Philosophy and Philosophers in Calvin’s Sermons

Abstract

Of a homiletic nature, Calvin’s predication follows the principle of the lectio continua, akin to the commentary on the lectiones. The reformer often mentions philosophers in a positive fashion regarding the knowledge they represent but also in order to criticize them. Philosophy and philosophers are ambivalent realities, as in the Institution of the Christian religion, which represent human knowledge of the world and of Man in so far as one can or dare consider these realities as independent from God. The greatest praise of Philosophy leads to its sharpest condemnation. Calvin uses the term philosophers in order to criticize his contemporary rivals: on the one hand, scholastic and tridentine Theology, on the other the Erasmian “Moyenneurs”. The reformer distinguishes two “styles”: that of Philosophy and that of scriptural revelation, as two discursive methods, two literary styles and two strategies. Only Holy Scripture is capable of efficiently leading to (Christian) wisdom.