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2 results

  • Magisterial authority and competing theories of natural law in Calvin's Institutes

  • Elisabeth Rain Kincaid
  • Journal:
    Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 74 / Issue 4 / November 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    19 January 2022, pp. 299-311
    Print publication:
    November 2021

  • In this paper, I argue that John Calvin's problematic grant of magisterial authority to enforce proper religious worship contradicts much of his own political theology and in fact depends upon an ambiguity in his natural law theory. I demonstrate this ambiguity by examining the differing claims in the Institutes regarding which of the tables of the Decalogue are accessible through natural law reasoning. I also consider the significance of this ambiguity for Calvin's political theology. I then suggest a partial retrieval of Calvin's political theology which is both more compelling to many contemporary Christians and in a better alignment with much of Calvin's own political theory.

  • 16 - Theological Writings

  • from Part III - Grotius as a Man of Letters, Theologian and Political Writer
  • Edited by Randall Lesaffer, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, Janne E. Nijman, Universiteit van Amsterdam
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius
    Published online:
    03 September 2021
    Print publication:
    16 September 2021, pp 339-363

  • Summary

    Grotius’ earlier theological controversies concerned the authority of secular rulers and the normative status of the undivided church, principles given fullest exposition in De Imperio Summarum Potestatum. Meletius reveals deeper disagreements with the prevailing Calvinism, insisting on the distinction of core doctrines from theological speculations. The atoning death of Christ, expounded in De Satisfactione Christi, was of central importance to him, and his apologetic interest flowered in De Veritate Christianae Religionis, an exercise in natural theology. The later writings centre on his Bible Commentary and his writings on Christian unity. They reveal some changes upon earlier views, but no accommodation to Catholic doctrinal norms. The polemics with Rivet sharpened his opposition to Calvinism as a dogmatic system with an inadequate conception of the Christian moral life. His status as a layman of no church establishment exposed him to appropriation in support of later agenda that were not his. But his influence was widespread in later Protestantism of many strands.