Background and Disclaimer Almost three years ago, I wrote a series of posts on John Calvin’s “Institutes of Christian Religion“, one of which critiqued the principle of sola scriptura. A recent debate with a few Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians helped me appreciate Calvin’s position better than before. In the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, it is fitting to write in defense of sola scriptura, the formal principle […]
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Institutes of the Christian Religion: The Origin and Purpose of Doctrine
There is an autobiographical story of how Lu Xun became a writer, which I read many years ago and cannot forget: Lu Xun studied medicine in Japan, and prepared to be a doctor, for he wanted to relieve human suffering. When he saw that patients who nearly died from opium overdose immediately went back to opium after their treatment, he decided to take up writing instead — realizing that healing must […]
Read moreInstitutes of the Christian Religion: Faith and Works
The End of Spiritual Man Aristotle writes that the end of man is to think and act. If a man doesn’t think or act, he is not actually living nor fulfilling his telos; If a newborn baby doesn’t eat, grow and play around, something is terribly wrong. From a Calvinist perspective, man in his fallen state is spiritually dead. It is impossible for him to seek God or do any […]
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John Calvin, the Person and the Theologian
As a person, Calvin is studious and erudite. He is familiar with Greek, the writings of the Church Fathers, as well as the pagan Greek and Latin writers. He values his own intellect, learning and, more importantly, independence and freedom of thought. It is perhaps for this reason, more than anything else, that he treats the Catholic Church as a tyrannical institution. The Pope, he argues, usurps authority over the […]
Read moreInstitutes of the Christian Religion: Predestination
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. …Not only in the case of single individuals, …but the future condition of each nation lives entirely at his disposal. — John Calvin “Institutes of the Christian […]
Read moreInstitutes of the Christian Religion: A Definition of Faith
The pagan philosopher Plutarch writes that, regarding beliefs in God, we should avoid two extremes: atheism and superstition. The former abandons all ideas of God, whereas the latter holds false ideas of a malevolent deity. In Book 3 Chapter 2 of the Institutes, Calvin provides a definition of the Christian faith, which is opposed to both atheism and superstition: Faith is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor […]
Read moreInstitutes of the Christian Religion: Grace and Free Will
The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Psalm 14:2-3 Calvin inherits Augustine’s doctrine of Original Sin, which teaches that, subsequent to his infidelity and disobedience against God in the Garden of Eden, Man’s nature, including his […]
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