I have begun attending a Systematic Theology Reading Group at the university chaired by Dr Philip Endean SJ on Calvin's Ecclesiology. Fascinating to dialogue with a Rahner scholar about Calvin! The accusation against Calvin was aired last week that he was an individualist: on the basis that his ecclesiology is the end of his system rather than the beginning of it, and that he calls the church the 'external means or aims by which God invites us into the society of Christ and holds us therein'.
I think this accusation misses a crucial distinction in Calvin's thought between the visible and the invisible Church. The visible church granted he treats as a means to an end, and it does not loom large in his system. The emphasis on inward faith rather than outward formal church attendance or membership or ritual does lead to an emphasis on the individual believer. However, the people of God united with Christ most certainly do feature in Calvin. Calvin's believer is by faith called into membership of the invisible and eschatological family of God in Christ Jesus. The true church itself belongs to the realm of faith: 'just as we must believe therefore that the former church is invisible to us [ie, the heavenly church] is visible to the eyes of God alone, so we are commanded to revere and keep communion with the latter [ie the visible earthly church], which is called 'church' in respect to men'...
The visible church, though, has still a role: Calvin is not docetic about this. The visible church is aptly entitled 'mother'. He says: '...there is no othr way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breats, and lastly unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels...Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from he school until we have been pupils all our lives.'
The squares of course with the utter seriousness with which Calvin took the business - the discipline and ceremonies and government and teaching - of the earthly church.
8 comments:
I still think he's individualist, though there are mitigating factors.
However, that passage has always concerned me more for his gnosticism: until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels ... what the?
Well, yes, there is a good individualism and a bad collectivism...
Paul of course has a couple of places where he talks about his transformation in these terms... (not the angels, but the putting off of mortal flesh etc...)
Yes, it was more the angels bit, which Calvin seems to mention a number of times, from memory. Of course, Jesus does say that in the resurrection we will be like the angels, though he's talking about marriage (or their lack of it), I thought.
I think the defence of Calvin has to be not, 'he's not individualist', but rather, 'he's a qualified individualist and that's the right thing to be, given the moral and theological dangers of a more corporate approach'. Yes, perhaps I was neglecting the visible/invisible Church distinction: but the visible Church is clearly relativised in Calvin, in ways that make it quite hard to see on what basis he can really claim that its demands are unnegotiably binding. An opponent can always say, echoing Calvin's own attitude to Rome: 'the version of Church to which we are theologically committed will be betrayed if we conform to the directives of the merely visible version'. And if he wants to avoid identifying the visible Church as an embodiment of divine grace, Calvin has no basis for a reasoned reply.
Ah, - hi Philip! Very much enjoying the seminar I have to say.
The visible/invisible thing certainly does relativise the visible; but Calvin says you can't access the invisible other than by the visible...so he doesn't allow people to treat the visible with cynicism, or with disdain. Perhaps he has weak grounds for doing so, but he certainly makes a lot of this.
I think btw I would agree, that he is an individualist, but that his individualism is qualified, yes.
There is a very interesting book by Louis Dumont that provides a deep analysis of Christianity and individualism generally, and concludes with an analysis of how Calvin's theology is linked to individualism. Here is the citation:
Dumont, L. (1992). Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Most of the first chapter is available through Google books...
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