John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and Theologian

C. Zachman Randall

Description

John Calvin has been the subject of numerous studies, but most have focused on one aspect of his thought or a limited selection of his writings. This study of Calvin adopts a uniquely holistic approach.Randall Zachman begins with a brief biography and considers Calvin's own understanding of his ministry as a teacher and pastor. From this perspective, he surveys Calvin's writings and their place in the work of reforming the church--both through the training of clergy and the instruction of the laity. Zachman then considers Calvin as a theologian. In contrast to Martin Luther, Calvin sought to balance the verbal proclamation of the Word with an emphasis on the visible manifestation of God--both in creation and in Christ.This study will be of great interest to Reformed clergy and to students of the Reformation and Calvinism.

Sujets

• Calvinist
• Philosophie et théologie
• Calvinism

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441241924
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2006 by Randall C. Zachman
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4192-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
C ONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Abbreviations
Part 1: Calvin as Teacher and Pastor
1. The Life and Work of John Calvin
2. Calvin and Melanchthon on the Office of the Evangelical Teacher
3. “Do You Understand What You Are Reading?”: Calvin’s Guidance for Reading Scripture
4. What Kind of Book Is Calvin’s Institutes ?
5. Gathering Meaning from the Context: Calvin’s Exegetical Method
6. Building Up the Faith of Children: Calvin’s Catechisms, 1536–1545
7. Expounding Scripture and Applying It to Our Use: Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians
Part 2: Calvin as Theologian
8. Image and Word in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin
9. Manifestation and Proclamation in Calvin’s Theology
10. Calvin as Analogical Theologian
11. The Universe as the Living Image of God
12. Jesus Christ as the Living Image of God

Conclusion
Scripture Index
Subject Index
Notes
P REFACE
This book has arisen out of two insights into the theology of John Calvin that I discovered in the course of teaching his theology for the past two decades. First, I learned that Calvin had as his ultimate objective teaching every single man, woman, and child how to read Scripture for themselves, so that they might apply its genuine meaning to every aspect of their lives. To this end, Calvin dedicated himself in his office as teacher to training orthodox and evangelical pastors who would act as guides to the interpretation of Scripture for their congregations, primarily by means of the Institutes and biblical commentaries. Calvin also acted as a pastor in Geneva, teaching the ordinary Christians in his congregation the sum of the doctrine of piety in the Catechism , and then guiding their own reading of Scripture by his exposition and application of Scripture in his sermons. Calvin envisioned the church as a school in which all Christians act as both students and teachers, under the instruction of the Holy Spirit, the author of Scripture. In this school, teachers who guide others in their reading must always be willing to be taught themselves, both by other teachers and by their students, whereas students must also be ready to teach as well as to be taught. It has been my delight to discover more of Calvin’s vision of the “teachable teacher” with my own students, who became my teachers as well. I would therefore like to dedicate the first part of this book to my students who studied Calvin together with me for the first two decades of my teaching career, as well as to the teacher, Brian A. Gerrish, who above all others taught me what to look for in Calvin’s theology.
Second, I discovered that for all his interest in teaching and reading Scripture, Calvin was a deeply contemplative theologian, who claimed that the invisible God becomes somewhat visible to us in what he called “living images of God,” which form the self-manifestation of God. Calvin exhorted the godly to contemplate these living images of God for themselves, in conjunction with their hearing and reading of Scripture, so that they might perceive, feel, and enjoy the goodness of God portrayed therein and be drawn upwards to God from the inmost affection of their hearts, being transformed themselves thereby into the image of God. Calvin pointed to two living images in particular in which the fountain and author of every good is manifested to us, the universe and Jesus Christ. As a theologian, therefore, Calvin was especially concerned to follow the analogy and anagoge between the visible self-manifestation of God and the realities manifested therein. I would like to dedicate the second part of this book to my wife Carolyne Call, for she has consistently pointed me to the living image of God in the beauty of creation and especially in the other creatures with whom we share our life on earth, and she has been for me an especially vivid image of the goodness of our Creator and Redeemer.
A BBREVIATIONS Calvin: Commentaries Calvin: Commentaries, trans. and ed. Joseph Haroutunian (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1958) Calvin: Theological Treatises Calvin: Theological Treatises, ed. J. K. S. Reid (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1954) CNTC Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, 12 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959–72) CO Ioannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. Wilhelm Baum, Edward Cunitz, and Edward Reuss, 59 vols., Corpus reformatorum 29–87 (Brunsvigae: Schwetschke [Bruhn], 1863–1900) Comm. Commentary CR Corpus reformatorum, vols. 1–28, Philippi Melanthonis opera (Halis Saxonum: Schwetschke, 1834–60) CTS The Commentaries of John Calvin on the Old Testament, 30 vols. (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1843–48) Inst. and LCC John Calvin, Institutio christianae religionis (Geneva: Rob. Stephani, 1559). Cited by book, chapter, and section, from OS 3–5, followed by LCC references to Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill and trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols., Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960) Letters The Letters of John Calvin , trans. Jules Bonnet, 4 vols. (New York: Franklin, 1972) LW Luther’s Works , ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, American edition (St. Louis: Concordia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955–) MWA Melanchthons Werke in Auswahl , ed. Robert Stupperich (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1961) OE Ioannis Calvini opera omnia , series 2, Opera exegetica veteris et novi testamenti (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1992–) OS Ioannis Calvini opera selecta, ed. Peter Barth, Wilhelm Niesel, and Dora Scheuner, 5 vols. (Munich: Kaiser, 1926–52) Romanos Iohannis Calvini commentarius in epistolam Pauli ad Romanos, ed. T. H. L. Parker, Studies in the History of Christian Thought 22 (Leiden: Brill, 1981) Tracts and Treatises John Calvin, Tracts and Treatises, trans. Henry Beveridge, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958) WA D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar: Böhlau, 1883–)
PART 1
C ALVIN AS T EACHER AND P ASTOR

John Calvin lived during a time when many Christians, both Roman and evangelical, recognized that the ministry of the church was in crisis. It is difficult for us to imagine what the training of ministers must have been like before seminaries were created precisely to address the lack of adequate ministerial formation during this period. John Calvin was well aware of the dire consequences of this lack of ministerial formation. According to Calvin, neither bishops nor priests were skilled in the interpretation of Scripture or particularly adept at teaching the summary of the doctrine that leads to genuine piety. “Those who were regarded as the leaders of faith neither understood thy Word, nor greatly cared for it. They drove unhappy people to and fro with strange doctrines, and deluded them with I know not what follies.” [1] Due to the neglect of Scripture and its teaching by the leaders of the church, Calvin thought that the ordinary people in the church were liable to believe anything that their pastors told them, leading to the superstitious worship of God. “Among the people themselves, the highest veneration paid to thy Word was to revere it at a distance, as a thing inaccessible, and abstain from all investigation of it. Owing to this supine state of the pastors, and this stupidity of the people, every place was filled with pernicious errors, falsehoods, and superstition.” [2] The neglect of Scripture was compounded by the lack of adequate catechesis for ordinary Christians. “Then, the rudiments in which I had been instructed were of a kind which could neither properly train me for the legitimate worship of thy Deity, nor train me aright for the duties of the Christian life.” [3] Ordinary Christians were turned away from Scripture to human-made images, statues, and pictures in the churches, which were understood to be the “books of the unlearned.” Thus, the neglect of Scripture by the ministers of the church led directly to the superstitious adoration of images, and the confinement of God to those images.
From the time of his “sudden conversion to teachableness” between 1532 and 1535, Calvin dedicated all of his efforts to addressing the neglect of the summary of godly doctrine and the interpretation of Scripture by both the pastors and the ordinary people in the church. The astonishing literary production of Calvin between 1535 and 1564 bears witness to the tremendous energy and dedication he gave to this effort. During this time he produced five different editions of the Institutes , as well as commentaries on the entire New Testament, with the exception of 2 and 3 John and Revelation, the “five books of Moses,” Joshua, the entire Psalter, and all of the prophets except for Ezek. 21–48. He also produced three editions of his Catechism , and preached sermons through