Revelation and Reception
The following essay will use Calvin’s twofold knowledge of God and self as a foil to interpret and summarize Calvin’s doctrines of revelation and Scripture from The Institutes of the Christian Religion (hereafter ICR) (1.1—1.13). First, we will look at what Calvin calls the sensus divinitatis, seed of religion. After dealing with the content and scope of the sensus divinitatis, we will show why this general and corrupted knowledge of God available via the sensus divinitatis is insufficient for knowledge of the true God. Next, we will turn our attention to Calvin’s doctrine of divine accommodation. We will show why, according to Calvin, accommodation is necessary for providing true knowledge of God and ourselves. Finally we will turn our attention to the content of divine accommodation. We will note how the Holy Spirit working through Scripture, for Calvin, provides humanity not only with a fuller and truer sense of God’s disclosure of himself, but also with assurance that Scripture is indeed the Word of God.
Sensus Divinitatis
Early on in Book 1 of ICR, aptly titled: “The Knowledge of God the Creator,” Calvin introduces the term sensus divinitatis (hereafter SD), seed of religion (1.3.1, 1.4.1). The universal scope of SD within humanity is a “natural instinct and awareness of divinity;” this, for Calvin, is “beyond controversy” (1.3.1), and need not be taught since it “is naturally inborn in all and fixed deep within, as it were in the very marrow” of our bones (1.3.3). The SD cannot, according to Calvin, be completely erased because God has “engraven it upon men’s minds” (1.3.3). Accordingly, the SD gives everyone a general knowledge “that there is a God and that he is their Maker” (1.3.1).
It is important to note though the SD, for Calvin, provides more than simply the notion of a deistic God who is far off and uninvolved with his creation. By drawing attention to the providential nature of the SD Calvin is able to provide the basis for humanity’s obligation to God the Creator. Calvin says, “[God] daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe” (1.5.1); therefore, God’s works of creation and providence are clear to all “wherever we cast our gaze” (1.5.1). However, since no one truly honors God or sets apart their lives to his will, the SD can only condemn humanity (1.3.1). Calvin notes, humanity, rather than breaking forth in praises of God for his unnumbered works and inestimable riches, becomes “puffed up and swollen with all the more pride” (1.5.4). The question remains, however, why, for Calvin, is the SD unable to provide sufficient revelation for people to honor God or do his will? Let us turn to Calvin’s understanding of divine accommodation to answer that question.
Divine Accommodation
Calvin likens his doctrine of divine accommodation to a nurse “lisping” to an infant. He says, “Such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like as accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this [God] must descend far beneath his loftiness” (1.13.1, emphasis added). Parsing Calvin’s phrase “our slight capacity” is essential toward understanding why the SD unable to give humanity knowledge of the true God.
For humanity to have knowledge of the true God, their only hope is for God to overcome their “slight capacity.” For Calvin, this “slight capacity” consists of a metaphysical and moral incapacity due to humanity’s creatureliness and sinful nature respectively. Calvin’s doctrine of divine accommodation accomplishes what the SD cannot. Because creatureliness (finitude) and a sinful nature are proximate to humanity, the SD would never be able to provide humanity with knowledge of the true God. In a wonderful statement that captures both aspects of our incapacity Calvin states, “Although we lack the natural ability to mount up onto the pure and clear knowledge of God, all excuse is cut off because the fault of dullness is within us…and must be imputed to [our] own failing” (1.5.15). As Calvin notes, God’s accommodation overcomes our natural inability to know him truly. However, what is it about divine accommodation that makes it efficacious for true knowledge of the true God? Let us know turn to the role of the Holy Spirit in disclosing the content of divine accommodation.
The Spirit Speaking Through the Word
According to John Calvin the content of divine accommodation is the Holy Spirit speaking through Holy Scripture. He states, “God himself is the proper witness of himself” (1.11.1) and in Scripture God “gathers up the otherwise confused knowledge of [Himself] in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God (1.6.1). Calvin calls Scripture a “better help” than the SD because it alone can “direct us aright to the very Creator of the universe” (1.6.1).
A reoccurring theme in book 1 of ICR is that in order for humanity to have true knowledge of God one must contemplate God not in his essence but in his works “where he renders himself near and familiar to us” (1.5.9; cf. 1.6.2; 1.6.3). According to Calvin, speculating upon God’s essence only leads man into an “inexplicable labyrinth.” Calvin says it is better for one to limp along the path of God’s word than to dash with all speed outside of it in speculation (1.6.3). But how can one know if the “path of God’s word” is a reliable and trustworthy guide in matters of religion? Although Calvin spends time asserting the veracity of Holy Scripture, disputation and all the reasoning in the world cannot provide someone with the certainty that the Scriptures are indeed the Word of God. Calvin believes that true and lasting assurance can only be given from God. For Calvin, that assurance must come from God the Holy Spirit, the one who spoke through the mouths of the prophets. He says, “The testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For 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” (1.7.4).
Conclusion
For Calvin, the SD provides a general but ultimately untrue knowledge of God and humanity. Only when God accommodates himself to humanity’s sinful creaturely capacities does the possibility for true knowledge of God and self become possible. This true knowledge of God and self becomes a reality for believers when by the reading or hearing of Scripture the Holy Spirit testifies internally to them of the veracity of Scripture’s content and its divine Author. Calvin places a much stronger emphasis on the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit than he does on external proofs or arguments for Scripture’s veracity.
