Reconsidering the Sensus Divinitatis in the Light of the Semen Religionis: John Calvin and Non-Christian Religion | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
Volume 31 Number 2
  • ISSN: 0960-2720
  • E-ISSN: 2666-9730

Abstract

Summary

John Calvin’s references to the in the have been variously understood and applied. This article considers four interpretations of Calvin’s meaning and use of the term and critically evaluates these against his comments on enlightenment by the in the prologue of the Gospel of John, and his thoughts on idolatry and non-Christian religion. In light of the analyses, I propose an alternative interpretation of the usage of the term, namely that Calvin employed it to stand in opposition to and in ongoing tension with the fruit of the – namely idolatrous religion. I argue that this particular reading of Calvin’s adoption and adaptation of Stoic terminology has certain advantages over alternative readings, given his opposition to the religious hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church of his era.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/EJT2022.2.003.MCGE
2022-10-01
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adams, Edward, ‘Calvin’s View of Natural Knowledge of God’, International Journal of Systematic Theology3.3 (2001) 280-292.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Backus, Irena, ‘Calvin’s Concept of Natural and Roman Law’, Calvin Theological Journal38 (2003) 7-26.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barth, Karl, ‘Brunner and Calvin’ in JohnBaillie (ed.), Natural Theology (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002) 94-109.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics Vol 1.2. translated by G.W.Bromiley, G.T.Thomson and HaroldKnight (London: T&T Clark, 2009).
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bavinck, Herman, Reformed Dogmatics Volume1, ed. JohnBolt, trans. JohnVriend (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003).
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Berkouwer, G.C., General Revelation, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973).
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bouwsma, William J., ‘The quest for the historical Calvin’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte77 (1986) 47-57.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bouwsma, William J., John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bouwsma, William J., ‘Explaining John Calvin’, The Wilson Quarterly13.1 (1989) 68-75.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Breen, Quirinus, JohnCalvin: A Study in French Humanism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931; 2nd edn Hamden: Archon Books, 1968).
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Calvin, John, Commentaries. Calvin Translation Society (CTS) edition at https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/commentaries.i.html (accessed 11/01/2022)
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. by John T.McNeill; Louisville: Westminster / John Knox Press, 2006).
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Canlis, Julie, Calvin’s Ladder: A Spiritual Theology of Ascent and Ascension (Grand Rapids / Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2010).
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Capetz, Paul E., ‘A Seed of Religion.’ A Study in the Theologies of Calvin and Schleiermacher (PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1996).
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Cumin, Paul, Christ at the Crux: The Mediation of God and Creation in Christological Perspective (Eugene: Pickwick, 2014).
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Dowey Jr., Edward A., The Knowledge of God in Calvin’s Theory (3rd edn; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994).
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Edmondson, Stephen, Calvin’s Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Eire, Carlos M.N., War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge / New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Eire, Carlos M.N., ‘John Calvin, Accidental Anthropologist’ in Randall C.Zachman (ed.), John Calvin and Roman Catholicism: Critique and Engagement, Then and Now (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008) 145-163.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Gerrish, B.A., Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Gootjes, H., ‘The Sense of Divinity: A Critical Examination of the Views of Calvin and Demarest’, Westminster Theological Journal48 (1986) 337-350.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Grislis, Egil, ‘Calvin’s Use of Cicero in the Institutes 1:15 – A Case Study in Theological Method’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte – Archive for Reformation History62 (1971) 5-37.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Helm, Paul, ‘John Calvin, the Sensus Divinitatis, and the Noetic Effects of Sin’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion43.2 (1998) 87-107.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Helm, Paul, John Calvin’s Ideas (Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Helm, Paul, ‘Calvin and Stoicism’ in GünterFrank and Herman J.Selderhuis (eds), Philosophie der Reformierten (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: frommann-holzboog, 2012) 169-182.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Hesselink, John I., ‘Law and Gospel or Gospel and Law? Karl Barth, Martin Luther and John Calvin’, Dutch Reformed Theological Journal53 (2012) 62-80.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Hoitenga, Jr., Dewey J., ‘Faith and Reason in Calvin’s Doctrine of the Knowledge of God’ in HendrikHart, Johanvan der Hoeven and NicholasWolterstorff (eds), Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2011) 17-39.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Horowitz, Maryanne Cline, ‘The Stoic Synthesis of the Idea of Natural Law in Man: Four Themes’, Journal of the History of Ideas35.1 (1974) 3-16.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Horton, Michael S., ‘Calvin and the Law-Gospel Hermeneutic’, Pro Ecclesia6.1 (1997) 27-42.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Jeffreys, Derek S., ‘How Reformed is Reformed Epistemology? Alvin Plantinga and Calvin’sSensus Divinitatis’, Religious Studies33 (1997) 419-431.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Jones, Serene, Calvin and the Rhetoric of Piety (Columbia Series in Reformed Theology; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995).
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Jones, Timothy Paul, ‘John Calvin and the Problem of Philosophical Apologetics’, Perspectives in Religious Studies23.4 (1996) 387-403.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti, ‘Calvin and Religions’ in SungWook Chung (ed.), John Calvin and Evangelical Theology: Legacy and Prospect (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2009) 266-283.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Kooi, Cornelis van der, As in a Mirror: John Calvin and Karl Barth on Knowing God: A Diptych (Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 120; Leiden: Brill, 2005).
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Lee, Constance Y., ‘The Spark That Still Shines: John Calvin on Conscience and Natural Law’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion8 (2019) 615-640.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Leith, John H., ‘Calvin’s Theological Method and the Ambiguity in His Theology’ in FranklinHamlin Littell (ed.), Reformation Studies: Essays in Honour of Roland H. Bainton (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1962) 106-114.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Leith, John, H., ‘John Calvin’s Polemic Against Idolatry’ in J.McDowell Richards (ed.), Soli Deo Gloria. New Testament Studies in Honor of William Childs Robinson (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1968) 111-124.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Leithart, Peter J., ‘That Eminent Pagan: Calvin’s Use of Cicero in Institutes 1.1-5’, Westminster Theological Journal52 (1990) 1-12.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Leithart, Peter J., ‘Stoic Elements in Calvin’s Doctrine of the Christian Life Part I: Original Corruption, Natural Law, and the Order of the Soul’, Westminster Theological Journal55 (1993) 31-54.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Moon, Byung-Ho, Lex Dei Regula Vivendi et Vivificandi: Calvin’s Christological Understanding of the Law in the Light of his Concept of Christus Mediator Legis (PhD Dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 2003).
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Muller, Richard A., Post­Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. Prolegomena to Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987).
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Muller, Richard A., The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology; New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Nuovo, Victor Lawrence, Calvin’s Theology: A Study of its Sources in Classical Antiquity (PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, 1964).
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Oliphint, K. Scott, Reasons for Faith: Philosophy in the Service of Theology (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2006).
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Oliphint, K. Scott, ‘Historical and Theological Studies: Using Reason by Faith’, Westminster Theological Journal73 (2011) 97-112.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Parker, T.H.L., The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God: A Study in the Theology of John Calvin (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1952).
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Parker, T.H.L., Calvin. An Introduction to his Thought (London / New York: Continuum, 1995).
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Pelkonen, J. Peter, ‘The Teaching of John Calvin on the Nature and Function of the Conscience’, Lutheran Quarterly21.1 (1969) 74-88.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Pitkin, Barbara, What Pure Eyes Could See: Calvin’s Doctrine of Faith in its Exegetical Context (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Pitkin, Barbara, ‘The Spiritual Gospel? Christ and Human Nature in Calvin’s Commentary on John’, Dutch Review of Church History85 (2005) 187-204.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Plantinga, Alvin, Warranted Christian Belief (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Potgieter, P.C., ‘Calvin and Other Religions’, Acta Theologica24.1 (2004) 147-167.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Preus, J. Samuel, ‘Zwingli, Calvin and the Origin of Religion’, Church History46.2 (1977) 186-202.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Raith II, Charles D., ‘Calvin’s Theological Appropriation of His Philosophical Sources: A Note on Natural Law and Institutes 2.2.22-23’, Calvin Theological Journal47 (2012) 32-49.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Schreiner, Susan, The Theater of His Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001).
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Steinmetz, David C., Calvin in Context (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Steinmetz, David C., ‘The Theology of John Calvin’ in DavidBagchi and David C.Steinmetz (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) 113-129.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Sudduth, Michael, The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009).
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Thomas, John Newton, ‘The Place of Natural Theology in the Thought of John Calvin’, The Journal of Religious Thought15 (1958) 107-136.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Vorster, Nico, ‘Assessing the Consistency of John Calvin’s Doctrine on Human Sinfulness’, HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies71.3 (2015) 1-8.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Wallace Jr., Dewey D., Shapers of English Calvinism, 1660–1714. Variety, Persistence, and Transformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Waters, Guy Prentiss, ‘The Law of God’ in Derek W. H.Thomas and John W.Tweeddale (eds), John Calvin for a New Reformation (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019) 307-334.
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Willis, E. David, Calvin’s Catholic Christology: The Function of the So­called Extra Calvinisticum in Calvin’s Theology (Leiden: Brill, 1966).
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Wolterstorff, Nicholas, ‘The Reformed Tradition’ in Philip L.Quinn and CharlesTaliaferro (eds), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Malden: Blackwell, 1999) 204-209.
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Woolford, Thomas, Natural Theology and Natural Philosophy in the Late Renaissance (Doctor of Philosophy dissertation: University of Cambridge, 2011).
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Wyatt, Peter, Jesus Christ and Creation in the Theology of John Calvin (Eugene: Pickwick, 1996).
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/EJT2022.2.003.MCGE
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error