Journal: Westminster Theological Journal

Volume: WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010)

Article: Reason Within The Limits Of Revelation Alone: John Calvins Understanding Of Human Reason
Author: Barry G. Waugh
Reason Within The Limits Of Revelation Alone:
John Calvins Understanding Of Human Reason
Barry G. Waugh
In honor of the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin in 1509, the author dedicates this article to
the Calvinists who taught him church historyD. Clair Davis, who kept him in stitches as he learned from the
past; William S. Barker, who taught him the importance of dates and precision; W. Robert Godfrey, whose
Reformation history class was simply wonderful; Darryl G. Hart, who taught him the importance of reading,
reading, and more reading; and Peter A. Lillback, who taught him the significance of general history for historical
and theological studies. May they all continue to teach and encourage church history students for years to
come.
Barry Waugh, who holds a Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary, lives with his family in Greenville, S.
C, where he studies and writes about church history.
I. Introduction
The question of Calvins view of human reason is important because some scholars, such as William J.
Bouwsma, have interpreted him as a Renaissance humanist exalting the natural ability of mans reason.
Bouwsma portrays the Genevan as a disenchanted person who found philosophy a labyrinth that did not
satisfy his quest for knowledge, so he turned to Renaissance humanism and its exalted view of reason.
1
Quirinius Breen, more than sixty years before Bouwsma, described the Genevan as a seasoned humanist,
based on his use of humanist methodology in his commentary on Senecas De dementia.
2
Francois Wendel
interpreted Calvin as teaching that reason is a fallen faculty that cannot govern human knowledge under its
own power; Christian philosophy demands that reason must give place to and be governed by the Holy
Spirit.
3
David Steinmetzs more recent perspective presents the Genevan as teaching that fallen mans
reason is inadequate for perceiving the revelation of God in nature, but faith corrects this blindness,
enabling reason to reclaim creation as a reliable
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 2
source for the knowledge of God.
4
Another perspective is provided by Leroy Nixons early 1960s
observation that Calvin was responding to Aristotles philosophy and its exalted understanding of human
reason, which was causing controversy at the College de Montaigu when Calvin was there from 1524 to
1527. Nixon concluded that Calvin viewed reason as subservient to divine revelation.
5
The purpose of this
article is to survey portions of Master Calvins corpus to determine his understanding of human reason, its
limitations, and the effects of salvation upon its use.
II. Reason, Creation, And The Fall
John Calvins comments on the Genesis account of Adam in the state of innocence describe him as a light
shining forth the image of God. Adam, in Gen 1:26, enjoyed perfect intelligence, uprightness, and all the
senses were prepared and molded for due obedience to reason.
6
Adams reason and will were free and
capable of choosing between continuing obedience to God and disobedience. Calvin commented on Gen
2:9 that Gods prohibition to the first parents was a restriction that visuallyby means of the physical tree
reminded them that their lives were under Gods authority
7
The first sin was a direct confrontation with the
sovereign God and an assertion of the Edenic couples perceived autonomy as they reasoned in hopes of
being like God. Calvin added that the Edenic prohibition was a first lesson in obedience showing mans
absolute dependence on God, and that the only way to live well and rationally was through obedience.
8
Satan enters the narrative seizing his opportunity to tempt Eve by raising doubts concerning her
interpretation of Gods prohibition, which exemplifies his continued, uncreative, and incessant methodology
for leading people into sin as he tempts them by questioning what God has said. The Genevan, commenting
on Gen 3:1, observed that the serpent questioned the meaning of Gods command, that is, Did God really
say you are not to eat of any tree of the garden?
9
Satans plan was to raise the shadow of doubt
concerning Gods intentionthat is, do you think Gods requirement is reasonable?
10
Eve responded, in
defense, that Gods restriction was not unfair or unreasonable at all; after all, the forbidding of only one tree
in the midst of a glorious garden was not too much to ask.
11
At this point Calvin noted that Eve was
beginning to
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 3
waver and her perception of the meaning and penalty of death was distant and cold.
12
The serpents
question presented Eve with a choice requiring her to weigh Satans words against what God had said. If
Eve had reasoned rightly then she would have turned from the temptation and continued in her original
estate, but she instead accepted the serpents proposition that Gods revelation was an expression of divine
selfishness encumbering her knowledge unfairly. As Calvin put it, Fatal temptation! when, while God is
threatening us with death, we not only securely sleep, but hold God himself in derision!
13
Eves
fundamental failure was not regulating the measure of her knowledge by the will of God, and as a result of
the first sin her posterity continues to pursue satisfaction through the exercise of autonomous reason.
14
Master John commented further:
For never would they have dared to resist God, unless they had first been incredulous of his
word. And nothing allured them to covet the fruit but mad ambition. So long as they, firmly
believing in Gods word, freely suffered themselves to be governed by him, they had serene
and duly regulated affections. For, indeed, their best restraint was the thought, which entirely
occupied their minds, that God is just, that nothing is better than to obey his commands, and
that to be loved by him is the consummation of a happy life. But after they had given place to
Satans blasphemy, they began, like persons fascinated, to lose reason and judgment [ratione
etjudicio]; yet, since they were become the slaves of Satan; he held their very senses bound.
We are despoiled of the excellent gifts of the Holy Spirit, of the light of reason [rationis], of
justice [iustitia], and of rectitude [rectitudine], and are prone to every evil: that we are also lost
and condemned, and subjected to death, is both our hereditary condition, and, at the same
time, a just punishment, which God, in the person of Adam, has inflicted on the human race.
15
The fall brought about a catastrophic transformation resulting in the deformity which everywhere appears
unsightly this evil also is added, that no part is free from the infection of sin.
16
Eve and Adam fell from their
original righteousness and brought mankind into the estate of sin and misery, and the master tempter
continues to entice people with the doubt-inducing inquiry, Hath God said? Further insight into the state of
mans reason in Paradise is given in book 2 of The Institutes of the Christian Religion when Master Calvin
distinguished between proper and improper knowledge of the self. For man to know himself he must know
what he was in the estate of innocence, then he must comprehend the
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 4
depths of the sinfulness and depravity he lives with in his fallen experience.
17
The importance of the imago
Dei enters the picture since man had been created in Gods image and endowed with reasoning and
understanding
18
But the glories of Paradise cannot be recollected without the sorry spectacle of our
foulness and dishonor presenting itself by way of contrast, since in the person of the first man we have
fallen from our original condition.
19
If fallen man is to know himself he must first recognize his condition and
then be induced to humbly seek God who is the provider of the good things that have been lost.
20
Man
must not succumb to the pride-tickling understanding of his nature that consoles and encourages him to
believe that, in and of himself, he has the ability to lead a good and blessed life and that he can do
anything by his own power.
21
Mans response to his condition should be prostration before God in
recognition of the nature of his duty as man, and the corresponding inability he has to accomplish the task
of pleasing and serving God.
22
Calvin argues from the greater to the lesserlook at man prior to the fall
and his glorious estate, then look at yourself after the fall and consider the depths of your condition. Man
could reason truly in Eden, but the comprehensive nature of the fall corrupted his reason as well as his
other faculties.
III. True Partaking Of The Flesh & Blood Of Christ In The Holy Supper
This treatise, written in 1561, is particularly significant because the occasion for its composition antedates
the Genevans death by three years and provides the most mature analysis of his ideas respecting human
reason.
23
Calvin observed that Tileman Heshusiuss version of the Lutheran view of the Lords Supper
incorporated implicit faith in his [Gods] word, and subduing human reason, while Heshusius reciprocally
accused Calvin of exalting the place of human reason in the sacrament.
24
Calvin commented as follows:
To vindicate himself [Heshusius], he says, that the bread is the body not only properly, truly,
and really, but also definitively. Should I answer that I cannot give any meaning to these
monstrous contradictions, he will meet me with what he and his fellows bring forward on all
occasions as a shield of Ajaxthat reason is inimical to faith [rationem essefidei inimicam].
This I readily grant if he is to be regarded as a rational animal.
25
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 5
Calvin, earlier in the treatise, explicitly denied Heshusiuss accusation when he said that he had no dispute
as to the boundless power of God; and all my writings declare, that far from measuring the mystery of the
Supper by human reason, I look up to it with devout admiration.
26
The next paragraph adds that there are
three kinds of reason to be considered.
27
For the purpose of distinguishing these three kinds of reason in
this article the following designations will be used: first, natural reason, second, vicious reason, and
finally, redeemed reason. The following discussion considers each of the three individually to determine
Calvins views concerning human reason and its limitations.
1. First Type, Or Natural Reason
The first type is a reason naturally implanted (ingenita est naturaliter ratio) that cannot be condemned
without insult to God, but it has limits that it cannot overstep without being immediately lost.
28
This reason is
not lost in the sense that it disappears and man is then without reason, but as the analysis of the other two
aspects of reason will show, it takes on a different form. If natural reason could disappear, then man would
cease to be man; natural reason is a necessary faculty for man as the image bearer of God.
29
An example
of the limits of natural reason can be seen in Calvins title for book 1, chapter 8, of the Institutes where the
contents are described as presenting, The Credibility of Scripture Sufficiently Proved, in so Far as Human
Reason Admits.
30
Calvin uses the term human reason because the chapter goes beyond discussing just
natural reason. He argues, through the use of various internal and external testimonies, for the
trustworthiness and authenticity of the Word of God, but he also emphasizes
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 6
that these testimonies do not establish a firm faith in Scripture until our heavenly Father manifest his
presence in it, and thereby secure implicit reverence for it.
31
This first type of reason is limited and can only
go so far with respect to establishing the authenticity and authority of the Bible. With reference to John 1:5,
Master Calvin commented further that the fact that, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness
comprehends it not, shows that despite mans perversion due to the fall some sparks still gleam
32
and
these sparks show that man differs from brute beasts in part due to his ability to reason.
33
Natural mans
natural reason can accomplish many things but without the presupposition of God as creator and redeemer,
knowledge is necessarily deficient because God is denied as the source of that knowledge.
34
In The Necessity of Reforming the Church, Master John discussed the elements of ecclesiastical practice
requiring reformation, and as he elaborated on prayer he wrote against praying in an unknown tongue.
Calvin was referring to the Roman Catholic practice of conducting services in Latin and instructing
parishioners to use memorized Latin prayers. Obviously, these prayers and services would be totally
incomprehensible to any other than those present who had been educated in the use of Latin. Calvin
affirmed that Christians must pray with understanding,
35
and
Every man, accordingly, is taught by our doctrine to know, when he prays in private, what it is
he asks of God, while the public prayers in our churches are framed so as to be understood by
all. And it is the dictate of natural reason that it should be so, even if God had given no
precept on the subject.
36
What man has within him, his innate understanding of the universe and the laws which govern it, is limitedly
authoritative for guidance in what is right with respect to the issue of prayer. Natural reason dictates that
prayer should be comprehensible to the one praying in private and to all involved in public prayer. So, even
though natural reason recognizes that prayer is properly exercised in worship with a known tongue, natural
reason alone does not comprehend the depth of religious purpose that only the Christian can understand in
prayer. In effect, the Genevan is saying that Romes use of Latin for praying in services is so foolish that
even fallen, natural reason can determine its folly.
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 7
Calvins commentary on Isaiahs words in Isa 1:2, Hear O heavens; and give ear, O earth, interprets these
words as communicating more than a figurative message. The Genevan tied his exposition to the teaching
of Moses in Deut 32:1 where the creation is, as Calvin put it, called to witness against the people.
37
The
verse shows that God was bringing a specific complaint against Israel and calling them to repent because
they had not heeded his law. Master John commented as follows:
That no one may wonder at the circumstance of his addressing dumb and lifeless objects,
experience very clearly shows that the voice of God is heard even by dumb creatures, and that
the order of nature is nothing else than the obedience which is rendered to him by every part of
the world, so that everywhere his supreme authority shines forth; for at his bidding the
elements observe the law laid down to them, and heaven and earth perform their duty. The
earth yields her fruits; the sea flows not beyond her settled boundaries; the sun, moon, and
stars perform their courses; the heavens too. revolve at stated periods; and all with wonderful
accuracy, though they are destitute of reason and understanding [ratione et intelligentia]. But
man, endued with reason and understanding [ratione et intelligentia] , in whose ears and in
whose heart the voice of God frequently sounds, remains unmoved, like one bereft of senses,
and cannot bend the neck to submit. Against obstinate and rebellious men shall dumb and
lifeless creatures bear testimony, so that they will one day feel that this protestation was not in
vain.
38
This is not a glorious picture of fallen man. The reasonless and dumb creation is, it could be said, obedient
to God while man lives in suppression of his knowledge of God. Man made in the image of God and
endowed with reason behaves as a fool because he does not heed the sense of deity within and the
declaration of the glory of God in the creation. The responsibility for mans stupidity lies within man, and the
rest of the created order are witnesses to his folly
Pauls epistle of direction and encouragement to Titus addresses issues of concern to a minister and his
congregation. In ch. 2 the apostle begins by telling his readers to do what sound doctrine requires (v. 1),
and then he calls the aged to live a good example before the younger members of the congregation (vv 2-
5). Titus, in v. 6, is instructed to exhort the young men to be sober-minded. Calvins comments on this
verse are concise:
He [Paul] merely enjoins that young men be instructed to be temperate; for temperance, as
Plato shows, cures the whole understanding of man. It is as if he had said, Let them be well
regulated and obedient to reason [et rationi obtemperantes] .
39
This short comment raises a questionin what sense was Calvin using Plato? From Calvins Christian
perspective the most Plato can be addressing is a temperance dictated by natural reason. Plato was cited
for the truth he expressed because Platos observation concerning moderation was corroborated by the
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 8
Word. Pauls instruction to Titus gives foundation for Platos words of wisdom, that is, all truth is Gods truth,
and Platos expression of the importance of temperance was an expression of Gods truth even though
Plato would not have recognized the God of Scripture as the source. For Calvin, Platos proverb was an
illustration of the instruction Paul gave to Titusthe benefits of moderation are comprehensible to natural
reason.
2. Second Type, Or Vicious Reason
The second type of reason is described with vivid and derogatory language as the Genevans True
Partaking of the Flesh and Blood of Christ is once again consulted. Calvin warned of the danger of reason
exceeding its limitations as he commented that:
. . . reason which is vicious [ratio vitiosa], especially in a corrupt nature, and is manifested when
mortal man, instead of receiving divine things with reverence, would subject them to his own
judgment. This reason is mental intoxication, or pleasing insanity, and is at eternal variance
with the obedience of faith, since we must become fools in ourselves before we can begin to be
wise unto God. In regard to heavenly mysteries, therefore, we must abjure this reason, which is
nothing better than mere fatuity, and if accompanied with arrogance, grows to the height of
madness.
40
Vicious reason is not limited to the unregenerate; it is reason, whether in the unredeemed or redeemed
nature, that succumbs to the temptation of self-exaltation, and its intoxicating influence can even lead to
insanity. Vicious reason suppresses the knowledge of God and his limitations on mans curiosity whether it is
the atheist, who is one of corrupt nature, or the Christian who speculates regarding things man is not to
know (e.g., how many angels can dance on the head of a pin).
The Genevan goes on, in his Institutes, to apply this analysis to the corruptness of the philosophers as
they deny Gods creating and governing of the world.
41
Mentioned are the philosophies of the Stoics,
Egyptians, and Epicureans as he observed that their darkened and ignorant understandings had created
substitutes for God.
42
These substitutes displayed the blindness of the human mind, and most particularly,
the philosophers attempt by reason and learning to pierce the heavens.
43
The greater the learning of
these lovers-of-wisdom the greater is their foolishness. Later in the Institutes Calvin observed that
philosophers, no matter how subtle their tactics, were simply rebelling against God because they had
corrupted his revealed truth.
44
With particular reference to the philosophy of Plato, the Institutes condemn
his methodology for knowing God:
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 9
Away, then, with that Platonic philosophy of seeking access to God by means of angels, and
courting them with the view of making God more propitious ... a philosophy which
presumptuous and superstitious men attempted at first to introduce into our religion, and which
they persist in even to this day
45
This is vicious reason which is audacious, arrogant, and autonomous. It is folly to seek redemptive
knowledge of God through any means other than through his Word. Though Calvin was well versed in
Platonic philosophy he recognized its errors and saw it as a system that had exceeded its bounds and
presumed to approach God through errant means. Calvin not only addressed the teaching of Plato but that
of Rome as well as he saw Platos teaching in the celestial pecking-order of Rome.
46
Philosophy is
addressed again in the Institutes as the Genevan pointedly spoke concerning the views of reason presented
by Cicero and more generally with regard to Plato and Aristotle. Ciceros analysis, said Calvin, taught that
any goodness in mans nature is soon destroyed by his wicked opinions and evil customs and it is
necessary that reason choose to do good.
47
The Greeks believed that these evils were violent and no one
could easily restrain them; they are like a wild horse that causes a driver to be tossed from his chariot
allowing the vehicle to careen unpredictably so reason must pull in the reins of evil.
48
So, Cicero, Aristotle,
and Plato taught that reason was a sufficient guide for right conduct.
49
The teachings of the philosophers
exceeded the abilities of natural reason and constituted vicious reason. Calvin argued that mans will is not
free. but rather it is in bondage to sin and natural reason is impotent with regard to choosing good.
50
Moving into his own era, Calvin opposed the Sorbonne as he exposited 1 Tim 6:3-5. The passage presents
a warning to Timothy concerning the special dangers of vicious reasoning. Those who propound different
doctrines and do not agree with sound words and doctrine conforming to godliness are men of
depraved mind and view godliness as a means of great gain (vv. 3-5).
51
Commenting on v. 4, Calvin said:
Not without reason does the Apostle connect questions and disputes of words; for by the
former term he does not mean every kind of questions, which either arise from a sober and
moderate desire to learn, or contribute to clear explanation of useful things, but to such
questions as are agitated, in the present day, in the schools of the Sorbonne, for displaying
acuteness of intellect. There one question gives rise to another; for there is no limit to them,
when every person, desiring to know more than
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 10
is proper, indulges his vanity; and hence, there afterwards are innumerable quarrels. As the
thick clouds, during hot weather, are not dispelled without thunder, so those thorny questions
must burst into disputes.
52
There is a proper and necessary pursuit of knowledge, but there are also limitsreason is to function within
the limits of Gods revelation. The teachers of the Sorbonne exhibited pride by parading their intellectual
abilities and inflated egos through vain speculations. The pursuit of one question after another hoping that
each answer would lead to another question shows the Aristotelian/Thomist perspective at work. Calvin
interpreted the passage as expressing the dangers of pursuing knowledge for knowledges sake, while
Timothy and other Christians should seek knowledge for the sanctifying purposes of growing in grace and
improving the attributes of the imago Dei.
The Institutes affirm that man cannot fain ignorance of God because all men have a certain understanding
of his divine majesty
53
God continually confronts fallen man by prodding his image-bearing conscience.
Man can run, but he cannot hide from the eyes of God.
54
Man fights the sense of deity which is at work
within him, but despite his efforts he cannot force God out of his consciousness.
55
The blindness of men is
mixed with stubbornness and they measure him [God] by the yardstick of their own carnal stupidity and out
of curiosity fly off into empty speculations.
56
Romans 1:21, 22 is cited by Calvin to show that though these
unredeemed strive to be wise they are fools who exercise futile reasoning
57
Reason becomes exalted while
God and his Word are depreciated. Even though man may apprehend some sort of divinity he often falls
back into the ravings or evil imaginings of the flesh and then corrupts Gods pure truth.
58
Vicious reason
develops in each person particular errors whether one is dull-witted or endowed with keen discernment.

59
This benighted condition is described by Calvin as follows:
But among the philosophers who have tried with reason and learning to penetrate into heaven,
how shameful is the diversity! As each was furnished with higher wit,
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 11
graced with art and knowledge, so did he seem to camouflage his utterances; yet if you look
more closely upon all these, you will find them all to be fleeting unrealities.
60
Calvin argued that though general revelation is clear and man is without excuse, man chokes off this
knowledge through superstition, speculation, and philosophy. Scarcely any person can be found who did
not fashion for himself an idol or specter in place of God.
61
This is vicious reason manifested in the
unredeemed, reason that seeks to extend itself beyond its restrictions and establish certainty in areas where
it cannot. Mans mind is like a labyrinth (labyrinthi) and due to this confusing maze of cogitations many
were drawn aside into various falsehoods.
62
Calvins view of unregenerate mans ability to reason his way
to God is essentially, You cant get there from here. Man cannot speculate, philosophize, and theorize his
way to God while ignoring Gods condescension through the grace of the Word become fleshGod reached
down through grace, man cannot reach up through natural reasoning or speculation. When man acts on his
sense of deity and tries to ascend to God through his reason he fails because to know God one must know
him through his Word.
As Calvin discussed Deut 18:9 he concentrated his exposition on the foolishness of seeking those things
which have not been revealedthe secret things of God. The Israelites were cautioned by God to beware of
the seduction of idolatry and superstitious practices.
63
The Genevan then argued that the only way man can
truly know and exercise his reason rightly is through the transformation wrought by redemption.
64
Since
God is the source of knowledge and the Gentiles knew not God, then the Gentiles sought knowledge
through magicians and sorcerers and exemplified their ignorance and darkness.
65
It is from these
sources, viz., foolish curiosity and unrestrained temerity or audacity, all the superstitions and errors have
flowed whereby the world has been assailed.
66
God forbids magic, sorcery, and divination because they
constitute an attempt by man to know things that God chose to conceal and retain as his knowledge
alone.
67
So, people must be sober in their use of knowledge and recognize that they are creatures, or as
Strother Martins words to Paul Newman expressed it in Cool Hand Luke, A manz gotta knooow hiz
limtations. Calvin observed that mans curiosity is insatiable and like Adam he desires to be as God,
and to
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 12
know all things without exception.
68
The Edenic temptation is the paradigm temptation in that it challenges
Gods authority while catering to a lust for speculation and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge. The
comments on v. 9 conclude with the summary statement, This is the origin of all the vanities whereby the
world has ever been entangled.
69
That is, when man seeks to obtain knowledge that is proper to God
alone, whether through sorcery, philosophy, or speculation, he is exercising vicious reason and denying the
sufficiency of Gods revelation while butting his head against the wall of an epistemological dead-end.
Vicious reason returns to Eden and asks, Hath God said? and once again seeks to know what is forbidden
and have what cannot be obtained.
3. Third Type, Or Redeemed Reason
The third kind of reason is one that both the Spirit of God and Scripture sanction.
70
Redeemed reason is
discussed in many of Calvins writings and the Institutes are a good starting place. Calvins view of mans
ability to reason in the Institutes stresses the importance of man knowing himself and knowing God.
71
Man
must become discontent with himself and the misery of his condition if he is to be aroused to seek God.
72
The corruption of the world around him leads man to regard those things that are a little less vile as things
that are very pure,
73
but when man contemplates God and his nature, the darkness that he considered
righteous is reinterpreted as evil.
74
The redeemed mind does not dream up for itself any god it pleases, but
contemplates the one and only true God.
75
The redeemed mind has a view of man and of Gods world that
is antithetical to the mind of the impious; it is a mind that reveres God, not because of the threat of hell, but
because it loves God.
76
Redeemed mans mind sees Gods hand working in creating and blessing the pious.
The Christian reasons differently because his world view, hopefully, does not suppress his knowledge of
God. In book 3 of the Institutes, Calvin showed that for reason to be redeemed it must be in submission to
the Holy Spirit:
. . . the Christian philosophy [christiana philosophia] bids reason give way to, submit and
subject itself to, the Holy Spirit so that the man himself may no longer live but hear Christ living
and reigning within him.
77
Christian philosophy is the true love-of-wisdom because Christian philosophy involves reason that is
submitted to God. Where vicious reason is an expression
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 13
of autonomous and rebellious man, redeemed reason is expressed in denying the self and submitting to the
leadership of the Holy Spirit illuminating the Bible. Philosophy, as any other aspect of the Christian life, is to
be viewed through the lens of sola Scriptura, which is exemplified in a February 1549 letter to Martin Bucer
concerning truth, philosophy, and the Scriptures. Any truth obtained from any source, whether philosophy or
Scripture, proceeds from God because all truth is Gods truth.
78
Philosophy is the noble gift of God and
men in ages past worked hard in the discipline so they might enlighten the world in the knowledge of truth.

79
But, said Calvin, the truth obtained from philosophy is minuscule compared to the truth that can be
obtained from Scripture.
80
The Genevan concluded with an encouragement to Bucer to concentrate his
efforts on pursuing truth in Gods Word.
81
Thus, philosophy as a discipline is not evil in and of itself despite
the fact that its history often exemplifies vicious reason, but when the benefits obtained from philosophy are
weighed against the time and effort involved in its study, the reading and understanding of Scripture is more
profitable and time efficient.
Pauls instruction in Eph 4:23 encourages Christians to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. This
exhortation was particularly relevant to the philosophical context within which Calvin wrote the following:
How much there is in us that is sound or uncorrupted may be easily gathered from this
passage, which enjoins us to correct chiefly the reason or mind, in which we are apt to imagine
that there is nothing but what is virtuous and deserves commendation.
82
People would be apt to imagine that the mind is virtuous due to the influences of philosophy. The
dependence on Aristotle and the exaltation of reason in sixteenth-century humanism may have led Calvins
contemporaries to conclude the reason or mind is necessarily virtuous. He shunned this Aristotelian/
Scholastic notion because the biblical picture of fallen man is grim. Calvin contended that the mind had
fallen because man in his entirety was fallen. Master John warned his readers to beware of self-deception,
beware of the propensity for self-glorification, beware of the temptations coming through a fallen mind.
Comments on the next verse relate restoration of the imago Dei to the redemption of reason, that is, the
catastrophe of the fall affected all aspects of man including his ability to reason.
83
Redeemed reason is
renovated as the imago Dei is refurbished.
84
Calvins commentary on Romans is one of his most extensive, learned, and thorough analyses of any of his
NT expositions. The Genevan waxes eloquent
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 14
because Romans is a gold mine of Pauline doctrine and practical instruction. The comments on Rom 1:18,
19 shed further light on the issue of redeemed reason. The first pertinent observation is that impiety and
unrighteousness are manifest in man because he has transferred to himself what properly belongs to
God.
85
Secondly the world in which man lives is receiving the wrath of God poured upon it to the full extent
of heaven.
86
Thirdly Calvin concluded his comments on v. 18 by noting that:
The truth of God means, the true knowledge of God; and to hold in that, is to suppress or to
obscure it: hence they are charged as guilty of robbery.
87
Mans fallen condition as a sinner encourages him to suppress his knowledge of God and thereby steal the
divine glory for himself; man continues to seek self-divinity and to glorify himself. Further:
We conceive that there is a Deity; and then we conclude, that whoever he may be, he ought to
be worshipped: but our reason here fails, because it cannot ascertain who or what sort of being
God is. Hence the Apostle in Heb. xi.3, ascribes to faith the light by which man can gain real
knowledge from the work of creation, and not without reason; for we are prevented by our
blindness, so that we reach not to the end in view; we yet see so far, that we cannot pretend
any excuse.
88
If reason is to know anything truly it must be built on the foundation of faith. Knowledge of God through
salvation is the chief corner stone of the edifice of redeemed reason. The introduction of Heb 11:3 into the
analysis turns us to Calvins comments that men have been given understanding and reason for the
purpose of acknowledging their creator but it is through faith that we know that it was God who created the
world.
89
Though Gods revelation in creation is such that man knows the world was made by God, sinful
mans response is to worship a mere shadow of some nebulous deity
90
The mind of man is blind to the
fullness of the glory of God in creation until the Holy Spirit regenerates reason.
91
Thus, redeemed reason
not only sees the power of God in the created
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 15
order, but also his goodness, wisdom, and justice, which leads him to worship and honor God as the maker
of heaven and earth.
92
General revelation can lead man to make proficiency in the universal school of
nature, so far as to be affected with some perception of deity, but what God is, they know not, they
straightaway become vain in their imaginations.
93
But Master Calvin adds, It follows, then, that mankind do
not err thus far through mere ignorance, so as not to be chargeable with contempt, negligence, and
ingratitude. Thus it holds good, that all have known God, and yet have not glorified him.
94
Romans 12 is
directed more specifically towards Christian ethics. Christian behavior is built on a redeemed mind and
reason:
Now attend here, and see what kind of renovation is required from us; it is not that of the flesh
only, or of the inferior part of the soul, as the Sorbonists explain this word: but of the mind,
which is the most excellent part of us, and to which philosophers ascribe the supremacy; for
they call it , the leading power; and reason is imagined to be a most wise queen.
But Paul pulls her down from her throne, and so reduces her to nothing by teaching us that we
must be renewed in mind. For how much so ever we may flatter ourselves, that declaration of
Christ is still true,that every man must be born again, who would enter into the kingdom of
God; for in mind and heart we are altogether alienated from the righteousness of God.
95
These comments are in direct confrontation with the contemporary philosophical/theological milieu that
elevated the mind to the height of excellency and its exercise of reason to the pinnacle of virtue. It was
inconceivable to the Sorbonists that the mind needed renewal, thus they applied Pauls teaching to the
inferior part of the soul; for the Sorbonne, reason could not need renewal because it stood on its own merit.
In contrast to this, Calvin pointed out that man must be renewed homo lotus. The terms mind and heart
are used to express the totality of mans separation from God and the need for a complete redemption.
Mind renewal is necessary because heart renewal is necessary.
In 1 Cor 1:18-31 Pauls teaching concerning the foolishness of preaching the crucified Jesus in light of the
wisdom of the world is presented. The cross is the power of God in the eyes of the redeemed, but it is the
symbol of benighted nonsense to those dead in their trespasses and sins. This biblical passage addresses
the issue of reason because Paul was drawing a distinction between the thinking, knowledge, and reason of
the wise of the world, and the fools of the Kingdom. Calvin commented on v. 20 that:
Hence, whatever knowledge a man may come to have without the illumination of the Holy Spirit,
is included in the expression, the wisdom of this world. This he says God has utterly made
foolish, that is, He has convicted it of folly. This you may understand to be effected in two ways;
for whatever a man knows and understands, is mere vanity, if it
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 16
is not grounded in true wisdom; and it is in no degree better fitted for the apprehension of
spiritual doctrine than the eye of a blind
96
man is for discriminating colors. We must carefully
notice these two thingsthat knowledge of all the sciences is mere smoke, where the heavenly
science of Christ is wanting; and man, with all his acute-ness, is as stupid for obtaining of
himself a knowledge of the mysteries of God, as an ass is unqualified for understanding
musical harmonies.
97
The understanding of the lost and the redeemed differs due to antithetical pre-suppositional foundations for
wisdom, knowledge, and reason. What fallen man knows apart from regeneration is smoke, but the
redeemed are enabled to know and reason properly even into the mysteries of God. Knowledge of all
without knowing Christ is vanity and the only hope for fulfillment is through faith that transforms the worldly
wise into a heavenly fool. Calvin responded to the question which some would raise concerning how
something so noble as reason could be viewed so disparagingly by Paul:
A solution of this question, I say, is opened up to view from the circumstance, that Paul does
not expressly condemn either mans natural perspicuity, or wisdom acquired from practice and
experience, or cultivation of mind attained by learning: but declares that all this is of no avail for
acquiring spiritual wisdom.
98
It may appear that Calvin is teaching a conflict between faith and reason, that is, reason is the means for
obtaining knowledge in all things except those requiring spiritual wisdom, but the point he is making is that
no matter how wise a person may be through natural reason, no matter how much common knowledge he
may have, it will avail little in the attainment of spiritual wisdom. The Genevan added to his analysis as he
commented on v. 20 that:
... it holds true, that without Christ sciences in every department are vain, and that the man who
knows not God is vain, though he should be conversant with every branch of learning. Nay
more, we may affirm this, too, with truth, that these choice gifts of Godexpertness of mind,
acuteness of judgment, liberal sciences, and acquaintance with languages, are in a manner
profaned in every instance in which they fall to the lot of wicked men.
99
Fallen and unredeemed mans reason and knowledge are necessarily deficient due to his inability to build
his understanding on a theistic foundation. Calvin does not say that unbelieving fallen man cannot reason at
all, but he does say that sinners dead in trespasses and sins cannot reason rightly in any area of life. There
are two distinct ways to know, understand, and reason about the world. Right reason is redeemed because
it is reason which is reconstructed from the ground up by the Holy Spirit; wrong reason is that of the blind, it
remains devastated by
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 17
the fall and cannot know the things of God nor truly comprehend the world he created, and it can readily
become vicious reason.
IV. Paul, Calvin, And Human Reason And Its Limits In Acts 17:16-34
Acts 17:16 opens by expressing the anguish of Pauls heart as he viewed the gross idolatry of Athens.
Calvin observed in this passage that the idolatry of the Athenians was an expression of extreme madness
in order that the world might know the foolishness of learning and instruction . . . when it comes to the
kingdom of God.
100
The Greeks understanding of wisdom, knowledge, and reason was nothing else but a
shop of all errors, a binge of intoxicated pride and arrogance before God, and they exceeded all others in
blindness and madness.
101
Athenian reason had gone beyond the natural and become vicious. The wise
men of Athens had pulled God down to the level of the creature and made him an inhabitant of their city
102
Verse 18 tells of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who viewed Paul with curiosity since he taught
something new in his preaching of Jesus and the resurrection. Calvin commented, on v. 18, that Pauls
method was not with unprofitable and contentious arguing, but with modesty and meekness avoiding the
temptation to exalt himself
103
Paul did not seize the opportunity to enter into a free-for-all of philosophical
wit, learning, and sophistry, but instead preached the gospel by appealing to the philosophers sense of
deity represented in the presence of the inscription to the unknown god.
104
Paul was faced with two
attitudes in v. 18: some wanted to hear something new and were driven by vain curiosity, while others,
said Master John, had higher motives and listened with doubt but were not quite past hope.
105
Reasoning
which doubts may show the Holy Spirit at work, but vicious reason seeking titillation could show an attitude
of arrogant autonomy. Calvin commented on this text as follows:
. . . though the philosophers do not reason purely, yet they say somewhat. Yea, they speak
much concerning eternal life and the immortality of the soul; but as touching faith, which shows
free reconciliation in Christ; and regeneration, whereby the Spirit of God does restore in us the
image of God, concerning calling upon God, and the last resurrection, not a word.
106
The Stoics and Epicureans reasoning was vicious as they speculated concerning things that could only be
known through the Bible, while within the context of natural reason they could discern the afterlife, but the
gospel of grace and faith
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 18
required reading the Bible through the spectacles of faith. Reason and knowledge were of particular
significance for the Stoics because they believed knowledge is virtue and that well-being could be obtained
through achieving a state of cognitive perfection. If knowledge is virtue, then the more one absorbs varieties
of knowledge the more virtuous one becomes. The Stoics were willing to listen to Paul as an intellectual
curiosity and as a means to increase their virtue.
The act of setting up an altar to the unknown God displayed the Athenians ignorance and lack of certainty
concerning the true God. Calvin put it succinctly by commenting, Furthermore, whosoever worships God
without any certainty he worships his own inventions instead of God.
107
In v. 24 Paul established that the
true God must be separated from all the divinities invented by man.
108
God cannot be known rightly unless
attempts to define him according to mans nature and flesh are abandoned; God must be distinguished from
his creatures if he is to be known.
109
Faith is necessary to know God and without faith man must needs
vanish away in . . . [his] own cogitations.
110
Paul goes on to proclaim that God must be sought because no
man can proclaim ignorance concerning his existence. God, said Calvin, does not hide from man but rather
partially reveals himself through creation and conscience; it is absurd to allow for the notion that man could
be ignorant of his creator.
111
Further, mans blindness is shameful and intolerable since Gods revelation is
to be seen everywhere because God hath not darkly shadowed his glory in the creation of the world, but he
hath everywhere engraven such manifest marks, that even blind men may know them by groping
112
Calvin
commented further that the quote from Aratus in v. 28for in him we live and move and existcame from
the fountain of nature and common reason.
113
Paul could use the words of a pagan philosopher because
the quote contained truth that the philosopher had discerned through natural reason. Verse 30 is
controversial due to its perspective on Gods actions in history concerning the redemption of the lost. The
point of concern is, what does the Bible mean when it says, God have winked at the time of this ignorance
so far? The key question is, why did God allow man to wander for so long? Despite mans ability to reason
he erred grossly and continuously. The only cause, said Calvin, for this period of winking was Gods good
pleasure.
114
It was a manifestation of fallen mans arrogance that he continued to try and explain Gods
works. Man must accept this winking of God and not try to delve into the Divine purpose.
115
Readers of the
verse are warned not to let a vain and perverse desire to know more than is meet lead to presumptuous
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 19
speculation.
116
Gods providence limits mans knowledge and man must not attempt to reason beyond what
God has revealed.
117
Commentary on the passage concludes with a call to repentance, an ending of vain
speculations, and embracing Jesus Christ as the resurrected Redeemer and final judge of the world.
118
Mention of the resurrection brought about three responses in vv 32-34those who mocked, those who
were willing to listen to more, and those who believed. Calvin explained the skeptical response of some:
And none marvel that this point of Pauls doctrine was derided at Athens; for it is a mystery hid
from mens minds, whereon the chief philosophers had never thought, neither can we
otherwise comprehend it, than when we lift up the eyes of faith unto the infinite power of
God.
119
Pauls sermon before the Areopagus was a successful apologetic confrontation. Successful not only
because Dionysius and Damaris were evangelized and believed the gospel, but because the gospel had
been faithfully and accurately presented in the face of autonomous philosophy. The Genevans comments
show that philosophy cannot comprehend Gods truth through natural nor vicious reason. Reason must be
transformed by grace if reason is to reach God through the Word.
V. Conclusion
A foundational aspect of Master Calvins theology is the catastrophic nature of the fall. Man fell from the
glories of Edenic perfection into the miry bog of sin and misery. The fall affected man in his entirety, but it
did not totally destroy him nor completely obliterate the imago Dei. Thus, if mans ability to reason had been
totally and completely removed, then man would have ceased being man. Human reason is an aspect of
man in the image of God. In each of the three kinds of reasonnatural, vicious, and redeemedthe effects
of sin are present. Calvins designation of three kinds of human reason may mislead since the second and
third are actually modified extensions of fallen natural reason. That is, natural reason is mans fallen ability
to reason, which in redeemed and lost alike can descend into the abyss of speculative philosophy and
become vicious reason, or in the Christian may ascend into the glories of a redeemed reason that views the
entirety of revelation through the spectacles of faith. Natural reason can imperfectly comprehend the
existence of God, the wonder of his handiwork, science and the laws of creation, mathematical problems,
weighing, measuring, building, and other common areas of life, but it cannot comprehend the gospel nor
understand any aspect of these common areas of life truly because only redeemed reason illumines the
common and salvific. Vicious reasoning is exemplified in two ways. First, it seeks to obtain knowledge of
God and his works through means other than Scripture when Scripture is
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 20
the only way to acquire that knowledge; and second, it is the illegitimate pursuit of knowledge that God has
reserved for himself alone. Vicious reason is often condemned by the Genevan with terms like sophistry,
the schoolmen, the philosophers, and the teaching of the Sorbonne. In contrast with vicious reason is
redeemed reason, which is seeded, cultivated, and pruned by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word of
God. Redeemed reason, though in a Christian struggling with sinful flesh, is definitively and progressively
reasoning rightly. Despite the catastrophe of the fall, the pollution of all mans faculties, and the propensity
for speculative reasoning, the grace of redemption enables man to reason rightly.
An illustration involving Calvins three types of reason may help at this point. The atheist physicist
understanding Newtons laws of motion has a necessarily deficient perspective on their meaning due to his
denial of Gods existence; the Christian physicist, though his scientific knowledge may not be as extensive or
technical as the atheists, necessarily understands Newton truly, though maybe not completely, through the
spectacles of grace. Creations laws are of divine origin; the equation, force equals mass times acceleration,
is true because God is its author. The atheist physicist has excelled in the use of natural reason, while the
Christian physicists redeemed reason provides a fullness of perspective unavailable to the atheist due to his
suppression of the knowledge of God in unrighteousness.
John Calvin was deeply concerned that people recognize the limits of human reason and submit to the
sufficiency of Gods revelation concerning knowledge. Gods revelation expressed in the work of creation,
the acceleration of gravity the Trinity, the orbits of the planets, and parallel lines never intersecting, are all
revealed by God and true because the Lord is their author. The sufficiency of Scripture, according to Calvin,
is not only an illuminating factor in that it tells man all he needs to know for faith and life, but it is also a
limiting factor because man must not speculate concerning the knowledge God has withheld. One of the
Genevans foundational principles for the exercise of reason in the interpretation of Scripture is that man
should know when to stop pursuing the prodding of his curiosity. Vicious reason is seen in the unconverted
who theorize about metaphysics and epistemology trying to answer the big questions when the answers
can only be known through redemptive reason searching the Scriptures. Knowledge for creatures made of
dust is limited by what God has made known, and man must reason within his limitations. The enticement of
the forbidden combined with aspirations to divinity have continued to characterize mans exercise of reason.
This perspective is exemplified in Calvins comments on the doxological words of Paul in Rom 11:33 as the
apostle concluded his exposition of the wonders of predestination and Gods electing grace:
Whenever then we enter on a discourse respecting the eternal counsel of God, let a bridle be
always set on our thoughts and tongue, so that after having spoken soberly and within the limits
of Gods word, our reasoning may at last end in admiration.
Let us then learn to make no searchings respecting the Lord, except as far as he has revealed
himself in the Scriptures; for otherwise we shall enter a labyrinth, from which the retreat is not
easy.
WTJ 72:1 (Spring 2010) p. 21
As then we cannot by our own faculties examine the secrets of God, so we are admitted into a
certain and clear knowledge of them by the grace of the Holy Spirit; and if we ought to follow
the guidance of the Spirit, where he leaves us, there we ought to stop and as it were to fix our
standing. If any one will seek to know more than what God has revealed, he shall be
overwhelmed with the immeasurable brightness of inaccessible light. But we must bear in mind
the distinction, which I have before mentioned, between the secret counsel of God, and his will
made known in Scripture; for though the whole doctrine of Scripture surpasses in its height the
mind of man, yet an access to it is not closed against the faithful, who reverently and soberly
follow the Spirit as their guide; but the case is different with regard to his hidden counsel, the
depth and height of which cannot by any investigation be reached.
120
Only the Christian enjoys the privilege of plumbing the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of
God through the grace of redemptive reason. Contemplation of Gods eternal purpose bridled by the reins
of Scripture leads ones reason to admire, worship, and praise God.
Master Calvins assessment of his own faithfulness to reasoning in submission to Scripture is expressed in
his letter of farewell to the ministers of Geneva dated May 1, 1564.
121
His last years had been particularly
difficult due to the physical pain of kidney stones, arthritis, hemorrhoids, colic, expectoration of blood, and
ulcers.
122
The letter to his co- laborers in the gospel is reminiscent of Pauls words in 2 Tim 4:6-8 and 1 Cor
2:4:
As to my doctrine, I have taught faithfully, and God has given me grace to write what I have
written as faithfully as it was in my power. I have not falsified a single passage of the Scriptures,
nor given it a wrong interpretation to the best of my knowledge; and though I might have
introduced subtle senses, had I studied subtlety I cast that temptation under my feet and
always aimed at simplicity
123
The last sentence expresses the Genevans belief that he had avoided speculating in his expositions of the
Word of God. Calvins exposition of the truth of Scripture was in direct confrontation with the exaltation of
human reason expressed in scholasticism and humanism. If the locus studied yielded itself to vast depths of
inquiry because Scripture had much to say about the issue, then he illumined that depth in his teaching; if
the point of discussion was addressed little in the Word, then he limited his instruction to what God said.
Reason must be established on the foundation of faith and exercised within the bounds of Gods scriptural
revelation if it is to be right reason.
1
William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988),
113, chs. 6 and 7, address this particularly; see also Bouwsmas article, Calvin, John, in The Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy (ed. Robert Audi; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
2
Quirinius Breen, John Calvin: A Study in French Humanism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931), 146, 147.
3
Francois Wendel, Calvin: Origins and Development of His Religious Thought (trans. Philip Mairet: Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1963), 188, 248-49.
4
David G. Steinmetz, Calvin in Context (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 30.
5
Leroy Nixon, John Calvins Teaching on Human Reason (2d ed.; New York: Exposition Press, 1963), 27.
6
Genesis, 1:95 (the edition of Calvins commentaries in English used for this article is the set originally
published by The Calvin Translation Society and reprinted as Calvins Commentaries [22 vols.; Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1993]); CO (Calvini Opera omnia; 59 vols.) 23:26-27.
7
Genesis, 1:117; CO 23:38.
8
Genesis, 1:126; CO 23:44.
9
Genesis, 1:147-48; CO 23:57.
10
Genesis, 1:148; CO 23:57.
11
Genesis, 1:148; CO 23:58.
12
Genesis, 1:149; GO 23:58.
13
Genesis, 1:150; GO 23:59.
14
Genesis, 1:151; GO 23:59.
15
Genesis, 1:154, 155; GO 23:61, 62.
16
Genesis, 1:95 (italics added for emphasis); GO 23:27. Also, commenting on Gen 8:21 and the words, For
the imagination of mans heart, Calvin observed: We must, therefore, acquiesce in the judgment of God
which pronounces man to be so enslaved by sin that he can bring forth nothing sound and sincere (1:285;
GO 23:141). Commenting on Ps 51:5 and the words, Behold, I was shaped in iniquity Calvin said, Adam,
upon his fall, was despoiled of his original righteousness, his reason darkened, his will perverted (Psalms,
5:291; CO 21:514; v. 5 in English is v. 7 in the Latin).
17
Institutes, 2-1-1 (the English version used in this article is Ford Lewis Battless translation in the Library of
Christian Classics, vols. 20 and 21: Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion [ed. John T McNeill; 2 vols.;
Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977]); the 1559 Institutes in Latin is contained in the entirety of vol. 2 of CO.
18
Institutes, 2-1-1.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid., 2.1.2.
22
Ibid., 2.1.3.
23
All publication dates for Calvins writings are taken from W de Greef, The Writings of John Calvin (trans.
Lyle D. Bierma; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993); pp. 237-41 provide a chronological list.
24
John Calvin, True Partaking of the Flesh and Blood of Christ, in vol. 2 of Calvins Tracts Containing
Treatises on the Sacraments (trans, by Henry Beveridge; Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society 1849),
512; CO 9:474.
25
True Partaking 512; CO 9:474.
26
True Partaking, 505; GO 9:469.
27
True Partaking, 512; GO 9:474.
28
Ibid, (sedea suos habetfines, quos si exsuperat, evanescit).
29
Calvins view of the imago Dei can be confusing. In some of his writings, particularly earlier ones, he
appears to say that the image was destroyed in the sense of totally eliminated by the fall. But when more
of his corpus is read, one realizes that Calvins view of the depravity of man is so extensive that it is almost
as if man lost the imago. For example, comments on Gen 1:26-27 referring to Col 3:10 and Eph 3:23, 24,
read, Since the image of God has been destroyed [deleta] in us by the fall, we may judge from its
restoration what it originally had been. Paul says that we are transformed into the image of God by the
gospel. And, according to him, spiritual regeneration is nothing else than the restoration of the same image
(Genesis, 1:94). Taken by itself this statement would seem to teach that Calvin believed in mans loss of the
imago in the fall, but on the next page of the commentary Calvin clarifies his position by saying that the
image of God is so vitiated and maimed that it could be said to be destroyed. Thus, it could be said of
Calvins view that the fallen imago can be likened to an invalid on the critical list, in the intensive care unit,
on life support, with an erratic EKG, and near the point of death, but redemption brings new life to the imago
and initiates the process of recovery healing and restoration which is ultimately and gloriously completed in
heaven. The fall was truly catastrophic for man. See also comments on Gen 3:1, 1:139; Gen 9:1-17, 1:296;
2 Cor 3:18, 20:187. The Institutes also: [image was] so vitiated and almost obliterated (1.15.4); image
obliterated in him (2-1-5); and image of God wiped out from his mind and soul (3.2-12)- So, Calvins
describing natural reason as lost should be understood in connection with his understanding of the imago
Dei and the devastating results of the fall.
30
Beveridge translates humana ratio as natural reason, while the Battles edition translates the Latin as
human reason; CO 2:61.
31
Institutes, 1.8.13. This is also the perspective Calvin takes concerning the proofs for the existence of God.
In Calvins view, the proofs are not meant to prove Gods existence, but rather are testimonies to the God
which man knows to exist. That is, Calvin sees man as putting the God of the universe in the dock when he
starts trying to prove Gods existence, but testimonies are witnesses to mans responsibility to God and
place man in the dock. Thus, proofs show man exercising a perceived autonomy, while testimonies show
God exercising his sovereignty and calling man to belief in him.
32
Calvin likes this sparks imagery and uses it in 1.15.3, 1.16.9, and 2-2-12, as well as in other locations in
the Institutes and his other works.
33
Institutes, 2.2.12.
34
Ibid., 2.2.15.
35
John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, in vol. 1 of Calvins Tracts Relating to the
Reformation (trans. Henry Beveridge; Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1844), 158.
36
Ibid.; italics added.
37
Isaiah, 7:38; GO 26:28.
38
Isaiah, 7:38-39; GO 26:29.
39
Titus, 21:313, this is the entire comment about this verse in the commentary; GO 52:420.
40
True Partaking, 512; GO 9:474.
41
Institutes, 1.5.12.
42
Ibid.
43
Ibid.
44
Ibid., 1.14.12.
45
Ibid.
46
See Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995), 47, for a table of
nine levels of celestial hierarchy.
47
Institutes, 2.2.3.
48
Ibid.
49
Ibid.
50
Ibid., 2.2.7, 8.
51
The gain appears to be financial profit since w. 6 and 8 call for godliness to be content with its physical and
monetary condition in life, and v. 10 warns that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.
52
1 Timothy, 21.155; GO 52:324-25.
53
Institutes, 1.3.1.
54
Ibid., 1.3.2- Three quotes from Cornelius Van Til are helpful here: No matter which button of the radio he
[man] presses, he always hears the voice of God [Common Grace and the Gospel [Nutley NJ.:
Presbyterian & Reformed, 1977], 53); Arguing about Gods existence, I hold, is like arguing about air. You
may affirm that air exists, and I that it does not. But as we debate the point, we are both breathing air all the
time [Why I Believe in God, printed in Greg Bahnsen, Van Tils Apologetic [Phillipsburg, NJ.: Presbyterian &
Reformed, 1998], 122); The natural man is such an one as constantly throws water on a fire he cannot
quench [Christian Apologetics [Nutley NJ.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1976], 56; note Van Tils fire imagery
and Calvins repeated use of sparks to show the sense of deity and the imago Dei).
55
Institutes, 1.3.3.
56
Ibid., 1.4.1.
57
Ibid.
58
Ibid., 1.5.11.
59
Ibid.
60
Ibid., 1.5.12- Van Til comments, When man became a sinner he made of himself instead of God the
ultimate or final reference point. And it is precisely this presupposition, as it controls without exception all
forms of non-Christian philosophy that must be brought into question [Christian Apologetics, 45).
61
Institutes, 1.5.12.
62
Ibid. Battles comments in n. 36, The pictorial figure of the labyrinth is in Calvins writings frequently
employed as a symbol of human frustration and confusion. Thus, labyrinth vividly describes the vicious
nature of reason run amok; CO 2:49.
63
Deuteronomy, 2:424; CO 24:266.
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid.
66
Ibid.
67
Ibid.
68
Deuteronomy, 2:425-26; GO 24:266-67.
69
Deuteronomy, 2:426; GO 24:266-67.
70
True Partaking, 512; GO 9:474.
71
Institutes, 1.1.1.
72
Ibid.
73
Ibid., 1.1.2.
74
Ibid., 1.1.2,3.
75
Ibid., 1.2.2.
76
Ibid.
77
Ibid., 3.7.1.
78
John Calvin, Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters (ed. Jules Bonnet; trans. Marcus Robert
Gilchrist; 7 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 5:212-13.
79
Calvin, Tracts and Letters, 5:213.
80
Ibid.
81
Ibid.
82
Ephesians, 21:295; CO 51:208.
83
Ephesians, 21:296; CO 51:208-9.
84
Colossians, 21:211; CO 52:121.
85
Romans, 19:68, 23. This is Calvins first published Bible commentary 1540.
86
Romans, 19:69; CO 49:23.
87
Ibid.
88
Romans, 19:71; GO 49:24. Van Til comments: Saving grace is not manifest in nature; yet it is the God of
saving grace who manifests himself by means of nature (Nature and Scripture, in The Infallible Word [ed.
Ned Stonehouse and Paul Woolley; 3d rev. ed.; Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1967], 266); Men
can read nature aright only when it is studied as the home of man who is made in the image of God
(Introduction to Systematic Theology [Nutley NJ.: 1974], 82).
89
Hebrews, 22:264; GO 55:144.
90
Hebrews, 22:264-65; GO 55:145.
91
Hebrews, 22:265; GO 55:145. Calvin exhibits this as he mentions the rainbow, which he describes as but a
reflection of the suns rays upon the clouds opposite, and such a variety of colors naturally arises from
rays reflected upon a cloud opposite (Institutes, 4.14.18). This shows, concludes Battles, Calvins familiarity
with Plinys Natural History and Senecas Natural Questions.
92
Hebrews, 22:265; GO 55:145.
93
1 Corinthians, 20:85; GO 49:326-27.
94
1 Corinthians, 20:85-86; GO 49:327.
95
Romans, 19:454; GO 49:235; italics added; Calvin comments on 12:2.
96
Calvins continued use of blind terminology shows that the unredeemed cannot know anything truly
because they are like people who cannot see; see also comments on Eph 4:18, Ephesians. 21:292; CO
51:205-6, where this blindness is described as the punishment of original sin.
97
1 Corinthians, 20:82; CO 49:325.
98
1 Corinthians, 20:83; CO 49:325.
99
Ibid.
100
Acts, 19:146; GO 48:403.
101
Ibid.
102
Ibid.
103
Acts, 19:149; GO 48:405.
104
Ibid. Calvins point is that Paul did not play the Athenians game; he stuck to the gospel, did not succumb to
pride and ego, and made apologetic contact.
105
Acts, 19:151; GO 48:406.
106
Acts, 19:152; GO 48:406-7.
107
Acts, 19:155; CO 48:408.
108
Acts, 19:159; CO 48:410-11.
109
Acts, 19:159; CO 48:411.
110
Acts, 19:160; CO 48:411.
111
Acts, 19:166; CO 48:415.
112
Ibid.
113
Acts, 19:169; CO 48:417. Calvin also mentions this in Institutes, 1.5.3.
114
Acts, 19:173; CO 48:419-20.
115
Acts, 19:173; CO 48:420.
116
Acts, 19:174; GO 48:420.
117
Acts, 19:174; GO 48:420-21.
118
Acts, 19:174-77; GO 48:420-22.
119
Acts,19:177-78; GO 48:422-23.
120
Romans, 19:444, 445, 447; GO 49:230-31.
121
Calvin, Tracts and Letters, 7:372-78. Calvin died on May 27, 1564.
122
For a rather explicit and wrenching description of his agony see his letter to the Physicians of Montpellier
written from Geneva, February 8, 1564, in Tracts and Letters, 7:358-60.
123
Calvin, Tracts and Letters, 7:375.
current : : uid:851 (institution)