The Calvinist International
Calvin continues to interact with Scripture on the oneness and threeness of God. Translation Consider Paul, too: in order to prove that it is fitting for us all to stand before Christ’s tribunal, he brings another remark of the prophet to bear: “As I live, every knee shall bow before me” (Isaiah 45.23). To be […]
I’ve written before about G.M. Giger’s translation of Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology, here, here, and here. Here is another one. At issue in this present foray is a passage on Scripture from Institutes 2.4.6: Scriptura seipsam Divinam probat, non modo authoritative et per modum argumenti inartificialis seu Testimonii, quando se θεόπνεῦστον vocat; quod […]
Niels Hemmingsen, commenting on the clause “I believe in the forgiveness of sins” in the Apostles’ Creed, calls gracious forgiveness the “chief adornment of the church.” Text and Translation Remissio peccatorum est praecipuum ornamentum Ecclesiae, quo donatur a suo sponso Christo. Nam forma propria iustificationis Ecclesiae et singulorum membrorum in Ecclesia, hic exprimitur, quae est […]
We come to the end of the first chapter of Book 1 of the Sententiae.1 Inordinate dici seu conferri vitiis ea quae ordinate in Deo sunt, utpote simplicitas, quae aliquando dicitur pro stultitia, et non est. Apud Deum vero summa simplicitas est. Iuxta hanc regulam et cetera aestimanda sunt. [It is evident that] the things that […]
Cazier divides the next sententia into two parts, 1.1.6a and 1.1.6b. I’m going to follow him here. In this sententia Isidore draws the conclusion of divine simplicity:1 Ideo Deus dicitur simplex, sive non amittendo quod habet, seu quia non aliud est ipse et aliud quod in ipso est. For that reason God is called simple, whether by […]
In the fifth sententia of the first chapter of Book 1, Isidore gives a summary statement of an idea familiar in Western divinity: that the divine attributes are identical with the divine essence (as one example from recent history, cf. Bavinck here). As John of Damascus says, “[O]ne may not speak of quality in connection with […]
In the third sententia in the first chapter of Book 1 of his Sententiae, Isidore focuses on God’s immateriality.1 3. Quod materiam habet, unde existat, mutabile est, quia de informi ad formam transit. Quod vero non habet materiam, immutabile est, sicut Deus utique est. Bene, ac substantialiter sunt ista in Deo, id est, incorruptio, immortalitas, incommutabilitas. Unde et […]
In Sententiae 1.1.2, Isidore equates God’s immortality with his immutability:1 2. Quid est Dei immortalitas, nisi eius incommutabilitas? Nam et angeli et animae immortales sunt, sed immutabiles non sunt; ideoque solus Deus dicitur immortalis, quia solus incommutabilis est. Nam anima moritur, dum, deserente Deo, de bono in malum mutatur, sic et angelus, dum, deserente Deo, est lapsus. 2. […]
The sixth/seventh century churchman Isidore of Seville authored, among other things, an early collection of Christian Sententiae, in three books. Most of the opinions in it are drawn from Augustine and Gregory the Great. The first book begins with God. Its first chapter has the title Quod Deus summus et incommutabilis sit (“That God is the […]
Zacharius Ursinus, the famed theology professor at the University of Heidelberg and author of the Heidelberg Catechism, took part in a public disputation on the sacraments at the Academy of Rostock in the year 1581. It is not clear from the text whether he was present at the disputation, but he apparently made annotations on the topics that were […]