Theologian in the service of piety: a new portrait of Calvin

Christian Century, April 23, 1997 by Randall C. Zachman

But this task was not simple, according to Calvin. In order to teach fruitfully the teacher must know and follow the right order or method of teaching. Throughout his career Calvin searched for this method in scripture itself, hoping his own teaching would mirror God's style of pedagogy. In the 1559 edition of the Institutes, Calvin claimed, he had finally got the order of Christian teaching right.

Calvin's concern for properly ordered teaching is probably one reason why many people have found his thought inordinately "systematic." In this pedagogical pursuit, however, Calvin adopted, in concert with church fathers such as Irenaeus and Chrysostom, the rhetorical tradition of accommodation embodied in, among other classical writers, Cicero and Quintillian. By no means is Calvin accurately placed in a tradition of deductive, systematic thought commonly associated with such later figures as Descartes, Leibniz and Hegel.

Calvin's interest in pedagogical accommodation is also seen in the writing style he developed in both Latin and French. If a theologian is writing for the common people who have neither time nor ability to acquire the knowledge of letters, Calvin reasoned, then the theologian's writing must be clear and brief. Calvin was committed to the ideal of lucid brevity. Moreover, since his concern as a teacher was to root doctrine in the inmost affection of the heart, he learned from the rhetorical tradition recovered by Erasmus and Bude how to use language to move the hearts and affections of his readers so that their piety might be built up within them.

Calvin also learned from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, however, that the true teacher of the gospel is not to use eloquence in a way that detracts from the power of the word of the cross. "It follows that the eloquence, which is in keeping with the Spirit of God, is not bombastic and ostentatious, and does not make a lot of noise that amounts to nothing," he wrote. "Rather, it is genuine and efficacious, and has more sincerity than refinement." The balance Calvin strikes between passion and restraint often infuses his writing with a distinct quality of controlled intensity.

Although the primary objective of the teacher of the gospel is to lead the pious to the knowledge of God in scripture, Calvin was convinced this objective could not be reached unless the teacher also contended with those false teachers who were leading the people of God astray. Calvin not only argued against them on the basis of clear scripture, proper definitions and dialectical reasoning. He also aggressively impugned the character and mental abilities of his opponents. Those whom he called the "contentious" he frequently identified with animals (especially pigs and asses) and monsters, or with the insane, and compared their claims to the ravings of madmen. In using such language he was hardly attempting to refute his opponents' teaching with clear and persuasive argument.

Personal attacks such as these--by today's standards a clear breach of civility-can strike the reader as harsh and perhaps contribute to Calvin's reputation as a "cold" thinker. But his ruthlessness toward his opponents was motivated by more than cool malevolence. Calvin's rhetoric of opprobrium was designed to stigmatize false teachers and in so doing to steer the godly away from them. For Calvin, "the truth which has been peaceably shown must be maintained against all the calumnies of the wicked. And . . . I will exert especial effort to the end that they who lend ready and open ears to God's Word may have a firm standing ground." Calvin's main goal as a teacher, even at his most polemical, was to build up the piety of the common people who looked to him to lead them into the knowledge of God in scripture.