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Calvin’s View of the Ministry of the Church*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Calvin’s view of the ministry is dependent on his view of the Church and his view of the Church is itself controlled by his Christological emphasis. This is not true of Scholastic Calvinism, which before the rise of liberal Protestantism dominated the Calvinist landscape, but is in fact a deviant son of Calvin. The shift was subtle and largely unconscious, so that those brought up in the atmosphere of Scholastic Calvinism felt some unease but could not clearly say why, like Thomas Boston the Scots Minister of Etherick who found he ‘had no liking for the conditionality of grace’ or Fraser of Brea who ‘perceived that our divinity was much altered from what it was in the primitive reformers times.’
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989
Footnotes
*
My thanks are due to Professor James Torrance for many helpful insights regarding Calvin and worship.
References
1 Memoirs of the life of Fraser of Brea written by himself (Aberdeen, 1843), 277–8.
2 Quoted Donnelly, J. P., ‘Italian influences on the development of Calvinist Scholasticism’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, 7 (1975), 85.Google Scholar
3 Corpus Reformatorum, 47. 125.
4 Calvin, Institution of the Christian Religion (henceforth Institutes), IV.8.5. See also W. Niesel, The Theology of Calvin (London, 1956), pp. 31—3.
5 Calvin, Commentary on St John’s Gospel, 3: 12.
6 Commentary on Genesis, Luther’s Works, American Ed—n 1, pp. 40—1.
7 Institutes, IV.10.14.
8 Calvin, Commentary on Colossians, 1. 12.
9 Institutes, I. 1. 1.
10 Ibid., II. 16.9.
11 Ibid. Notice how he has transformed the mediaeval doctrine of merit into a Christological statement.
12 Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews, 5. 1–3, 6. 19.
13 Institutes, II. 15.6.
14 Com. on Hebrews, 6. 19.
15 Institutes, III. 1.1.
16 Ibid., 1.2.
17 Calvin, ‘Letter to Sadolet’, in Calvin’s Theological Treatises, ed. J. K. S. Reid, Library of Christian Classics, 22, p. 231.
18 Ibid., pp. 229–30.
19 Ibid., p.231.
20 Institutes, IV. 1.4.
21 1. 5.
22 Ibid.
23 On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church, Luther’s Works, 36.
24 1536 edition of the Institutes, 1.68.
25 Institutes, IV. 1. 10.
26 Ibid., 1.12.
27 WA 42, p. 185.
28 Institutes, IV. 1. 5.
29 CR. 10b; 52.147. See also Niesel, Theology of Calvin, pp. 199 seq.
30 Institutes, IV. 3. 5.
31 Ibid., 4.1.
32 Letters of John Calvin, ed. Bonnet (Philadelphia, 1858), 3, p. III.
33 ‘Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances’, 1541. In Calvin’s Theological Treatises, p.58.
34 Calvin’s Theological Treatises, p. 71.
35 Kingdon, R. M., ‘Was the Protestant Reformation a Revolution: The Case of Geneva’, idem, ed. Transition and Revolution (Minneapolis, 1974), pp. 53–107 Google Scholar.
36 Calvin’s Theological Treatises, pp. 80–2.
37 McMilla, W. M., Worship of the Scots Reformed Church, pp. 304–5.Google Scholar
38 Yule, George, Puritans in Politics (Sutton Courtnay, 1981), p. 347.Google Scholar
39 Calvin’s Theological Treatises, p. 64.
40 Calvin, Commentary on First Timothy, 3.13.
41 Elsie McKee, John Calvin on the Deacons and Liturgical Alms Giving.
42 Calvin’s Theological Treatises, p. 67.
43 Ibid.
44 Collinson, Patrick, The Religion of Protestants (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar. See index sub Preaching, Sermons.
45 George Yule, Puritans in Politics, pp. 106 seq.