A Year with the Institutes, Day 37

". . . until human reason is subjected to the obedience of faith and learns to cultivate that quiet to which the sanctification of the seventh day invites us, it grumbles, as if such proceedings were foreign to God's power" (1.4.2).

Reason::faith::quiet

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 16

So, to sum up chapter five of book one:

• There is a natural seed of religion sewn into the very fabric of people
• People corrupt that natural seed and end up in superstition or an outright denial of God
• Only the inner revelation of God through faith leads people to "the right path"
  
• The corruption of the in-born seed of religion is nobody's fault but peoples'
  

"But although we lack the natural ability to mount up unto the pure and clear knowledge of God, all excuse is cut off because the fault of dullness is within us." (1.5.15)

I indicated earlier that I'm not sure anthropology will maintain the first point. And the more I think about the implications of the second point, the more difficulty I have with it, simply because it renders all human initiative in probing the mysteries of God to be meaningless, indeed, dead-wrong. It risks turning faith into something static, where the only possible result of seeking answers is failure.

The focus of revelation, though, is easy enough for me to get with, and in fact resonates with me as good news. Because, while it may force one through a narrow gate, there is at least a gate there, and the opening of it has nothing to do with human ability or piety.

Half a month down, 11 and 1/2 to go.

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 14

"[God's] power shows itself clearly when the ferocity of the impious, in everyone's opinion unconquerable, is overcome in a moment, their arrogance vanquished, their strongest defenses destroyed, their javelins and armor shattered, their strength broken, their machinations overturned, and themselves fallen of their own weight; and when their audacity, which exalted them above heaven, lays them low even to the center of the earth; when, conversely the humble are raised up from the dust, and the needy are lifted up from the dung heap . . .; the oppressed and afflicted are rescued from their extreme tribulation; the despairing are restored to good hope; the unarmed, few and weak, snatch victory from the armed, many and strong. Indeed, [God's] wisdom manifests [God's] excellence when [God] dispenses everything at the best opportunity; when [God] confounds all wisdom of the world . . .; when "[God] catches the crafty in their own craftiness". In short, there is nothing that [God] does not temper in the best way." (1.5.8)

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A Day with the Institutes, Day 12

The Genevan gives a shout to my alma mater:

"Indeed, [people] who have either quaffed or even tasted the liberal arts penetrate with their aid far more deeply into the secrets of divine wisdom."

So deeply.

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 10

Calvin extends his argument that "a sense of divinity is by nature engraven on human hearts" (1.4.4) by listing those things that corrupt that engraven sense, namely hypocrisy, a conscious turning away, and superstition.

A word about superstition. "Vanity" and "pride" combine, for Calvin, to produce superstition, a state in which "miserable men do not rise above themselves as they should, but measure [God] by the yardstick of their own carnal stupidity, and neglect sound investigation" (1.4.1). Nurturing that seed of a sense of divinity requires sound investigation, then, the right method of examining the right sources. Sound much like the scientific method?

Calvin adds that superstition involves people "claiming for themselves more than is right" and from "an inordinate desire to know more than is fitting" (1.4.1). There are things we do not, cannot, and, therefore, should not, know. To try and know them is superstition and will not lead to a right knowledge of God, which, after all, is what Calvin is concerned with to begin with.

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 9

" . . . there is . . . no nation so barbarous, no people so savage, that they have not a deep-seated conviction that there is a God." (1.3.1)

" . . . it is worship of God alone that renders men higher than the brutes, and through it alone they aspire to immortality." (1.3.3)

This is hard. The abundance of wars and atrocities executed in the defense of Godly worship make it appear that this is actualy the thing that makes people lower than the brutes. And as for the handing over to savagery those peoples lacking a "deep-seated conviction that there is a God," the Phil Zuckerman's of the world are loudly protesting.

Here's a Publisher's Weekly blurb about Zuckerman's recent book Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Teach Us About Contentment, a study of Denmark and Sweden.

While many people, especially Christian conservatives, argue that godless societies devolve into lawlessness and immorality, Denmark and Sweden enjoy strong economies, low crime rates, high standards of living and social equality. What emerges is a portrait of a people unconcerned and even incurious about questions of faith, God and life's meaning.

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 8

". . . [the pious] mind restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone; but because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would still shudder at offending him alone." (1.2.2)

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A Year with the Institutes, Day 7

"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." (Book 1, chapter 1, paragraph 1, sentence 1)

There it is, the very beginning of Calvin's treatise. McNeil's footnote on the sentence says this:

This statement, thrice revised, stands at the beginning of every edition of the Institutes . . . These decisive words set the limits of Calvin's theology and condition every subsequent statement.

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