ensues and Jesus comes with the answer. A simpler model that can serve us well might be one that leaves room for human responsibility while it leaves the answer to the question of how God elects before the foundation of the world, as one that we can only wonder about and one which we can only peer through darkly as one looking through a glass.
[1] KJV Jonah 2:9
Bibliography
Bibles
The King James Version of The Holy Bible
Books
Berkhof, Louis: Systematic Theology, Banner of Truth 2005
Calvin, John The Institutes of The Christian Religion Arnold Hatfield, London 1599
(Online versions)
http://www.reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/books/institutes/
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.txt
Schaff, Phillip History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity. The Swiss Reformation, Charles Scribner & Sons 1910
Scroggie, W. Graham, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption, Kregel 1994
Online resources
Baird, Bryan Neal, An Apology for my Theology, The inseparable link between Reformed Theology and Presuppositional Apologetics
http://www.reformed.org/apologetics/index.html
Calvin, John The Institutes of The Christian Religion http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.txt
Schaff, Phillip History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity. The Swiss Reformation.
http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/About.htm
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8.iv.xiv.ii.html
[1] Calvin Calvin's Institutes, CH. 1, P.1
[2] Baird, The inseparable link between Reformed Theology and Presuppositional Apologetics p.1
[3] John Calvin, The Institutes of The Christian Religion Ch. 1 sec. 1
[4] KJV, 2Cor 10:5
[5] John Calvin, The Institutes of The Christian Religion, Ch 2 sec 4?
[6] KJV 2 Cor. 1:24
[7] W. Graham Scroggie, The unfolding drama of redemption, Kregel 1994
[8] John Calvin, Calvin's Institutes, CH. 21, John Calvin P.568
[9] Berkhof, P. 110
[10]Schaff, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8.iv.xiv.ii.html
[11] KJV Jonah 2:9
