John Calvin is remarkably one of the most noteworthy figures of the Reformation period amidst a veritable pantheon of contributors. This is especially true within the parameters of Protestantism’s emerging locus of orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
For Calvin the quintessential bedrock for any other doctrinal formulae is the knowledge of God and ourselves (duplex cognitico). He prodigiously posits that both are inextricably interrelated as the bifurcating antecedent to “true and sound wisdom.” This is why Calvin consciously begins his Institutions elucidating those truths respectively. As Calvin says, “no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God.” Essentially, through mans natural inclination to be self aware and subjectively introspective he cannot help but to have his thoughts turned from the basest of things to the more sublime. This is resoundingly true because mankind is endowed with such a wealth of natural resources or “mighty gifts” that upon pondering such things the only conclusion to be drawn is that by possessing such gifts one realizes his poverty and thus, that his very existence is, “nothing but subsistence in the one God.”
It is only when a knowledge of God is touched upon that man truly begins to rightly concatenate and know himself, “man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself.” It is only by this juxtaposition of sorts that man attains to the wellspring of knowledge. So it is that mans thoughts are directed upward through a primal and simple knowledge resonating within man, the creature. Yet only upon elevating to the “true light of wisdom”, that is true knowledge of God, can man derive a sound knowledge of itself.
It needs to be understood Calvin is not postulating that the knowledge of God merely serves to enhance knowledge of the self, for knowledge of God is always paramount and occupies the place of primacy relative to mans chief aim while knowledge of man is to be understood as a secondary interest only as that knowledge relates to God. “The order of right teaching requires that we discuss the former first [knowledge of God], then proceed afterward to treat the latter [knowledge of man].”
Nevertheless, there is a sense in which some residual form of composite or mundane knowledge occurs naturally within the human consciousness precipitating an amorphous yet distinctly numinous awareness of God along with a subsequently specious knowledge of the self. This is what Calvin asserts to be “an awareness of divinity” (divinitatis sensum). This innate awareness, “within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct,” is incomplete and fragmented at best leading precariously only to “irreligion” and an erroneous understanding of divinity and subsequently humanity. Despite mans ineptitude to rightly adjudge Gods natural revelation leading to a “labyrinth” of confusion reckoning man to be, “whirled and twisted about by blindly indiscriminate fortune,” God provides man with a better way. As Calvin asserts, “Scripture gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.”
This dynamic is much like the ruins of a once pristine and prosperous civilization. An onlooker is able to deduce and make inferences from the ruins of that previously established city or community and derive a partial knowledge of what once was. It is possible to project a rough image of the city from the variegated archaeological discoveries as well as ascertain what kind of commerce was present or even determine the societal construct to a limited extent. However, even after reflection upon and the consolidation of every known extant piece of data pertaining to that city or community one cannot assuredly know that the minutiae of data collected was arranged or interpreted accurately so as to actually know what that city essentially was. Yet if documents were unearthed that provided information about that respective site from its original inhabitants it would be possible to accurately derive a true knowledge and understanding of that particular city that now lay in ruins. Calvin views scripture much like this. Holy writ is in effect a key to the map as it unscrambles the confused conjectures and speculations resonating within mans discombobulated mind.
The profundity of Calvin’s point of emphasis is no less true today than it was then. Far too often is the human rationale placed in a lofty position so as to be elevated above the inestimable depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God found within the sacrosanctus of Scripture.
“We must lay hold of the best human opinion in order that borne by it as on a raft, we may sail over the dangerous sea of life, unless we can find a stronger boat, or some sure word of God, which will more surely and safely carry us”
~Socrates
Credo ut Intelligam
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