Exile in the Mirror of History in Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 122-140
Author(s):  
Barbara Pitkin
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Refugee Community ◽  
The People ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
Future Return ◽  
The Church

In his 1559 commentary on Isaiah, John Calvin as refugee pastor ventures a largely ecclesiastical rather than christological reading of this book, written at a time when Geneva experienced a large influx of religious exiles. For Calvin, the majority of Isaiah’s prophecies reference in the first instance the experience of the people of Israel and their future return from Babylon. Biblical history at the time of Isaiah then becomes a mirror for the contemporary experience of exile. Calvin explores the true church throughout the ages as a refugee community, literally and metaphorically. The image of the past as mirror—common in Calvin’s other exegetical works—is here particularly well-developed to maintain the integrity of Israel’s history and allow sixteenth-century Christians to make sense of their own experience and to foster trust in divine providence for the restoration of the church.

The Consolation of History in Calvin’s Sermons on Second Samuel

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-218
Author(s):  
Barbara Pitkin
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Legal History ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of

In May 1562, John Calvin began a series of sermons on Second Samuel, seeking to shape the response of ordinary Genevans to the first French religious-civil war by appealing to biblical history to illuminate the present. Calvin teaches how to learn from scripture and distinguish elements of perpetual significance from anachronisms relevant only to the history of Israel. He presents sacred history as a unique record of the past that, unlike profane history, can speak to the present through its chronicle of past events. Calvin urges his listeners to compare the events depicted in Second Samuel to their own experience. This historical vision, in which biblical history becomes a living and lived lesson, also shapes a treatise written during the third war by François Hotman, Calvin’s colleague and theorist of legal history. Hotman also sought and found the consolation of the Holy Spirit through Old Testament history, viewed afresh from the experience of wartime affliction. For both Reformed thinkers, the biblical past and the experience of war combined to forge a key spiritual weapon: a historical vision of the present tied into divine providence throughout the ages.

Hymnody and Liturgy

2019 ◽  
pp. 491-506
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hehn
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
North American ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Metrical Psalmody ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter outlines the history of Presbyterian worship practice from the sixteenth century to the present, with a focus on North American Presbyterians. Tracing both their hymnody and their liturgy ultimately to John Calvin, Presbyterian communions have a distinct heritage of worship inherited from the Church of Scotland via seventeenth-century Puritans. Long marked by metrical psalmody and guided by the Westminster Directory, Presbyterian worship underwent substantial changes in the nineteenth century. Evangelical and liturgical movements led Presbyterians away from a Puritan visual aesthetic, into the use of nonscriptural hymnody, and toward a recovery of liturgical books. Mainline North American and Scottish Presbyterians solidified these trends in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; however, conservative North American denominations and some other denominations globally continue to rely heavily on the use of a worship directory and metrical psalmody.

The Orchard of Syon: An Introduction

Traditio ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 269-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sister Mary Denise
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spiritual Climate ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

By some inexplicable accident of literary history, The Orchard of Syon, in the nearly five hundred years of its existence, has not found its critical editor, nor is there any study of it available to readers. The first to rescue it from oblivion was Sir Richard Sutton, steward of Syon Monastery in the early sixteenth century, who, as Wynkyn de Worde informs us, found it ‘in a corner by it selfe’ and deemed it worthy of costly publication. Although it belongs to a body of medieval literature which has been in recent years the object of much critical research by medievalists, the work has, so far as modern readers are concerned, continued for over four centuries to lie ‘in a corner by it selfe.’ The energetic surge of vernacular devotional prose in the fourteenth century, not only in England, but in Italy, Germany, and Flanders — countries whose spiritual climate must have been especially favorable to mysticism — did not recede in the fifteenth century. Following upon the age of Chaucer, this century may seem to some present-day scholars literarily poor and unproductive, but it was a great age of English prose; an age, that is, when translations and experiments with original prose in the vernacular were building on the past, borrowing from other languages to meet the needs of the present, and shaping the prose of the future. The Orchard of Syon is an important specimen of this emerging prose, as well as of current devotional literature. Its connection with Syon Monastery, renowned in the history of England and of the Church, gives it added prestige.

Latin in Early Poland and An Attic Drama of the Renaissance Period

1953 ◽  
Vol 22 (65) ◽  
pp. 85-87
Author(s):  
T. Hudson-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Whole School ◽  
The People ◽  
Renaissance Period ◽  
The Status ◽  
Young Queen ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

The Polish nation adopted Christianity in A.D. 966, but the new faith was very slow in reaching the people, as the services were all in Latin and the clergy were unacquainted with the language of the country. Even the elementary schools were conducted in Latin. The pupils sat in a hut on the bare earthen floor in summer and on bundles of straw in winter.Except in the institutions in which the instructors were immigrant Germans, where the instruction was given in German, Latin was the only language used in the schools of Poland. The Latin Psalter was the only book in the whole school; the pupils had no exercise books; but they managed to learn some grammar and arithmetic and sang the Latin songs used in the services of the Church. In these circumstances education could make but little progress. Before the end of the thirteenth century the higher clergy issued an edict forbidding the appointment of any person who did not know the Polish language, and enforced the decree with all the authority of the Church; but, as in other European countries, Latin was the official language of the Polish University. The Academy of Cracow was founded by Casimir the Great and raised to the status of a University in 1400, richly endowed by the young Queen Jadwiga, who at her death bequeathed to it all her jewels.In the sixteenth century the University attained great fame, and Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, and Swiss came in numbers to hear the lectures of the professors, especially the great astronomer Copernicus.

scholarly journals Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo as Models of Catholic Reform

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Charles D. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Face ◽  
Catholic Reform ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn the face of the external challenge of the Protestant Reformation, as well as the internal threat of spiritual, moral, and disciplinary corruption, two Catholic saints worked tirelessly to reform the Church in different but complementary ways. Philip Neri (1515–95) and Charles Borromeo (1538–84) led the Catholic Counter–Reformation during the middle–to–late sixteenth century, placing their distinctive gifts at the service of the Church. Philip Neri used his personal humility, intelligence, and charisma to attract the people of Rome to Christ, while Charles Borromeo employed his gifts for administration and his experience as a top aide to the pope to promote needed institutional reform. Both men achieved great personal holiness and moved others to holiness of life. It is their response to and sharing of the ‘universal call to holiness’, then, that constitutes the core of both of their approaches to ecclesial reform. Their focus on holiness, expressed in an emphasis on either the ‘charismatic’ or ‘hierarchical’ dimensions of the Church’s life, also provides a model for today’s Church, scarred as she is by scandal and in need of a new movement of reform.

scholarly journals AGENTS IN THE PROCESS OF INCULTURATION: FRIEND OR FOE?

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Okelloh Ogera
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church

Purpose: This article looks at the role played by agents: the people responsible for articulating and implementing inculturation in Africa. The article asks the simple question of are these agents useful or a hindrance in the process of inculturation? The article begins by identifying these agents then discusses the challenges they face in the process of inculturation. The article concludes by giving a way forward and that is an integrated approach in inculturation.Methodology: This study will review the available literature on the subject with a view to examining what previous research says concerning the role of the agents, that is human beings, in the process of inculturation. This was done with the main objective of examining the challenges that he agents of inculturation face, and concluding by exploring an integrated approach to inculturation, where all the agents are brought on board. Findings: This study found out that if inculturation is to truly take root in African Christianity, it must bring on board all actors, not just Church leaders, and trained theologians, but also the laity. All these actors also need to overcome some of the challenges that have hindered the prospects of inculturation which include but not limited to fear of syncretism, lack of enthusiasm by some Church leaders, answering the question of culture in a post-modern and globalized world.Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This paper will offer unique contributions to policies and practices governing the attempts to make the Church in Africa truly African by proposing a re-evaluation of the way inculturation has been carried out in the past. This has tended to be spearheaded by professional theologians and some church leaders, neglecting the biggest constituency in the entire process, and that is the consumer of inculturational processes; the laity.

scholarly journals Gangrene or Cancer? Sixteenth-Century Medical Texts and the Decay of the Body of the Church in Jean Calvin’s Exegesis of 2 Timothy 2:17

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Lindsay J. Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Effects ◽  
The People ◽  
Timothy 2 ◽  
Biblical Commentaries ◽  
The Church ◽  
Insight Into

In 2 Timothy 2:17, Paul compared the effects of false teachings on the Church to a disease. Rejecting previous translations that identified this disease as cancer, Jean Calvin (1509–64) insisted that it must be gangrene in his 1548 commentary on this epistle, citing and discussing medical texts to justify his translation. This article places his commentary in the context of these medical texts. The causes, courses, and treatments his contemporaries associated with gangrene provide insight into Calvin’s idea of the people likely to spread false teachings and of how they should be treated: because, for him, the experience of gangrene reflected the real effects of false teachings on the Church. This manuscript argues that consulting other areas of sixteenth-century knowledge, such as medicine, was a part of Calvin’s exegetical practice. It also suggests that modern scholars need to take these other areas of knowledge into account when analyzing sixteenth-century biblical commentaries. Dans 2 Timothée 2:17, Paul compara les effets des faux enseignements sur l’Église à une maladie. Ayant rejeté les traductions précédentes qui identifiaient cette maladie comme cancer, Jean Calvin (1509–1564), dans son commentaire de cette épître en 1548, soutint qu’il devait s’agir de la gangrène et il justifia cette traduction en citant et discutant des sources médicales. Cet article situe ce commentaire dans le contexte de ces textes médicaux. Les causes, les symptômes et les traitements associés à la gangrène, portent un discours sur ceux qui, selon Calvin, propageraient les faux enseignements, ainsi que sur la façon dont on doit les traiter. Pour Calvin, en effet, la réalité de de la gangrène reflète, dans l’expérience, les effets des faux enseignements sur l’Église. Cette étude examine de la pratique exégétique de Calvin, qui consulte d’autres domaines de la connaissance, comme la médecine, pour lire les textes. Aussi il propose que les savants modernes doivent prendre en compte ces autres domaines pour analyser les commentaires bibliques du XVIe siècle.

scholarly journals Opwekking binnen de traditioneel- reformatorische kerken: over oprecht verlangen en grote verlegenheid

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kommers
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Missionary Zeal ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Revival within churches from traditional-reformed origin: on sincere longing and extreme embarrassment Within churches from reformed origin the debate about revival has become an actual issue. It seems that these churches are becoming smaller and smaller, and that there is a lack of missionary zeal. Many pastors seem to have lost the courage to go on. What is happening in the churches? One can learn something from the history of the church. What was God doing in the past? The Word of God was there and it seems that in those places where revivals broke out, the Word of God was preached faithfully, in the power of the Holy Spirit. From sermons of three revival preachers who worked from 1816 to 1880 in Wuppertal (Germany), one can learn how their sermons contributed to revival in those days.   The missionary-soul caring message struck the people in their hearts, and not only individuals, but also whole regions changed; change took place not only in doctrine and lifestyle, but also holiness occupied a central place in the people’s hearts. When praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, people will repent and turn to God and “times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

scholarly journals John Calvin's Christological Assertion of Word Authority in the Context of Sixteenth Century Ecclesiological Polemics

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-486
Author(s):  
John D. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fourth Lateran Council ◽  
The Church

The late medieval synthesis reflected in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) generally and in the doctrine of transubstantiation in particular established an understanding of the nature of the church and authority that was to be varied and wide in its effects. Transubstantiation as doctrine and as coalescor of Church worship laid the groundwork for a particularly formative understanding of the ekklesia of Christ. It issued in a view of immanental, divine authority and grace that would come to manifest itself in the indulgences, the treasury of merits, invocation of saints, relics, etc. To be critical of the Mass was to bring into question the entire hierarchy of the Church and its authority on earth. In this context of strong ecclesiological authority, God was reckoned primarily as immanent and immediate through the papal head. In the face of this development, John Calvin asserted that Christ, as center of all true Christian reality, is the necessary focus and the preeminent authority in and to the Church through the Word of God, the Scriptures.

scholarly journals Liturgy: Local and Contextual or Controlled from Above? A Nordic Perspective: Liturgical Renewal and Development in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in the Past Three Decades

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Sini Hulmi
Keyword(s):  
Creative Development ◽  
Common People ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

Is the liturgy local and contextual and growing from below, or is it controlled from above? Does the liturgy belong to the people and to the congregation, and are they allowed to use it in their own way? Or is the liturgy the property of the Church, which gives strict orders for its use? Is it powerful men and women, meaning those people with authority, and the institutions (for example, the Church Synod and the Bishops’ Conference) who define the methods and ways in which liturgy is enculturated? Or do the ways of inculturation involve development from below, from the common people, even the poorest and most humble believers, at the congregational level? The balance between these two aspects—top-down and bottom-up worship—has repeatedly shifted over the last three decades, and there have been tensions between them in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The goal of this essay is to clarify the reason for this confusing situation related to authority, fixed orders and the creative development of liturgical life.

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