Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sawyer Frank: Kálvin transzformációs nézete. Some Aspect of John Calvin's Trnsformational views
Some Aspect of John Calvin’s Transformational views Dynamic orientation Calvin was a pastor, church leader and theologian, rather than a sociologist or economist. However, his studies in the humanities, law and history, gave him a wide scope for understanding Christian social calling in his time. He read the Bible not as a compendium of doctrinal points but as the living voice of God speaking to his throughout the Old and New Testaments - and today, too. This does not mean that Calvin took biblical texts and tried to apply them without further consideration. Rather, he time and again speaks about historical changes in which the situation asks us to re-think our way of applying the biblical norms (and not just the static forms). Even though he was born 500 years ago, there were ’modern’ dynamics taking place during his life time. These included the wide spreading of the printing press, the opening of travel to the Americas and the route around the Cape of Good Hope. Just as significant in Europe were the signs of the end of the feudal age with growing social upheavals, and the beginning of the forming of the new ’middle class’ of merchants and craftsmen. Indeed, the Protestant movement itself was new and seemed radical, since it challenged the established authority of the Pope and church councils. What might it not challenge in political and economic affairs? Self-knowledge § biblical realism The opening statement of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion are rightly seen as a controlling perspective for Calvin. He says: Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. (Institutes I.i.i) On the one hand, this statement ties into the ancient tradition of seeking self- knowledge as the key to philosophy (starting with Socrates). By self- knowledge Socrates meant that we must understand our own purpose in life, our own values, goals and habits, if we are to understand the best way to be human. In the Socratic dialogues written by Plato, we can see how Socrates tested traditional unthinking views which people then and during all times are prone to follow. So Calvin is striking an ancient chord which resonates throughout the history of western thought. On the other hand, by tying self- knowledge to knowledge of God, Calvin remains rooted in the biblical way of seeking divine revelation to clarify our basic understanding of our human life and calling. One of the grounding features of biblical revelation is that we are created in the image of God and both oriented to and limited by this identity. So Calvin says that in order to find self-knowledge: Summary
