Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)

2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sell, Alan P. F.: Milyen megoldásra váró feladatok elé állítja Kálvin a 21. századi egyházat?

Sell, Alan P. F.

The church is called ‘catholic’, or ‘universal’, because there could not be two or three churches unless Christ be torn asunder — which cannot happen! But all the elect are so united in Christ that as they are dependent on one Head, they also grow together in one body, being joined and knit together as are the limbs of a body. They are made truly one since they live together in one faith, hope, and love, and in the same Spirit of God.18

The point is reiterated in Calvin’s Geneva Catechism of 1541: the term ‘catholic’ means that ‘as there is only one Head of the faithful, so they must all be united in one body, so that there are not several churches but one only, which is extended throughout the whole world (Eph. 4: 15; I Cor. 12: 12 and 27).’19

Calvin was deeply distressed by the reality that ‘the members of the Church are being severed, the body lies bleeding.’ Indeed, he continued in a letter to Archbishop Cranmer, ‘So much does it concern me, that, if I could be of any service, I would not grudge to cross even ten seas, if need be, on account of it.’20 Few devoted as much energy to the quest of ecclesial healing as Calvin. He visited, he corresponded, he published; he sought to keep lines of communication open with Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans, and throughout it all his motive was that ‘as Christ has made known the glory of his Father in receiving us into favour when we stood in need of mercy; so it behoves us, in order to make known the glory of the same God, to establish and confirm this union which we have in Christ.’21

It would be wrong to suggest that Calvin was for visible Church unity at any price. On the contrary, in his view there can be no unity unless the Church is obedient to, and guided by, the Word of God;22 but his earnest reaching out to others demonstrates that the two questions begged in that proposition, namely, What is it to be obedient to the Word of God?’ and “What is it to be guided by it?’, were regarded by him as stimuli to conversation, not dogmatic buffers against it. I therefore think that Calvin would not be able to understand a present-day Christian who claimed to be in possession of the evangel but who was hostile to the present- day ecumenical movement, the objective of which is, not to engineer, but to strive towards the manifestation of, the unity God has already given to the Church in Christ, and this as an earnest of the coming unity of the whole inhabited earth. After all, said Calvin,

18 Ibid., IV.i.2; cf. Commentary on Ephesians, 4: 5, trans. William Pringle, 1854, 269; CNTC trans. T. H. L. Parker, 1965, 172-3.

19 The Geneva Catechism, answer to Q. 97, in T. F. Torrance, The School of Faith, London: James Clarke, 1959, 20.

20 Calvin’s Works, XIV, 312 f.

21 J. Calvin, Commentary on Romans, 15: 9, trans. John Owen, 1849; CNTC trans. Ross MacKenzie, 1960. See further John H. Kromminga, ‘Calvin and ecumenicity,’ in Jacob T. Hoogstra, ed,,John Calvin Contemporary Prophet, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1959, ch. 9; I. John Hesselink, ‘Calvinus oecumenicus: Calvin’s vision of the unity and catholicity of the Church,’ Reformed Review, XLIV no. 2, Winter 1990, 97-122.

22 See Institutes, IV.ii.5; Calvin's Tracts and Treatises, trans. Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958,1, 60.

84 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK