Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sawyer Frank: Kálvin transzformációs nézete. Some Aspect of John Calvin's Trnsformational views
Kálvin transzformációs nézete First, we should consider for what purpose we have been created and endowed with no mean gifts. ...Secondly, we should weigh our own abilities - or rather, lack of abilities. ...The first consideration tends to make us recognize the nature of our duty; the second, the extent of our ability to carry it out. (Inst.II.i.3 and 8) This shows the double side of Calvin’s approach: we have a great calling as image bearers of God’s will; and we have great limitations due to our finiteness and our sinfulness. This makes Calvin a biblical realist in regard to ideological projects. He would not expect salvation from any ideology, whether socialist or capitalist, scientific or religious. He often stated that power corrupts, and also said at various times that Christian misuse of power in economics and war was often worse than the pagans. The main point is that Calvin saw the ‘rationalizations’ by which we justify our own plans, actions, and even our evil deeds. This is important because later nonchristian thinkers, such as Marx and Sartre among many others, would also point this out. Calvin already said it this way: Our reason is overwhelmed by so many forms of deceptions, is subject to so many errors, dashes against so many obstacles, is caught in so many difficulties, that it is far from guiding us aright. (Inst.II.ii.25) God’s word reveals God’s will for all of life Once again some quotations from Calvin show his own wording on these themes: ...spiritual insight consists chiefly in three things: (1) knowing God; (2) knowing his fatherly favour in our behalf, in which our salvation consists; (3) knowing how to frame our life according to the rule of his law. (Inst.II.ii.18) Calvin adds that in actually understanding and applying these spiritual insights “the greatest geniuses are blinder than moles!” But regardless of our errors and limits, the framing of our life according to the rule of God’s law is at the heart of Calvin’s personal and social ethics. He understood this to mean the transformation of our daily life and society. Another way Calvin states this is by saying that we need “a full reformation of all the parts" of life and he refers in regard to this to the Apostle Paul’s saying: “be transformed by the renewal of your minds” (Romans 12). This understanding of God’s will led Luther to a new understanding of holiness, which can be stated as in the following poem, using phrases from Luther: THE NEW HOLINESS When an ordinary rough worker, Siirns|>alaki Fii/clt'k 59
