The Calvinist International
Today we come to the last post in this series and, boy howdy, it’s a fascinating one. Zanchi moves on from the dominical festivals, of which he approves, to the feast days of apostles and martyrs. These belong, in his view, to a lower rank. One way we know this is that they were not […]
We continue with Zanchi on Christian festivals such as the Nativity, the Passion, the Ascension, and Pentecost. Today’s passage has a number of interesting features. Here are a few: Zanchi notes the pedagogical use of church festivals. There are, um, Very Important Events that are narrated in the gospels, and it is salutary for people […]
In today’s post, we move on to Zanchi’s discussion of festivals instituted by men with the consent of the church, of which he gives several that he approves of. The list echoes to a large extent what is found in the Litany: By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation; by Thy holy Nativity and Circumcision; […]
In today’s post, Zanchi deals with the second type of licit festivals: those instituted by men with the consent of the church. As examples, he points to Purim (Esther), as well as to Hanukkah, the origin of which is recounted in 1 Maccabees. Zanchi notes that these festivals, although not instituted by direct divine command, […]
Today we move onto the second quaestio, now that Zanchi has established that festivals, as a matter of natural law, are appropriate not only for the church of the Old Testament, but also of the New Testament. That second question is: which ones? In answering the question, Zanchi makes a very important distinction, viz., that […]
Zanchi continues his comparison of gentile, Christian, and Jewish festivals, drawing on Festus for what he has to say about the gentiles. Christians festivals are like those of the gentiles in some respects, but not in others. For instance, Zanchi does not believe that “games” (ludi, a term that included all kinds of spectacle in […]
In today’s post, Zanchi continues his response to the objection that Christians should not have festivals through an analysis of the Fourth Commandment. Zanchi here makes the important distinction between substance and accident in the commandment; notes an important parallel with gentile festivals that helps to demonstrate the naturalness of festivals or feast days; and engages […]
In clearing out some old papers, I came across something I had meant to do here, but didn’t get around to it; so I’m doing it now. That “something” is a series on an interesting bit of Girolamo Zanchi’s commentary on Colossians: an excursus De Festis (“On Festivals”) in his comments on Col. 2.17. I’m […]
The scene: Twitter, Reformation Day 2017. The charge: “The more I prayed, studied history &theology, read the Bible & ChurchFathers, the more I felt God calling me to be Protestant” said no one — Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) November 1, 2017 To date, this has been retweeted 95 times (the number seems oddly fitting) and […]
If you have ever wondered what philosophical work(s) a 16th century Reformed theologian read or would recommend to his readers or students, you will no doubt be interested in the following. Girolamo Zanchi, an exiled Italian Christian and professor of Divinity at the University of Heidelberg in the late 16th century, notes in his influential […]