The Dogmatism of Calvin

Frank Viola has posted on his blog a list of shocking beliefs held by John Calvin. You can read the entire entry here. It is a very damning list. Calvin's issues were manifold: a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship of the old covenant and the new, an overwhelmingly and surprisingly graceless religion (for a guy who talked so much of grace, there was precious little grace in praxis), and the establishment of a new, Protestant and arguably more despotic Christendom in Geneva. A list like this serves as a healthy reminder for Protestants of all stripes (Reformed or not) that we should be careful about whom we idealize in our popular imagination. This also serves as a cautionary tale that we have never really done the whole "Christian nation" thing very well.

Gutenberg's Revolution

In 1455 all Europe's printed books could have been carried in a single wagon. Fifty years later, the titles ran to tens of thousands, the individual volumes to millions. Today, books pour off presses at the rate of 10,000 million a year. That's some 50 million tons of paper. Add in 8,000 to 9,000 daily newspapers, and the Sundays, and the magazines, and the figure rises to 130 million tons. (John Man, The Gutenberg Revolution, 4)

One of the most underrated influences on biblical interpretation is the invention of the printing press. Most books on the history of hermeneutics leave a Gutenberg shaped hole in their study. One of our most treasured ideals as Evangelicals - personal, devotional study of scripture leading to a very personal and devotional relationship with Jesus - wasn't even the dream of a possibility before around 1455. Luther would never have become Luther, Calvin would never have become Calvin, and Tyndale would never have become Tyndale without this invention which John Man identifies as the third most important invention in civilization only after the inventions of writing and the alphabet. The Reformation probably wouldn't have happened without the assistance of the press. (Man points out that Muslim nations had access to the new technology but for multiple reasons they rejected it. And Christianity had a major reform movement while Islam did not. This is a simplistic analysis, but it's interesting to think about.)

The Internet is the fourth most important invention according to Man which ought to give all of us a pause. Just as the press allowed a new world to come into being, Internet technology is bringing another world into existence. The press undeniably changed the church and certain assumptions about discipleship. We can only assume that the Internet is having and will continue to have similar effects. The press changed the way that Christians interacted with the Word. Look around your church on Sunday morning and take note of all of the people with their noses buried in their phones and it is clear that Internet based technology is also changing the way that people interact with the Word. The question is "How?" And is it for the better or the worse? But I'll leave those questions to the Leonard Sweets of the world to figure out.

Luther and christocentric reading

...this Christocentric view of scripture was a hallmark of Martin Luther's approach to the Bible. Luther insisted that "the source" of scripture is the "cross of Christ," to which, when the reader is led, "then he will surely strike the center." Bloesch notes that Luther also spoke of certain biblical passages as hard nuts whose shells had to be cracked by throwing them against the rock of Christ, which would then produce their "delicious kernel." According to Luther, "Christ is the Lord of Scripture." And again, "Scripture is to be understood...for Christ. Hence it must either be referred to him, or it must not be held to be true Scripture." Yet again, Luther declared: "The whole scripture is about Christ alone everywhere, if we look to its inner meaning, though superficially it may sound different."

Christian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2011), 106.

Interpretive Pluralism

...as the Reformation began to spin out of control (from his point of view) with the spread of Anabaptist and other sectarian groups, Luther had to back away fromt he perspecuity of only one "correct" view and recognize the potential to prove a wide variety of doctrinal positions from scripture, admitting, "I learn now that it is enough to throw many passages together helter-skelter, whether they fit or not. If this be the way, then I can easily prove from Scripture that beer is better than wine." In another, more general  sense, this problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism goes all the way back to teh recognition of the early church fathers Tertullian (155-230) and Vincent of Lerins (early fifth century) about the impossibility of using scripture to persuade heretics of the error of their ways. Vincent wrote, "Owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another, so that it seems capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters." According to Tertullian, scriptural "ambiguity" and the possibility of reading the Bible in different ways means that a "controversy over the Scriptures can clearly produce no other effect than help to upset either the stomach or the brain." Tertullian observed: "Though most skilled in the Scriptures, you will made no progress, when everything which you maintain is denied on the other side, and whatever you deny is (by them) maintained. As for yourself, indeed, you will lose nothing but your breath, and gain nothing but vexation from their blasphemy...Our appeal, therefore, must not be made to the Scriptures."

In Christian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2011), 21.

John Calvin and Multiple Meanings

Scripture, they say, is fertile and thus bears multiple meanings. I acknowledge that Scripture is the most rich and inexhaustible fount of all wisdom. But I deny that its fertility consists in the various meanings which anyone may fasten to it at his pleasure. Therefore let us know that the true meaning of Scripture is the genuine and simple one [verum sensum scripturae, qui germanus et simplex], and let us embrace and hold it tightly. Let us not merely neglect as doubtful, but boldly set aside as deadly corruptions, those pretended expositions which lead us away from the literal sense.

From his commentary on Galatians in Greene-McCreight, K. (1999). Ad Litteram: How Augustine, Calvin, and Barth Read the "Plain Sense" of Genesis 1-3. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing. Pg. 97

A Brief History of Interpretation

A very helpful summary of the history of biblical interpretation by Dr. Thomas Long...

http://community.tncc.edu/faculty/longt/REL200/intro-comp-interp.htm

Allegory and Martin Luther

Even though he called allegorizers "clerical jugglers performing monkey tricks," Luther himself was known to engage in the occasional allegory.

His interpretation of the Good Samaritan:

the man going down to Jericho = Adam and all humankind
the robbers = devils who robbed and wounded us
the priest = fathers (Noah, Abraham) before Moses
the Levite = priesthood of the Old Testament
the good Samaritan = Lord Jesus Christ
oil = grace

from Robert H. Stein, "The Parables of Jesus in Recent Study," in Word and World 5/3 (1985), 249.

Luther, Martin

Luther was the “intensified self” of the German nation. This man it is a recent fashion in the Church of England to revile—and would to God that they who revile him would render to mankind but one of the very least of his many services! He gave to the Germans their Bible; he gave them the perfection of their language; he gave them the sense of their unity; he gave them the conviction of their freedom before God; he gave them the prayers which rise night and morning from thousands of hearts; he gave them the burning hymns, rich in essential truth, and set to mighty music, which are still daily poured forth by millions of voices; he gave them the example of a family life, pure, simple, and humbly dependent upon God. “To have lifted the load of sin from many consciences—to have reconciled nature and duty, purity and passion—to have made woman once more the faithful helpmeet of God’s servants as of other men—to have been the founder of countless sweet and peaceful homes—is no small part of Luther’s true glory.” But his highest glory—the glory he valued most—was to have fulfilled the vow of the Doctorate—juro me veritatem evangelicam pro virili defensurum—and to have given to the people whom he loved an open Bible which could be closed no more.

Frederic W. Farrar, History of Interpretation Bampton Lectures 1885 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1961), 323.

John Calvin

The testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For as God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men’s hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who has spoken through the mouths of the prophets must penetrate into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully proclaimed what had been divinely commanded.

Institutes, 1.7.4

Even if it wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else’s judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty…that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.

Institutes, 1.7.5

in McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 98.

John Calvin

Before I go any farther, it is worthwhile to say something about the authority of Scripture, not only to prepare our hearts to reverence it, but to banish all doubt. When that which is set forth is acknowledged as the Word of God, there is no one so deplorably insolent – unless devoid also both of common sense and of humanity itself – as to dare impugn the credibility of Him who speaks. Now daily oracles are not sent from heaven, for it pleased the Lord to hallow his truth to everlasting remembrance in the Scriptures alone [cf. John 5:39].

Calvin in Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.7.1 in McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 96.

Martin Luther

We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school [Wittenberg], for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ…I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any.

From TischReden #5443 in McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 95.

Martin Luther

[Paul is] teaching us that the entire Scripture deals only with Christ everywhere, if it is looked at inwardly, even though on the face of it it may sound differently, by the use of shadows and figures.

In McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 94.

Martin Luther

The Holy Spirit is no skeptic, and the things he has written in our hearts are not doubts or opinion, but assertions—surer and more certain than sense and in life itself.

From Bondage of the Will In McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 94.

Martin Luther

If God does not open and explain Holy Writ, no one can understand it; it will remain a closed book, enveloped in darkness.

In McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 94.

Martin Luther

When I was a monk I allegorized everything. But after lecturing on the epistle to the Romans I came to have some knowledge of Christ. For therein I saw that Christ is not an allegory, and I learned to know what Christ actually was.

In McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 93.

John Wycliffe

For him the Bible was an all-sufficient guide without contradictions; mirroring the truth of God, it gave access to metaphysical reality. Wycliffe not only insisted on the primacy of Scripture; he also refused to separate theology from the Bible and laid a foudnation for reform by calling for church doctrine and practice to line up with Scripture. Using Augustine's principles, Wycliffe believed that the law of love should guide interpretation, that faith precedes understanding, and that the essential message of Scripture is plain to those who submit humbly to illumination by the Holy Spirit. Although colored by allegory, his preaching and his theological works were always built upon the brammatical-historical sense of Scripture, and he said all allegory should have a Christological focus. Wycliffe stood for the priesthood of the believer: individuals could work out their own salvation with the help of the gospel and without the church being the essential mediator of grace. Since this called for a Bible in the common language, he began translating the Vulgate into English. This work was completed after his death, probably by Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey.

James T. Spivey Jr. in Bruce Corley et al, Biblical Hermeneutics, 2nd ed (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2002), 109.

Luther, Martin

Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scriptures or…by manifest reasoning I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s Word, I cannot and will not recant anything…On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

Luther at Worms in Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 201.