Calvin and Experience

1973 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Partee
Keyword(s):  
John Calvin ◽  
Precise Nature ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
Stefan Zweig ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Absolute

The caricature of John Calvin as an iron theo-logician, sans cæur et sans entrailles, is endlessly repeated. According to Will Durant, Calvin's ‘genius lay not in conceiving new ideas but in developing the thought of his predecessors to ruinously logical conclusions’. Calvin's Institutes therefore are ‘the most eloquent, fervent, lucid, logical, influential, and terrible work in all the literature of religious revolution’. Calvin did not have the tolerance of those who can conceive the possibility that they might be wrong because ‘Calvin, with lethal precosity, had been certain almost from his twentieth year’ Likewise Stefan Zweig saw in Calvin an inexorable logic, a mathematically precise nature, a monomania, and a terrific and sinister self-assurance. H. Jackson Forstmann writes that ‘one of the most impressive facts about Calvin's writings is the absolute certainty reflected by the author at every point’. Again, ‘the most striking impression which comes with reading the work of Calvin is the unfailing certainty which pervades the whole corpus”. Forstmann also quotes Doumergue to the effect that Calvin ‘was tormented by an incomparable need for certainty’. However, Doumergue was talking about something more than logical certainty. Calvin was indeed ‘logical, going to the bottom of questions, practical, completely preoccupied with piety, tormented by an incomparable need of certainty; unifying in rare mixture the reasons and sentiments; preceding Pascal, by invoking the reasons that reason does not know, and preceding also the modern theologians of Christian experience.’

scholarly journals Is Allah die Here?

1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Van Rooy
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Timothy 1 ◽  
Distorted Image ◽  
Absolute Sense ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Difference Of Opinion ◽  
The Absolute

Regarding the issue whether Allah is God, much difference of opinion exists among Reformed theologians. J.H. Bavinck, John Calvin and Z. Ursinus would probably say no in answer to the question as to whether Allah is God. whereas others, like Albert Kruyt and most specialists on Islam would say yes. These differences may be explained as emanating from different approaches. The subjective-personal point of view would not recognize in Allah the God of the Bible. Gods of different faiths reflecting a distorted image of God should, however, only in a very relative and limited way he called false gods. The exegetical point of view should take cognisance of Taul’s statements about the God of Judaism in Romans 10:2 and his own experience according to 2 Timothy 1:3. These Pauline statements make it clear that the God of Judaism cannot historically and objectively be called an idol. Knowledge of Allah of Islam, however, is historically dependent on Judaism and Christianity, and is therefore an extension of the knowledge Jews and Christians have of God. From a New Testament perspective Judaism and Islam cannot be called true religions, but neither can the God they worship be called an idol in the absolute sense of the word.

Karl Barth’s Calvin: A Weimar Prophet

2021 ◽  
pp. 527-543
Author(s):  
Ryan Glomsrud
Keyword(s):  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Hermann Hesse ◽  
Stefan Zweig

This chapter explores Karl Barth’s early reception of John Calvin at the time of his initial post-liberal engagement with classical Protestant authors. For Barth, the Genevan Reformer easily belonged in a pantheon of theologians that included Augustine, Thomas, Luther, and Schleiermacher. However, Barth’s Calvin was not antiquarian or historical but of thoroughly modern vintage, even romantic and modernist in certain respects. The chapter contends that Barth fashioned an image of Calvin in the tumultuous years of the Weimar Republic that was of thoroughly modern vintage. Although he immersed himself in primary sources, Barth’s presentation of the Reformer owed much to German romanticism as well as Weimar modernism, including such notable intellectuals as Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig, and Max Weber.

scholarly journals LEARNING FROM CALVIN’S METHODOLOGY OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
DAVID EUNG YUL RYOO
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Biblical Texts

Most research on John Calvin focuses on theology and history. Yet Calvin viewed himself primarily as a minister and preacher: the Bible is the revelation of God and exposition the preacher’s ultimate mission. This article examines Calvin’s methodology of biblical interpretation in his sermons, his perspective on the word, and his conception of preaching. Calvin’s sermons reveal four characteristics: the goal of preaching is unfolding biblical texts, biblical interpretation communicates the intent of the original author, the absolute lordship and grace of God is centered upon Jesus Christ, and the text must be applied as well as explained.

scholarly journals La falacia de la Verdad. Esbozos de un camino hermenéutico centrado en la vacuidad

Sincronía ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol XXV (79) ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
Héctor Sevilla Godínez ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Personal Life ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Human Liberation

This article offers a strategy of human liberation centering itself on an open attitude before nothingness, its recognition, and valuation for personal life. The text presents an argument against the attitude of searching for the Truth, understanding it as the absolute certainty. It starts off from the idea that man must relativize all processes of interpretation, this is to say, all hermeneutic exercises; with this, it is warned, it will be possible to liberate oneself from the exclusively linguistic search and from the linear or univocal learning. From this will be derived the contemplation of the option of being concerned for oneself, and of finding audible traces in silence which invite towards the comprehension of a nihilistic logic that is liberating from enslaving structures

O soberana luz: a spiritual madrigal and a Mass for Philip IV, monarch of the Hispanic kingdoms

Early Music ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-332
Author(s):  
Francesc Villanueva Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
General Compliance

Abstract The polyphonic models for five of the six imitation or parody Masses published by the Portuguese composer Filipe de Magalhães in his Missarum liber (Lisbon, 1636) are well known. However, for the sixth, O soberana luz, only tentative musical or contextual connections with works by other composers have been suggested, none of which satisfy the criteria for them to be considered as a model. In this article, I reveal that the homonymous spiritual madrigal by Stefano Limido is undoubtedly the piece that Magalhães used as the basis for his Mass. In addition, Magalhães’s general compliance with Pedro Cerone’s theoretical recommendations of 1613 for compositions of this type is demonstrated. In light of this information, new ideas are put forward—and previous ones re-evaluated—about the creative context of both works in the courtly circles of Philip IV, who was at that time the absolute sovereign of the Iberian Peninsula. An edition of the previously unpublished madrigal by Limido is included in the Appendix.

The Quest for Absolute Certainty

1913 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-293
Author(s):  
L. P. Jacks
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute

What is absolute certainty? Where is it to be found? Does it exist? Is there any belief of mankind which can be claimed as absolutely certain?It is difficult to define an absolute in any kind. One can only say that the absolute is that which wants nothing to make it complete. The absolute does not even want a philosopher to tell the world what the absolute is. So long as it wants a philosopher to expound it, to that extent it is not complete, and is therefore not the absolute.Spinoza saw this, and made it the corner-stone of his thought. He saw that Perfection must be capable of telling its own story. It cannot at one and the same time be perfect and yet in need of a human spokesman to explain it. A dumb absolute which needs you to give it a tongue, an unintelligible absolute which needs you to make it rational, a dead absolute which needs you to make it live and interesting, would be no absolute at all. So Spinoza begins his great treatise with admirable humility by defining God as the being who defines himself; who, just because he is all-perfect, needs no explainer, being fully competent to explain himself. God asks for no champions; wants no apologist; seeks for no witnesses. If he did, he would not be God. But Spinoza went too far.

A closer walk

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Relationship With God ◽  
Community Patterns ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Personal Journey ◽  
Personal Connection ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Conservative Christians ◽  
Eternal Punishment

Committed, conservative Christians and Muslims are often characterised by a perceived sense of the absolute certainty of their beliefs. This certainty and the seemingly rigid nature of what they believe (including notions such as judgement and eternal punishment) often bring them into a degree of conflict and competition with other worldviews. This situation can make attempts at mutually stimulating engagement and co-existence outside of evangelisation or debate difficult. However, I will argue that this sense of certainty is primarily located in the implicit presuppositions beneath inherently fluid action and relationship language that can often be expressed through metaphors of movement and proximity. This article analyses such metaphors in testimonials produced by Muslim and Christian converts and argues that they exhibit varying patterns of emphasis. These include a focus on a relationship with God derived from the language of intimate human relationships in the Christian testimonials, as compared to a focus on a personal journey of research and reflection in the Muslim testimonials. I will conclude by arguing that an awareness of particular individual or community patterns of emphasis in the action and relationship language of conservative believers may help those outside these communities establish points of personal connection. These points of connection may in turn contribute to the possibility of successful, mutually stimulating co-existence.

scholarly journals Farewell to the Truth A Process of Liberation through Nothingness

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Héctor Sevilla Godínez
Keyword(s):  
Personal Life ◽  
Religious Fundamentalist ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Human Liberation

<p><em>This article offers a strategy of human liberation centering itself on an open attitude before nothingness, its recognition, and valuation for personal life. Far from being a religious, fundamentalist, or proselytizing proposal, the text presents an argument against the attitude of searching for the Truth, understanding it as the absolute certainty. It starts off from the idea that man must relativize all processes of interpretation, this is to say, all hermeneutic exercises; with this, it is warned, it will be possible to liberate oneself from the exclusively linguistic search and from the linear or univocal learning. From this will be derived the contemplation of the option of being concerned for oneself, such as Foucault suggested, and of finding audible traces in silence which invite towards the comprehension of a nihilistic logic that is liberating from enslaving structures. </em></p>

Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in Our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin

1989 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Hart
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Precise Nature ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In

The act of God in bringing salvation to the human race and summoning individuals into a community to serve him is due solely to the mercy and grace of God, mediated and manifested through Jesus Christ in his ministry, atoning death and rising again.1 This statement of belief, taken from the recently published ARCIC II document Salvation and the Church, is one to which Christians of most denominations could probably subscribe. Yet the very existence of the document is testimony to the fact that within the Christian Church there have been widely differing interpretations of the precise nature of salvation and its implications for humankind. At the time of the Reformation disagreement as to the theological import of terms such as ‘grace’, ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification’ was a major cause of division between Rome and the Protestant churches. Were they primarily to be given an objective or subjective, an extrinsic or intrinsic reference in relation to the believer? ARCIC II demonstrates that these are still live issues at the interface of ecumenical dialogue today, and must be resolved if real moves are to be made in the direction of Christian unity.

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