Calvin, Scripture, Church

I have been reading and studying Calvin for a while. From a pastoral perspective, I am amazed by Calvin’s pastoral endeavor towards the church. How could someone preach so many sermons, write so many commentaries (except the Book of Daniel and Revelation), and write a book like Institutes to prepare future leaders in theology? Especially, there was no such thing as type-writer or computer? Against the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin downplayed the authority of the church and held the formal principle of the Reformation in high esteem.

“Here we have a classic statement of what is technically called the ‘formal principle’ of the Reformation: that the Bible alone is the norm and criterion for thought and life. Calvin’s own theological work was carried out in loyalty to this principle. The man who labored to interpret the Scriptures in commentary and preaching to his contemporaries regarded himself as ruled by this everliving voice of God.”[1]

The way Calvin preached and wrote commentaries proved the fact that he followed this reformed principle strictly and wholeheartedly.

For Calvin, salvation came not from the authority of the church, but from the authority of Scripture. All believers rested on the authority of Scripture, not the church.

 “For Calvin, the church is primarily a visible community…Calvin followed Augustine and distinguished ‘belief in the church’ from ‘believing the church.’ He argued that the latter correctly showed the church to be the means for salvation, while the former attributes salvation to the church and not to God. It was in this context that Calvin first used the expression ‘visible church’ in a positive sense; he described the church as the ‘mother’ of the faithful through whom one has rebirth and salvation.”[2]

However, Calvin looked at the church as the mother of all believers as well as school to nurture and sustain believers. For Calvin, it was disastrous for believers to leave the church, for she, as mother of believers, conceived them in her womb, gave them birth, nourished them at her breast, and kept them under her care and guidance.[3] Calvin’s theology was not defined by the church, but never apart from the church.

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[1] T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), pp. 44-45.

[2] Veli-Matti Karkkainen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical and Global Perspectives (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2002), p. 51.

[3] See Institutes, IV.1.4.