"St. John the Evangelist on Patmos", c 1547 by Titian.
This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton University's "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.
Calvin's Institutes - 1.8.1-4
I am going to change my tack a bit in blogging through John Calvin's Institutes. I have noticed that when I post a recap of the day's reading, it doesn't spawn much conversation.
However, when I pull out a particular subject and ask a question, I seem to get more interaction. Therefore, I am going to proceed in this direction and see what happens.
In this chapter, Calvin's starts right out with:
"Scripture is superior to all human wisdom. Unless this certainty, higher and stronger than any human judgment, be
present, it will be vain to fortify the authority of Scripture by
arguments, to establish it by common agreement of the church, or to
confirm it with other helps. For unless this foundation is laid, its
authority will always remain in doubt."
And this:
"Now this power which is peculiar to Scripture is clear from the fact
that of human writings, however artfully polished, there is none
capable of affecting us at all comparably. Read Demosthenes or Cicero;
read Plato, Aristotle, and others of that tribe. They will, I admit,
allure you, delight you, move you, enrapture you in wonderful measure.
But betake yourself from them to this sacred reading. Then, in spite of
yourself, so deeply will it affect you, so penetrate your heart, so fix
itself in your very marrow, that, compared with its deep impression,
such vigor as the orators and philosophers have will nearly vanish.
Consequently, it is easy to see that the Sacred Scriptures, which so
far surpass all gifts and graces of human endeavor, breathe something
divine."
He goes onto say that reason is a helpful, secondary tool, but none can compare with God's word, and the Holy Spirit's piercing.
So here's the question: when you are sharing your faith, do you rely on reason, and Biblical hearsay, or do you deeply rely upon God's holy word to penetrate the hearts of the unregenerate?
My answer is God's word, but I continue to work on my mastery of its story to guide my path.
