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Calvin on Providence: The Developement of an Insight
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
For the multitude of men John Calvin's name is but a synonym for the doctrine of predestination. It makes little difference that the notion of a twofold predestination (to heaven, that is, or to hell) was taught and defended as early as the 5th century A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. It matters little, also, that Calvin believed and stressed many other doctrines besides predestination. He is imagined to have so emphasised that doctrine that little room could be left for human initiative and industry, although history demonstrates that his general teaching had precisely the opposite effect on those who came under its influence. No, to many he remains the cold, calculating logician of God's ways.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1975
References
page 517 note 1 Letters of Aldous Huxley (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), p. 730Google Scholar; cf, also p. 866.
page 517 note 2 For example, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, 23.1.
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page 518 note 7 The expression was readily adopted by the Greek Fathers who shared the Stoic persuasion regarding man's radical powers of self-determination. It was frequently translated into Latin as principale mentis, cf. Origen, In Numeros, 1.1; 10.3.
page 519 note 1 Calvin's Commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, pp. 79 (1.26), 91–3 (1.32), 99–107 (1–35.8).
page 519 note 2 ibid., p. 29(1.6).
page 519 note 3 ibid., pp. 39 (I.gf), 73 (1.23), 113–15 (1.41f), 195 (1.78), etc.
page 519 note 4 cf., for example, this Stoicorum dogma in ibid., p. 365 (2.151).
page 519 note 5 ibid., p. 112 (1.141).
page 519 note 6 ibid., p. 372 (2.153).
page 519 note 7 ibid., p. 60 (1.18).
page 519 note 8 ibid., p. 62 (1.19).
page 519 note 9 ibid., pp. 64 (1.20), 66 (1.20), 292 (1.120), 300 (1.123), 370 (2.153).
page 519 note 10 ibid., p. 33 (1.7).
page 519 note 11 ibid., pp. 29–31 (1.6). On casus cf. also pp. 70 (1.22), 370 (2.153).
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page 520 note 10 Calvin, De Aeterna Dei Praedestinatione, Opp. 8.353f.
page 520 note 11 Calvin, NTC, 7.106.
page 520 note 12 Calvin's Commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, p. 40 (1.10).
page 520 note 13 ibid.; cf. also p. 59 (1.17).
page 521 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 6.228.
page 521 note 2 Calvin, JVTC, 11.264.
page 521 note 3 Calvin, NTC, 5.12.
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page 523 note 1 Institutio, 2.4; Opp., 1.74.
page 523 note 2 It was to become chapter 14 of the 1554 edition.
page 523 note 3 Strohl, art. cit., p. 162.
page 523 note 4 ibid., p. 169.
page 523 note 5 Institutio, 8.28; Opp., 1.881.
page 523 note 6 Calvin, NTC, 8.162.
page 524 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 7.181.
page 524 note 2 Calvin, De Aeterna Dei Praedestinatione, Opp., 8.349; cf- NTC, 4.190.
page 524 note 3 John Calvin, 1559 Instilutio, 3.2.7; Institutes 0f the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), Vol. 1, p. 475. All references to the 1559 edition will be according to this translation.
page 524 note 4 Calvin, 1539 Institutio, 8.5; Opp., 1.864.
page 524 note 5 ibid., 8.38; Opp. 1.889.
page 524 note 6 He later, however, does refer to a ‘mundi machina’; cf. De Aetema Dei Praedestinatione, Opp., 8.347.
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page 525 note 5 Strohl, art. cit., p. 163.
page 525 note 6 ibid., p. 159.
page 525 note 7 Calvin, 1539 Institutio, 8.5; Opp., 1.865.
page 525 note 8 Tillich, op. cit., p. 7.
page 526 note 1 Calvin feared nothing so much as idolatry. Cf. Leith, John H., ‘John Calvin's Polemic Against Idolatry’, Soli Deo Gloria: New Testament Studies in Honor of William Childs Robinson (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1968), pp. 111–124.Google Scholar
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page 526 note 4 Calvin, Com. Pent., 3.37f.
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page 527 note 2 ibid.
page 527 note 3 ‘… Deus suo consilio dirigat quae maxime videntur fortuita’. Calvin, De Aetema Dei Praedestinatione, Opp., 8.353; cf. NTC, 4.193.
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page 527 note 5 ibid., 2.232; cf. also Com. Psalms, 3.120–3, 127, 137–9, 410, 497–9, etc.
page 527 note 6 For example, NTC, n.288f.; Com. Gen., 2.23; Com. Pent., 1.77; Com. Psalms, 1–54' 2.9, 33. 95–7; 3–218f., etc.
page 527 note 7 Calvin, NTC, 4.147.
page 528 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 7.141 f.
page 528 note 2 Calvin, DeAeternaDeiPraedeslinaiione, Opp., 8.347.
page 528 note 3 ‘… ut non unius tantum momenti sit opifex, sed perpetuus moderator.’ ibid.
page 528 note 4 Calvin, NTC, 4.10.
page 528 note 5 Calvin, NTC, 6.65.
page 529 note 1 Calvin, JVTC, 7.117f; cf. the same distinction in the 1539 Institutio, 8.5; Opp., 1.865.
page 529 note 2 Calvin, Opp., 7.183.
page 529 note 3 ibid., 7.186.
page 529 note 4 Calvin, DeAetema Dei Praedestinatione, Opp., 8.348; cf. also Com. Min. Pr., 2.201; Com. Gen., 2.337; NTC, 6.373; 10.213.
page 529 note 5 Calvin, Opp., 7.186.
page 529 note 6 ibid., 7.187.
page 530 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 7.13, 117; 9.187; 10.213; Com. Syn, 1.341; Com. Isaiah, 1.351; 4.29, 71; Com. Psalms, 1.95–9, 139, 481, 483, 516, 549; 2.43, 216; 4.6f, 257–64; 5.74.
page 530 note 2 ‘Toutesfois ceste opération universelle de Dieu n'empesche point, que chacune créature, tant au del comme en la terre, n'ait et ne retienne sa qualiti et nature, et suyve sa propre inclination. Calvin, Opp., 7.187.
page 530 note 3 ibid.
page 530 note 4 ibid. It should be noted, however, that Calvin's terminology here is not constant. Later on, in 1557, he employs the expression ‘special providence’ to mean all of God's guidance of nature; cf. Com. Min. Pr., 2.238.
page 530 note 5 Calvin, Opp., 7.188f. cf. von Rad, Gerhard, Old Testament Theology, Vol. 1 (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), pp. 51–54.Google Scholar
page 530 note 6 Calvin, Com. Gen., 2.337.
page 530 note 7 ibid., 2.127; NTC, 6.366, 381.
page 531 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 6.183, 185.
page 531 note 2 ibid., 6.181; Com Gen, 2.260, 307, 330, 378–80.
page 531 note 3 Calvin, NTC, 7.207, 236, 24If, 267f 279, 291–4, 306.
page 531 note 4 ibid., 10.399.
page 531 note 5 ibid., 6.64f.
page 531 note 6 ibid., 5.7.
page 531 note 7 ibid., 5.179.
page 531 note 8 ibid., 5.185; 11.311.
page 531 note 9 Calvin, Opp., 7.190.
page 532 note 1 Calvin, NTC, 8.260.
page 532 note 2 ibid., 6.65.
page 532 note 3 ibid., 5.174.
page 532 note 4 ibid., 6.350.
page 532 note 5 Calvin, Com. Isaiah, 1.389.
page 532 note 6 Calvin, NTC, 7.124; Com. Psalms, 3.124.
page 532 note 7 Calvin, NTC, 9.239; cf. also Com Psalms, 2.311.
page 532 note 8 Calvin, Com. Isaiah 2.131f.
page 532 note 9 Calvin, Opp. 7.190.
page 532 note 10 For a good discussion of this debate within the Thomistic school, cf. Gredt, J., Elementa Philosophiae Aristotelico-Thomisticae, Vol. 1, Barcelona: Herder, 1946, pp. 226–239.Google Scholar
page 533 note 1 I may be permitted to refer to my study ‘“Providence” in Origen's Contra Cetsum’, Ekklesiastikos Pharos, 1973, pp. 501–16.