February 15, 2011
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Institutes, page one
Holy crop. So I started reading some of the Institutes of Religion, by John Calvin. Whether you are a Calvinist or not, this oughta blow you away and want to chase after God. Here’s an excerpt, the opening paragraph:
Nearly* all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern. In the first place, no on can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he lives and moves [Acts 17:28]. For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves; indeed, our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God. Then, by these benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us, we are led as by rivulets to the spring itself. Indeed, our very poverty better discloses the infinitude of benefits reposing in God. The miserable ruin, into which the rebellion of the first man cast us, especially compels us to look upward. Thus, not only will we, in fasting and hungering, seek thence what we lack, but in being aroused by fear, we shall learn humility. For, as a veritable world of miseries is to be found in mankind, and we are thereby despoiled of divine raiment**, our shameful nakedness exposes a teeming horde of infamies. Each of us must, then, be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God. Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and -what is more- depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light and wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves. For what man in all the world would not gladly remain as he is-what man does not remain as he is- so long as he does not know himself, that is, while content with his own gifts, and either ignorant or unmindful of his own misery? Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.
* The preceding title to the paragraph is labeled, “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God“
** raiment is an old word meaning dress or arrayThus, Calvin performs two things of significance:
a) He starts the project of knowing God with the gospel model, not a secular or pagan model. The Rationalist tradition often started with the foundations of our own reason and knowledge: that we find God through reason alone. The pagan (e.g. New Age, Gnostic, Manichee, etc.) starts from within as well: find that small piece of God within yourself and make it bigger. Likewise, he does not take an evidentialist approach, taking in the facts of the world around us (which for an unbelieving, proud heart, no level of evidence will ever be enough). Lastly, he does not use a Socratic approach, that if we contemplate on the Good we become more like the Good and we know the Good better.
No, instead he starts with our own depravity and failures. We know God, not by how good we are, but by our recognition that we are not good enough, that we fall short, that we are missing something in ourselves. This points us, he says, to God. This is related to the gospel because, just like the prodigal son, he did not run back to the father until he saw his such low state and depth of internal corruption.
b) This is essentially a basic rendition of the gospel, since it is showing from the very start a dichotomy of humility and pride, of finding the good in yourself or in someone Else, of setting aside yourself so that you can chase after the one who is worthy. The only piece of the gospel that this is lacking is that the worthy God is willing to bring back those who fall so helplessly short. He is providing us with a working model of relating ourselves to God and ourselves. It starts with knowledge, and that knowledge is hard to doubt; giving us conviction in how far apart we have come from God, that we might come back to God.
