The Calvinist International
Here is an insightful section from Harold Berman outlining the ways in which historical frameworks (e.g. ancient, medieval, modern) can obscure rather than clarify: In addition to nationalist fallacies, legal historiography has suffered also from religious fallacies, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, which have obscured the continuity between the Catholic Middle Ages and post-Reformation modern […]
It is well known that the Apostle Paul appeals to his Roman citizenship to notify the Roman military tribune in Acts 22 that he should not be flogged. He later, in Acts 25, appeals to Caesar in order to gain a just hearing with respect to the charges leveled against by the “chief priests and […]
I appreciated Andrew Fulford’s recent essay on the relationship between the classic Protestant understanding of supererogatory works and civil polity. He gets down to the basic theological and philosophical distinctions that the older Protestant thinkers made regarding law, justice, charity, and the political life of the commonwealth. However, I was left feeling that Mr. Fulford had […]
Many of John Calvin’s references to Aristotelian cosmology occur during his later years, representing his mature theology. Christopher Kaiser has shown that Calvin viewed the universe through the lens of Aristotelian natural philosophy. He accepted such ideas as the concept of natural place (the earth is the center of the spheres due to its weight), […]
What is a friend worth? The Preacher taught us long ago: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up. […]
When I was younger, the acronym “ACTS” was a popular shorthand for helping people to remember how to pray. The four letters stand for: Adoration; Confession; Thanksgiving; Supplication. We begin with God, and move on to sin, the solution for sin, and intercession for others. In a similar vein, John Calvin believes that all Christian duty–non […]
In Institutes 2.7.1, Calvin discusses why the Law was “superadded” at Sinai. The giving of the Law to Moses and, through him, to Israel can only be properly understood, he believes, when connected with the end of the Law, which was always Christ and the spiritual worship of God by a “kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” This […]
Niels Hemmingsen makes use of the standard division of the law into three uses in the Enchiridion Theologicum (I may return at some point to his discussion more broadly). The first use (usus) he discusses is the usus politicus, the “political” or “civil” use of the law, which consists in “external discipline” (externa disciplina). He notes that his […]
Last time we noted that Niels Hemmingsen finds two “prefaces” (prooemia) to the Decalogue: “And God spoke all these words, saying” and “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’”). In the first, the (inspired) authorial comment that precedes God’s speech reported in […]
In the Enchiridion theologicum, Niels Hemmingsen holds to the traditional threefold distinction of the Law (ceremonial, judicial, moral). His comments on the lex ceremonialis are exceedingly brief: it is entirely abolished (tota…abolita est), together with the Aaronic priesthood–insofar the matter pertains to its use (usum), not its “signification” (significationem). Nam res quas figurabant, ceremoniae sunt aeternae: “For the […]