Calvin's Doctrine of Biblical Authority

Abd-el-Masih Istafanous

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781608996445
  9781498257077
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498274142
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Calvin's Doctrine of Biblical Authority offers a profound new approach to a long-debated topic. Istafanous draws upon Calvin's twofold structure regarding salvation to illumine the Reformer's twofold knowledge of God with particular focus on biblical authority. In doing so, Istafanous presents Calvin's view of biblical authority framed within modern discussions of inspiration. In the 1539 edition of the Institutes, and in all subsequent editions, John Calvin presented justification and sanctification as the "twofold grace of God." He repeatedly taught this concept in all of his commentaries, sermons, and other writings. More than any other reformer, Calvin used the "twofold grace" to express the full relationship between justification and sanctification. In the definitive edition of the Institutes (1559), Calvin introduced the concept of the "twofold knowledge of God." This framework has been considered by many as the ordering principle of the Institutes and all of Calvin's theology. Istafanous argues that the "twofold Grace" inspired Calvin to introduce the concept of the "twofold knowledge" in 1559. Thus, the "twofold grace of God" provides the key to understanding the "twofold knowledge" specifically and Calvin's theology generally.

Part One

Scripture and the Knowledge of God

1

Knowledge of God: The Duplex Cognitio Domini

Calvin opened the first edition of the Institutes in 1536 with the following thought, “All sacred doctrine consists in two things: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”1 Again in his Instruction in Faith of 1537, he began by pointing out that “we all are created in order that we may know the majesty of our Creator, that having known it, we may esteem it above all and honor it with all awe, love and reverence.”2 Later on, the first question that is asked in the Geneva Catechism is: “What is the chief end of human life?” The answer is: “To know God.”3 From its reprinting in 1539 until the definitive edition of 1559, the Institutes opened with the well-known words: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”4 These references, as well as many others, show the prominence of the theme of the knowledge of God in Calvin’s theology.

It should be noted at the outset that the knowledge of God for Calvin differs fundamentally from any other form of knowing because the object of this knowledge is God, who is unique;5 and God comes to be the object of human knowledge only inasmuch as he objectifies himself and makes himself knowable in the act of self-revelation. Therefore, even when God becomes the object of human knowledge, he is known “not as he is in himself, but as he is toward us.”6 Moreover, the reception of this knowledge, for Calvin, is not an act of the mind alone, but involves the heart as well. Such reception is what Calvin considered to be faith.

We have surveyed some important works in the introduction in order to clarify what the knowledge of God meant for Calvin and to situate this doctrine within his theology. We have seen that Lobstein in his article “La connaissance religieuse d’après Calvin” stated that religious knowledge for Calvin is practical, experimental, subjective, moral, and teleological.7 He considered this knowledge to be Calvin’s doctrine of faith. Yet Calvin is seen to have combined an objective factor with this subjective doctrine, the objective factor being his doctrine of Scripture.8 Lobstein considered the doctrine of faith to be the real spiritual, liberal, and evangelical element in Reformation theology.9 On the other hand, he identified the doctrine of authority as rigid, formal, scholastic, and medieval.10 Lobstein then raised the question of how and why Calvin combined these two irreconcilable elements in his doctrine of the knowledge of God. Answering his own question, he suggested that Calvin was forced to formulate his doctrine of authority in the manner he did because of his struggle against the Roman Church on one side and the Anabaptists on the other.11

In the final analysis, as we have said before, Lobstein finds that we have to choose between Calvin’s doctrine of authority and his doctrine of faith. He then very confidently states that the choice has already been made and that modern theologians have favored the liberal, spiritual, evangelical, and subjective doctrine of faith over the doctrine of authority.12

We have also seen that the same year Lobstein’s article appeared, another article on Calvin’s doctrine of the knowledge of God was published by B. B. Warfield.13 This article is to a great extent an exposition of Inst., I, i–x. Warfield discusses Calvin’s doctrine of Scripture at length, and considers that the doctrine of inspiration is basic to an understanding of Calvin’s doctrine of authority.14 Warfield expresses disappointment that Calvin separated the discussion of the accreditation of the Scriptures from that of the “assimilation of its revelatory contents.”15 Yet he goes on to remind the reader that Calvin explicitly refers to his doctrine of faith as the context within which the doctrine of the testimony of the Spirit should be understood.16 Warfield concludes accordingly that the testimony of the Spirit “is only one application of the general doctrine of faith.”17 This application is seen to be a “repairing operation on the souls of sinful men by which they are enabled to perceive light”18 or regeneration.19 As far as the authority of Scripture is concerned, Warfield maintains that “Calvin would certainly have said that our faith in Christ presupposes faith in the Scriptures, rather than that we believe in the Scriptures for Christ’s sake.”20 Yet Warfield does not commit himself to a chronological sequence for the ordo salutis.21 This same approach to Calvin was reiterated with some modification by Osterhaven.22 Neither Lobstein nor Warfield, however, make any use of Calvin’s concept of the twofold knowledge of God and the corresponding twofold knowledge of ourselves—a concept that is essential for an understanding of Calvin’s doctrine of Scripture.

Parker23 and Dowey,24 as we have already noted, considered the knowledge of God in its twofold nature. As far as the former is concerned, he shows some interest in the nature and function of the Scriptures.25 Little attention, however, is given to the question of biblical authority. Moreover, Parker does not relate the twofold knowledge of God at all to the twofold knowledge of ourselves except in passing,26 and does not clarify the relationship of Scripture to both. Dowey, on the other hand, shows great interest in Calvin’s doctrine of authority. As we have already seen in the Introduction, he regards Calvin’s division of the definitive edition of the Institutes as misleading. “From the point of view of the knowledge of God, which is the foundation of Calvin’s theological writing, Calvin’s Institutes of 1559 contains two, not four, divisions.”27 With regard to dividing the Institutes into two parts, Dowey goes on to say:

This division corresponds to what Calvin conceived of as the two kinds of revelation: the revelation of God as Creator, and as Redeemer. The short Book I of the 1559 edition represents the former, and the whole remainder of the work represents the latter.28

Dowey then goes on to say, “The really significant ordering principle of the Institutes in the 1559 edition is the duplex cognitio Domini, not the Apostles...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword by Thomas F. Torrance
• Foreword by Professor Elsie A. McKee
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Citations
• Introduction
• Part One: Scripture and the Knowledge of God
• Chapter 1: Knowledge of God: The Duplex Cognitio Domini
• Chapter 2: Knowledge of God: The Duplex Gratia Dei
• Part Two: Word and Spirit
• Chapter 3: Word and Spirit: Illumination of the Mind
• Chapter 4: Word and Spirit: Sealing of the Heart
• Chapter 5: Word and Spirit: A Corollary
• Concluding Summary
• Appendix
• Bibliography