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Christian Freedom: What Calvin Learned at the School of Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Jane Dempsey Douglass
Affiliation:
Ms. Douglass is professor of church history in the School of Theology at Claremont, and professor of religion at Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California. This is her presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, 28 December 1983. Changes in printers' deadlines forced delay in printing this address until June.

Extract

Christian freedom was a major concern for Calvin from the very beginning of his theological career. The very long sixth and final chapter of the first edition of the Institutes is devoted to this question. He opens the chapter by calling this freedom “a matter of prime necessity; … without a knowledge of it consciences dare undertake almost nothing without faltering, often hesitate and draw back, constantly waver and are afraid … unless this freedom be grasped, neither Christ nor gospel truth is rightly known.” From this first edition till the last Calvin continues to talk at length about three aspects of Christian freedom: freedom of the conscience and freedom from the law because of justification by grace alone; freedom of the liberated Christian to obey God's will voluntarily and not out of necessity; and freedom in outward things which are “indifferent,” that is, in themselves neither necessary nor forbidden. For much of this understanding Calvin is deeply indebted to Luther and Melanchthon.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1984

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References

Translations of Calvin quoted in the text from the Institutes or the New Testament commentaries are based upon the following translations, though freely altered: Institution of the Christian Religion (1536), trans. Battles, Ford Lewis (Atlanta, 1975)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as 1536 Institutes); Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), ed. McNeill, John T., trans. Battles, Ford Lewis (Philadelphia 1960)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Institutes); Calvin's New Testament Commentaries; ed. Torrance, D. W. and Torrance, T. F. (Grand Rapids, 19591972).Google Scholar References to the 1559 Institutes are by book, chapter, and section. All other translations are by the author from the following editions: Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. Baum, G., Cunitz, E., Reuss, E.. 59 vols.Google Scholar (Corpus Reformatorum, vols. 29–88), Brunswick, 1863–1900 (hereafter cited as C.O.); Joannis Calivini opera selecta, ed. Barth, P. and Niesel, G.. 5 vols. Munich, 19261962 (hereafter cited as O.S.).Google Scholar

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2. See Augsburg Confession 2:7 (article 28); Tetrapolitan Confession 14.

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5. Calvin's preface to the 1559 edition of the Institutes, O.S. 3.6.

6. O.S. l, p. 38.

7. O.S. 1, pp. 49, 50–51.

8. O.S. 1, p. 53.

9. O.S. 1, pp. 220–223.

10. O.S. 1, pp. 256–257.

11. Institutes 1.15 and 2.1.

12. Institutes 2.1.4.

13. Institutes 1.15.4.

14. Institutes 1.14.14; 3.4.37; 2.10.11–12; 2.11.9; 3.2.31; 2.13.1,3; 2.16.5,14.

15. Institutes 4.3.9; 4.13.18–19. Both sections were added in 1543. Compare Comm. Rom., C.O. 49, p. 240; Comm. I Tim., C.O. 52, pp. 309–314.

16. Institutes 2.13.3.

17. Institutes 2.13.3.

18. Institutes 2.13.3.

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25. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 472–475; Serm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 718–720, 726–729. Compare Serm. Gal., C.O. 50, pp. 567–568.

26. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 475–476.

27. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 532–533.

28. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, p. 533.

29. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, p. 533.

30. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, p. 534.

31. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, p. 535.

32. Comm. Acts. C.O. 48, pp. 15–16.

33. Comm. Acts. C.O. 48, pp. 437–438.

34. Comm. Rom., C.O. 49, p. 285.

35. Comm. Rom., C.O. 49, pp. 284–285. Compare Comm. Rom., C.O. 49, p. 240.

36. Serm. I Tim., C.O. 53, p. 221–222. Comm. I Tim., C.O. 52, p. 276.

37. Serm. I Tim., C.O. 53, p. 223. Compare Calvin's discussion of the prophetess Anna, Comm. Harm. evang., C.O. 45, pp. 95–96.

38. For Luther, see WA 26, p. 47.

39. Comm. I Tim., C.O. 52, pp. 276–277.

40. Comm. I Tim., C.O. 52, p. 276.

41. Comm. I Tim., C.O. 52, p. 277.

42. C.O. 36 Prolegomena; C.O. 17, pp. 490–492; C.O. 15, p. 125.

43. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 535–536; Compare Institutes 4.10.30.

44. Telle, Emile, L'oeuvre de Marguerite d'Angoulême, reine de Navarre, et la querelle des femmes (Toulouse, 1937; reprint ed. Geneva, 1969)Google Scholar, chaps. 1, 2, especially p. 43. Compare Kelso, Ruth, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance (Urbana, 1956)Google Scholar, chap. 2.

45. Nettesheim, Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von, “Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia Foeminei sexus,” Opera (Lyon, n.d.; photo. reprint ed. Hildesheim, 1970), 2:504, 508.Google Scholar

46. Agrippa, , Opera 2:505.Google Scholar

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48. Agrippa, , Opera 2:517518.Google Scholar

49. Agrippa, , Opera 2:518.Google Scholar The reference is to canon law, pars 2, causa 33, questio 5, c. 13; Compare Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Friedberg, (Graz, 1959), vol. 1, col. 1254.Google Scholar The canon draws upon I Cor. 11.

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72. Comm. I Cor., C.O. 49, pp. 532–533.