John Calvin: A Companion to His Life and Theology

John Calvin

A Companion to His Life and Theology

Donald K. McKim

John Calvin

A Companion to His Life and Theology

Copyright © 2015 Donald K. McKim. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

From Calvin: Institutes, (Library of Christian Classics) edited by John T. McNeill, © 1960. Used by kind permission of Westminster John Knox Press (www.wjkbooks.com).

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Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

McKim, Donald K.

John calvin: a companion to his life and theology

Cascade Companions 25

166 + xii p. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 13: 978-1-62564-760-3

1. John Calvin 2. Title 3. Series

BX9421 .M45 2015

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 10/21/2015

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Part One: Life of Calvin

Chapter 1: Early Years and Education (1509–1536)

Chapter 2: Called to Geneva (1536–1538)

Chapter 3: Strasbourg (1538–1541)

Chapter 4: Return to Geneva (1541–1549)

Chapter 5: The Genevan Church (1550–1555)

Chapter 6: Final Years (1556–1564)

Part Two: Theology of Calvin

Chapter 7: Book I

Chapter 8: Book II

Chapter 9: Book III

Chapter 10: Book IV

Discussion Questions

Select Bibliography

Cascade Companions

The Christian theological tradition provides an embarrassment of riches: from scripture to modern scholarship, we are blessed with a vast and complex theological inheritance. And yet this feast of traditional riches is too frequently inaccessible to the general reader.

The Cascade Companions series addresses the challenge by publishing books that combine academic rigor with broad appeal and readability. They aim to introduce nonspecialist readers to that vital storehouse of authors, documents, themes, histories, arguments, and movements that comprise this heritage with brief yet compelling volumes.

Titles in this series:

An Introduction to the Desert Fathers by Jason Byassee

Reading Paul by Michael J. Gorman

Theology and Culture by D. Stephen Long

Creation and Evolution by Tatha Wiley

Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Stephen Fowl

Reading Bonhoeffer by Geffrey B. Kelly

Justpeace Ethics by Jarem Sawatsky

Feminism and Christianity by Caryn D. Griswold

Angels, Worms, and Bogeys by Michelle A. Clifton-Soderstrom

Christianity and Politics by C. C. Pecknold

A Way to Scholasticism by Peter S. Dillard

Theological Theodicy by Daniel Castelo

The Letter to the Hebrews in Social-Scientific Perspective

by David A. deSilva

Basil of Caesarea by Andrew Radde-Galwitz

A Guide to St. Symeon the New Theologian by Hannah Hunt

Reading John by Christopher W. Skinner

Forgiveness by Anthony Bash

The Rule of Faith by Everett Ferguson

Jacob Arminius by Rustin E. Brian

Jeremiah by Jack Lundbom

Richard Hooker by W. Bradford Littlejohn

Scripture’s Knowing by Dru Johnson

To my wonderful family, with deepest gratitude

LindaJo, my incomparably loving wife

And our sons and families, who bring us great joy

Stephen, Caroline, Maddie, and Annie McKim

Karl and Lauren McKim

Preface

My interest in John Calvin (1509–1564) has been longstanding. It began in high school through discussions with my pastor, Rev. John E. Karnes. I got my first copy of Calvin’s Institutes on July 26, 1968. I studied Calvin through my years at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, particularly in two years of rich independent study with Dr. Jack Rogers. Time at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with the preeminent Calvin scholar, Ford Lewis Battles, added unsurpassable new dimensions to my appreciation of Calvin. Other seminary professors, Arthur Cochrane, John Gerstner, and Robert S. Paul also provided enriching perspectives. To all these teachers, I am deeply grateful.

Through my years of seminary teaching, work as an editor, and minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I have lectured and taught, written articles and papers, as well as written and edited books on Calvin. So it was a pleasure to be asked by Christian Amondson of Wipf & Stock Publishers to provide a self-contained introductory course for first year theology students or informed and interested laity on Calvin. My desires to introduce people to Calvin are always strong. So I appreciate this opportunity and doing this book was a labor of love.

These efforts are lovingly dedicated to my family. My wife LindaJo has loved me through forty years of marriage, for which no words or actions can express adequate thanks. This book is especially for her. Our son Stephen with his wife, Caroline and their daughters, Maddie and Annie are true joys in every way. Our son Karl and his wife, Lauren help us celebrate the delights of life. They all bless us.

There is a vast scholarly literature on Calvin as well as a number of excellent introductions to Calvin’s life and thought. I have read Calvin scholars gratefully and learned from them. But I tried to write this book to be accessible, with a minimum of formal documentation from secondary sources. Part I discusses Calvin’s life. I am indebted to a number of sources here, some of which are indicated in the footnotes.

The second part of the book is a study of Calvin’s theology expressed in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559). This was Calvin’s major theological work through the years. A full study of Calvin’s theology also needs to include his other writings, particularly his biblical commentaries. But I believe this book provides a unique approach among introductory works on Calvin. Here is a narrative exposition of Calvin’s thought as found in his 1559 Institutes, which other introductions to Calvin do not offer in this same way. I have wanted Calvin’s voice to be heard, a sort of back to the sources (Lat. Ad fontes!) approach, which Calvin’s training in Renaissance Humanism fostered within him. The goal is not only to say things about Calvin; but also to listen to words from Calvin. His own words are the best source. So I have tried to let Calvin speak and explain his meanings as much as possible.

I believe this approach presents some advantages for those initially approaching Calvin’s life and thought. It enables levels of study.

First, the book can be read for an overview of Calvin’s theology, following the path of the four Books of his Institutes. This allows one to get a sense of the structure of the Institutes overall, as well as the flavor and content of Calvin’s theological concerns and viewpoints. So read the book as is to gain a sense of the whole of Calvin’s Institutes.

Second, the book can be read alongside the text of the Institutes itself. Quotations in the present book are drawn from the Institutes. There they can be read in their larger contexts along with the other things Calvin has to say that are not covered here. One can also find the supports he offers in his book for the quotations cited here. So this book can open into a more careful and detailed study of Calvin’s text itself. The narrative here tries to highlight important elements of Calvin’s understanding of the theological topics he considers. This book does not present every portion of the Institutes. But it does try to discuss the main theological issues that engaged Calvin in his book through the years. So let this book open windows to further, more thorough Calvin study.

References to the Institutes are given in book, chapter, section notation. So 3.20.2 is Book 3, chapter 20, section 2. Quotations following these references are from the same section, until a new reference notation is given. The Institutes text used is the translation of Ford Lewis Battles in the Library of Christian Classics series (see the Select Bibliography).

The Discussion Questions provide opportunities for reflection and conversations about the substance of Calvin’s viewpoints. They open us to ways of enhancing our learning as we probe the topics and dialogue with others.

My hope is that this book can help readers understand Calvin’s life and theology. May it also be an impetus to more sustained study of this preeminent theologian. Resources in the Select Bibliography provide ways of engaging more fully with Calvin literature. Beyond items listed there, a large array of specialized studies on topics in Calvin’s thought awaits inquiry.

So this book introduces us to John Calvin, his life and theology. For him, theological reflection engaged the whole person in coming to a knowledge of God and God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. For Calvin, seeking to understand the Christian faith is an ongoing task and joy for Christians. His theological work was meant to help those whose faith leads them to seek further understanding, an understanding of mind and heart which bursts into the praise and service of God. As Calvin said in his 1538 Catechism: We are to conceive the Christian faith as no bare knowledge of God or understanding of Scripture which rattles around the brain and affects the heart not at all . . . But it is a firm and staunch confidence of the heart by which we securely repose in God’s mercy promised us through the Gospel.¹

Donald K. McKim

Germantown, Tennessee

Easter 2015

1. John Calvin: Catechism

1538

,

17

–

18

.

Part One

Life of Calvin

1

Early Years and Education (1509–1536)

John Calvin was the son of Gerhard Calvin, a lawyer and an administrative official for the cathedral church in Noyon, France, located in Picardy, some sixty miles northeast of Paris. Calvin was born on July 10, 1509. His mother, Jeanne Le Franc, who was noted for her piety, died around 1515. The family consisted of several brothers, some of whom died early in life. Two sisters completed the household, which later also included a stepmother and stepsisters.

Gerhard was able to secure a benefice or scholarship from the cathedral to help finance education for his young son. Calvin kept the benefice until 1534 when he resigned it during the time he was aligning himself with the emerging Protestant movement. In the course of his educational journeys, three universities and six teachers played significant roles.

When he was fourteen, John Calvin traveled from Noyon to attend the University of Paris. He intended to fulfill his father’s wishes to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Calvin probably enrolled in the Collège de la Marche of the university in 1523, where he studied with the Latin scholar, Mathurin Cordier.

After three months, Calvin transferred to the Collège de Montaigu where he studied what now would be called the liberal arts. This prepared students for later study in law or theology. This college, where the famous Erasmus had been a student, was known for its strict academic atmosphere and deplorable living conditions for students. Yet Calvin persevered and, in 1527, finished his degree.

But a change of plans intervened. Gerard Calvin came into dispute with the Noyon cathedral officials and was excommunicated from the church. This humiliating turn of events led John’s father to determine that his son should not pursue a vocation in the church as a priest, but should switch to the study of law. This would avoid church associations and be a more lucrative life for young John.

Obediently, in late 1527 or early 1528, John moved from Paris to Orléans, the preeminent center in France for the study of law. Since the ninth century, law had been taught in this university and Law was its only faculty. Five professors taught civil law; and three taught canon (church) law. Here Calvin became acquainted with emerging methods of legal research that were to be important in his later life as a theologian. The modern school was developing important textual, linguistic, and historical materials relating to Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis, the historical commentary on ancient Roman laws. The traditional way of analyzing ancient texts was philosophically—through the categories of late medieval thought and Aristotelian logic. The developing movement called humanism reoriented the study of texts to stress elements such as the language of the text, its historical backgrounds and contexts, as well as ways texts were understood through rhetoric, and how texts were used by those who read them.

The methods of Renaissance humanism that Calvin learned in studying law at Orléans were important for his later approach to biblical interpretation and the study of Christian theology. In his sixteenth-century context, Calvin encountered Renaissance humanism as a way of thinking and a literary and scholarly approach to what today we call the humanities. It was not in itself either pro- or anti-religious. Humanists valued ancient authorities more than contemporary ones and emphasized learning the languages of antiquity and returning to the ancient texts of the Greeks and Romans. The motto: Ad fontes! (To the Sources!) captured this approach of focusing on the fount or ancient springs of knowledge and wisdom to renew what had been lost through the centuries by layers of opinions that scholars had added to the ancients.

The movement of Christian humanism focused on the Christian faith. Christian humanists wanted to recover the wisdom of ancient Christianity by asking what Christ and the apostles had taught and what true Christianity should be like. This led to an emphasis on study of the Bible, the source document of Christian faith. Christian humanists wanted to approach the study of Christianity historically, studying the biblical languages, culture, and understanding what church theologians taught during the early church period. Their emphasis was on linguistic, literary, historical study rather than approaching ancient texts through the categories of logic and dialectics that had developed into technical disciplines during the previous centuries. For Christian humanists, biblical texts should be interpreted in light of their contexts, their backgrounds, and the intentions with which they were written. Attention to rhetorical dimensions meant emphasizing the persuasive power of texts to convey effective truth to hearers. Leading Christian humanists included Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536), Lefèvre d’Etaples (1455?–1536), Gulielmus Budaeus (Budé—1467–1540), and Juan Vives (1492–1540).

Calvin’s most influential humanist teacher was Budé who instructed him in legal terms, literature, political philosophy, and Roman institutions. The method of Calvin’s first major publication, his Commentary on Seneca’s "De Clementia," owed much to Budé’s work. Budé opened Calvin to the importance of