Sárospataki Füzetek 21. (2017)
2017 / 2. szám - MISCELLANEOUS-SONSTIGES - Homoki Gyula: Where to look in suffering? A fictional round-table discussion with
Where to Look in Suffering? A Fictional Round-Table Discussion with J.B., J.C. andJ.T. “underground church” in Antwerp.7 But next year, in 1558, he had to flee for the first time in his life. He ended up in Metz (after spending some time in Aachen, Strasbourg, and Geneva), where he served as a pastor. There he got married, and a son called Samuel was born to them in 1564, but the baby died at young age. Some years later the Calvinistic worship got banned in Metz, and Taffin had to leave again, this time he settled in Heidelberg. From 1573 we find him in the court of William of Orange serving as the chaplain of the prince. In 1577, Taffin lost his wife. After leaving his position in the court of William of Orange, he put all his efforts into shepherding the Reformed congregation in Antwerp. But he didn’t have much rest. In less than a decade, in 1584, Antwerp fell into Spanish-Catholic hands and for the third time in his life, he had to become a refugee again. This time he went to Emden, the safe-haven for refugees. On this way, he wrote one of his most influential work, The marks of God’s children, which he dedicated to the persecuted Reformed people in the Tow Tands and became a “sound counsel on spiritual and mental hygiene long before psychology and pastoral counseling became fields of study.”8 9 Loss of family, threats, poverty, persecution — the darkest valleys of suffering were the share of Calvin and Taffin. Therefore, we shall turn our ears even more eagerly to what they have to tell us. I summed up in five major points the directions where these two excellent minds in their most classical works (viz. Calvin’s Institutess and Taffin’s The Marks of God’s Children) turn our eyes in the midst of tribulations. In their thinking, we ought to look ahead, away, back, up, and to Christ when we face difficulties. Let us examine briefly these points in more details. Look away! and Look ahead! Our main focus determines everything. The thing we focus on necessarily results in defocusing on something else. Therefore, it is no little of importance what are we focusing on. Both Calvin and Taffin state that our corrupted human nature is in love with this world. It is earthly wealth, prosperity, comfort, fading glory and joy that we are pursuing. Very rarely do we think about the future. For this reason, God uses different kinds of tribulations to awake our sensitivity for the eternal things, to make us look away from this earth and look ahead — the more important things to come. Calvin puts it this way: 7 Jean Taffin: The Marks of God's children, translated by Peter Y. De Jong, edited by James A. De Yong, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic, 2003,1 Iff. 8 Taffin: The Marks of God's children, 20. 9 In the case of Calvin, I restrict myself to the chapters where he is focusing on the topic of suffering in depth. Though, throughout the Institutes, he addresses the theme, more thoroughly he is dealing with it in the so-called "The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life", chapters 6-10 of the third book. These chapters are sometimes published separately - Charles Partee: The Theology of John Calvin, Louisville-London, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, 217ff. In the citations I used the translation of Henry Beveridge (John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, translated by Henry Beveridge, Albany, Oregon, SAGE Software, 1996). 2017-2 Sárospataki Füzetek 21 137
