The Blog is
not a detailed exegesis but designed to stimulate thought and reflection on the
relevance of John Calvin’s Theology to Church Life and wider society
today. Can volumes written over four
hundred years ago in a different culture (both spiritual and secular) tell us
anything about how to live as a disciple of Christ today? Each section of the Institutes will be
studied and I will supply a reflection to provoke thought and interaction about
the meaning of Calvin’s work today.
Book 1 The
Knowledge of God the Creator
1. The knowledge of God and that of
ourselves are connected. How they are interrelated.
Calvin
writes “In the first place no one can look upon himself without turning his
thoughts to the contemplation of God in whom he “lives and moves”
In a world
where self esteem, especially among young people is low then does this sentence
have any relevance. For most would not
contemplate God but do think about other things: appearance: both virtual and
real, cars, houses, material possessions and relationships. Is it deliberate that Calvin speaks of
contemplation of God?
Can
awareness of God only increase when some life changing event is hurled at us so
that “each of us must then be so stung by the consciousness of his own
unhappiness as to attain some knowledge of God”? In such a place where does the knowledge of
God come from? Is it solely from
experience apart from the very few who are reading the Scriptures? Is this why so many seek new experiences
through holiday destinations, extreme sports, thrills using drugs and sex. Do any of these cause us to seek God? If none
of them then does our own misery when they do not satisfy us bring us to seek
God even if we do not acknowledge Him?
Should this be the case perhaps we are closer to John Calvin and his
world than we had previously dared imagine?
