John Calvin: Biblical Preacher (1539–1564)

Abstract

Calvin is often seen as ‘larger than life’ by his disciples and his enemies. This contention animates a recent article by William Bouwsma, whose forthcoming Oxford monograph is titled,John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait. One must be cautious in obtruding the historical Calvin over against the theologian, thereby contending that for the Genevan Reformer theological questions were primarily a way of life. For Calvin hisInstitutewas also a response to contemporary theological questions. One such question elicited Calvin's response in 1555 to Laelius Socinus on the merits of Christ. Calvin warns against ‘certain perversely subtle men’ who obscure God's mercy in Christ. Socinus asked whether the death of Christ which won merit for all persons was also meritorious for Christ himself. To set Christ's merit against God's mercy ‘is no less stupid curiosity than their temerity in making such a definition’. Calvin inserted that letter into the 1559Institute. Concurrent with Bouwsma's article, Alister McGrath points to Calvin's response to precise questions raised by thevia modernaschool of theology at Paris under the Scot John Major in which human merit and that of Christ rest on divine good pleasure alone. Calvin's solution is continuous with the voluntarism which he encountered while in Paris.