Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)

2009 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK

“Calvin on the Proper Attitude Toward This Life and the Next"

Lord. I call “service” not only what lies in obedience to God’s Word but what turns the mind of man, empty of its own carnal sense, wholly to the bidding of God’s Spirit. While it is the first entrance to life, all philosophers were ignorant of this transformation, which Paul calls “renewal of the mind” [Eph. 4:23]. For they set up reason alone as the ruling principle in man, and think that it alone should be listened to; to it alone, in short, they entrust the conduct of life. But the Christian philosophy bids reason give way to, submit and subject itself to, the Holy Spirit so that the man himself may no longer live but bear Christ living and reigning within him [Gal. 2:20], Inst. III.7.1.5

The distinguished Reformation historian, Wilhelm Pauck, concludes, “One may say that this passage can serve as a motto for the entire interpretation of the Christian life that Calvin offers in the Institutes.”5 6 7

This eloquent passage only serves as an introduction to my subject, viz., Calvin’s perspective on this life and the life to come. I am not following the order suggested by my topic, however, but rather following the order in the last two chapters of the “Golden Booklet” and the final edition of the Institutes, i.e., “Meditation on the Future Life” (Chapter IX), and “How We Must Use the Present Life and Its Helps” (Chapter X).

The former chapter has received considerable attention, sometimes negatively because on the surface it seems to cast Calvin in an otherworldly light. Worse, that it seems to confirm the negative images of the reformer as a person who had a negative view of humanity and this world. The latter chapter is brief and has been largely ignored. This is most unfortunate because it is a necessary balance to Chapter IX and provides a positive, life-affirming view rarely recognized in popular Calvin studies. My main purpose in this lecture is to redress that imbalance.

II. Chapter 9: “Meditation on the Future Life”

A. Meaning of meditation (meditation or practice?)

The first problem we face here is not some of the negative passages found in the chapter but the translation of the title itself. The Latin reads “De meditatione futurae vitae.” The obvious translation would appear to be the standard English one “Meditation on the Future Life” (accent mine), and so it is translated by Allen, Beveridge, and Battles. The French title is similar: “De la Meditation de la vie á venir” and is also translated as ‘meditation’ in the new translation of the 1541 French edition by Elsie Me KeeT Moreover, almost

5 The Battles translation of the last sentence is awkward (“but hear Christ living and

reigning”). The word translated ‘hear’ should probably be ‘bear’ (ferat). The Beveridge translation reads: “But Christian philosophy makes her [reason] move aside and give complete submission to the Holy Spirit, so that the individual no longer reigns, but Christ lives and reigns in him.”

6 The Heritage of the Reformation (Glencoe: The Free Press, revised and enlarged edition, 1961), 67.

7 Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1541 French Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

2009), 702. In this edition, however, there is just one long chapter “On the Christian