Abstract
In the weekly Bible study meetings on Fridays in Geneva, called les congrégations, biblical books were expounded in lectio continua. On one occasion the doctrine of divine election was presented over against the intervention of Jerome Bolsec. The ministers of Geneva presented their internal consensus on predestination and sought the approval of the Swiss churches. This paper argues on historical, literary and material grounds that not Calvin’s book De aeterna praedestinatione Dei of early 1552, but the Congrégation sur l’élection éternelle de Dieu of 18 December 1551, should be identified as the ‘Consensus Genevensis’. The doctrine of predestination was not a particularity of John Calvin’s, but a point of teaching the Scriptures, shared by the Genevan ministers.
Highlights
THE CONSENSUS TIGURINUSThe term consensus reminds us of the agreement on the sacraments between Calvin on behalf of Geneva and, in the name of the Church of Zurich, Heinrich Bullinger in 1549, which would later be called the Consensus42 Not all ministers, serving in one of the villages, were present
This paper argues on historical, literary and material grounds that not Calvin’s book De aeterna praedestinatione Dei of early 1552, but the Congrégation sur l’élection éternelle de Dieu of 18 December 1551, should be identified as the ‘Consensus Genevensis’
Reid’s translation,[14] Schulze noted the following conclusion regarding the dedication of this work to the Council of Geneva and its authorisation to print: The request was granted and ‘a private writing of Calvin became an authentic document of Genevan orthodoxy, though it never enjoyed magisterial approval in other Swiss states’
Summary
The Congrégation sur l’élection éternelle de Dieu of 18 December 1551 is one of the very few surviving texts, which document the proceedings of the Bible studies, held in Geneva on Fridays. Totius had studied at the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and his promotor was Herman Hubert Kuyper, son of Abraham Kuyper With his inaugural lecture Totius was the first to try to revive the institution of the Prophezei from Zurich and the Congrégations from Geneva in the context of the South African Reformed Churches. Totius followed the theological encyclopaedia of Abraham Kuyper and discussed the idea of the congrégations in the context of practical theology, but as a form not of the ministry, but of the activity of lay members in the Church He placed such Bible study meetings in the part of the theological program called ‘laiek’, which analyses the ministry of all believers (‘het ambt aller gelovigen’).[7] H.H. Kuyper, Totius’ promotor, had devoted his own thesis to ‘The Training for the Ministry of the Word by the Reformed’ (De opleiding tot de dienst des Woords bij de Gereformeerden). The special congrégation of 18 December 1551 was convened to show the unity of the pastors on the doctrine of election to the citizens of Geneva
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