Magisterial authority and competing theories of natural law in Calvin's Institutes (original) (raw)
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Calvinist Natural Law and Constitutionalism
The continuity between Calvinist natural law and the constitutional tradition of limited government is often overlooked. This article aims to engage with Calvin's natural law theory on its own terms to explore what authority it can provide for modern constitutionalism. The article begins by exploring some important points of distinction between Calvinist and Thomist approaches to the idea of natural law. I then contend that the focus of modern constitutionalism on subjecting government power to the 'rule of law' is continuous with Calvinist natural law concepts of human depravity and God's sovereignty. The article is structured broadly into three main parts. The first section engages with the concept and history of Christian natural law, framing them by reference to the Two Kingdoms doctrine. The second section discusses the central tenets of Calvinist natural law theory, namely the sovereignty of God, the doctrine of humanity's total depravity and the Two Kingdoms doctrine as a unified concept. The final section then applies Calvinist natural law to three sites of modem constitutionalism - the rule of law, the separation of powers, and modem federalism.
Although there are many studies on John Calvin's teaching on natural law, the relation between natural law and Roman law has received relatively less attention. This essay examines the relation between natural law and Roman law in Calvin's exegetical writing on the Mosaic law. I argue that Calvin regarded Roman law as an exemplary, albeit imperfect, witness to the natural law, and he used Roman law to aid in his interpretation of the Mosaic law. Since he assumed that Roman law embodies principles of natural law, Calvin drew on Roman law as an aid in order to distinguish natural from positive law within the Mosaic law. He also broadened the scope of commandments in the second table of the Decalogue by comparison with natural and Roman law. Yet although Calvin drew many continuities between Mosaic and Roman laws, he remained critical of the Roman system due to various failings in comparison with Scripture and principles of natural law.
The Law and the Spirit of Christ: Analysis of Calvin's INSTITUTES 2.6-9
Calvin is famous for many things, not least of which is his distinctive contribution to Soteriology that earned him the title “theologian of the Holy Spirit.” The subject is broached early in the Institutes in connection with the exposition of the Ten Commandments, bookended in the final edition with new chapters on Christ, the Mediator (2:6-9). Calvin’s well-known analysis of the use of the law now precedes rather than follows his exposition of the Decalogue, and it provides an illuminating gateway for understanding the doctrine of salvation by grace. This essay explores Calvin's contribution in its historical, scriptural, and pastoral context: (1) The Ten Commandments in Church History; (2) The Ten Commandments in the History of Redemption; (3) Preaching the Ten Commandments.
God's Bridle: John Calvin's Application of Natural Law
Journal of Law and Religion, 2006
Natural law has made a comeback in legal philosophy. The revival of natural law thinking in the legal academy began about thirty years ago and has managed to gain a seat at the table in current jurisprudential discussions. Defining natural law, Brian Bix declares that it “claims that there are fundamental and evaluative connections between the universe, human nature, and morality.” These connections need not have a Christian or even a theistic foundation. A belief in moral realism, that is, the propositions that “(1) there is an objective reality, (2) human beings can know something about it, and (3) there are some things that everyone can, and some things that everyone ought to, do in response to what they know,” ties together theistic and non-theistic versions of natural law. Yet many prominent contemporary natural law theorists—J. Budziszewski, John Finnis, Robert George, and Russell Hittinger —are Roman Catholic. Despite the fact that Finnis and George develop their natural law ...
John Calvin and the Limits of Natural Theology
Puritan Reformed Journal, 2016
The purpose of this study is to explore whether Calvin’s theology offers a sufficient basis for a Reformed approach to natural theology. The question I ask is, does Calvin offer a possibility for a Reformed approach to natural theology instead of an objection? In this study, I will examine specifically at Calvin’s Institutes, commentaries, and sermons to understand his view of general revelation and the natural knowledge of God. My purpose is to demonstrate that Calvin’s view of natural knowledge of God is defined by his view of divine revelation, and that it is possible to develop a reformed approach to natural theology within its own limits.
"Biblical Law as the source of morality in Calvin", History of Political Thought 32 (2011), pp. 1-19
In this article, I discuss the Protestant contribution to the modern concept of autonomy on the basis of an analysis of John Calvin's moral theology. I show that Calvin affirms our incapacity to know and want what is morally good, as expressed by natural law. Such incapacity is compensated for by the biblical mandates that, according to Calvin, should be incorporated into the positive legislation of Christian republics. In view of all this, I conclude that Calvin is far from the Kantian idea of autonomy which defines our Modernity. I Introduction Many consider the Reformation to be the seed from which the modern idea of autonomy developed, with the theological debate on the role of divine will regarding what the good or justice should be for us, clearing the way for this idea. However, the notion of moral autonomy is a well-known obstacle for the Christian tradition: it denies the effects of divine action on human decisions. As Jerome Schneewind argues in his monumental work on the invention of the concept, God and his Law had to preside over the edifice of morality for centuries, before morality could be described as Christian. Morality was interpreted as obedience owed to God. 3 This article intends, first, to analyse Calvin's writings in order to find out if his thinking integrates natural law and some degree of moral autonomy. In the second place, we must elucidate how this natural legislation is articulated with biblical commands and what the consequences are for positive law. In order to do this, we must first analyse the extent to which Calvin believes we are capable of recognizing the good, whether we can know it on our own (Section II). We shall see that he questions this capacity and, thus, the conception of natural law becomes eminently negative: our knowledge of natural law is just enough for our actions to be inexcusable to God, but neither our reason nor our will make it possible to fulfil this natural law. For Christians, faith and the scripture are necessary. Only for the non-believer does natural law fulfil its function (Section III). The next step will be to analyse the foundation of a Christian ethics based, according to Calvin, on the moral law of scripture
Moderate Religious Liberty in the Theology of John Calvin
Calvin Theological Journal, 1996
Some scholars portray John Calvin as a champion of religious liberty and human rights. Others view him as a rigid and brutal theocrat. This article shows that neither interpretation does justice to Calvin's complex and evolving views of spiritual and political liberty. In his early writings, Calvin distinguished sharply between the spiritual and political liberty of individuals, and showed how these two concepts of liberty operated in the heavenly and earthly kingdoms respectively. In his later writings, Calvin worked to harmonize spiritual and temporal life and liberty, and to balance the religious liberty of the individual with the corporate needs of church, state, and society. This resulted in a much more nuanced understanding of liberty and authority, rights and duties, church and state, that Calvin worked out in both theological and jurisprudential terms. Many of his formulations proved axiomatic for the Western tradition, and anticipated understandings of rights and liberties that are still pertinent today.
This study offers a hypothesis that the two marks of the Church in the Calvinist Reformed tradition, together with its disciplinary power, restate the twin classical powers granted to the Church in Catholic tradition, namely the powers of order and jurisdiction. Unlike Luther, for whom the chief ecclesiastical power was the authority to preach and teach, Calvin not only acknowledges the teaching and sacramental functions of the Church, but also stressed a jurisdictional power {jurisdictio fori) with autonomous legislative and judicial competence. This jurisdictional dimension is the key to explaining the role played by Geneva-inspired Reformed churches vis-à-vis the State and differences from other other Protestant traditions.