Blogging The Institutes

Calvin's doctrine of the Supper, often (too often!) referred to (incorrectly) as one of "real presence" is one of communion with Christ crucified and resurrected. It's focus on the bodily nature of this communion (there is no other Christ with whom we may commune other than the [bodily, enfleshed]...

Calvin continues his distaste for transubstantiation attacking the notion that Christ's ascended body is ubiquitous (can be present everywhere in space and particularly in the consecrated sacrament) and invisible ("by a special mode of dispensation"). a) There is no Scriptural support for either...

Calvin identifies in the polemics of transubstantiation a fatal hermeneutical flaw: interpret the text to fit the theory rather than allow the theory to be governed (in this case, abandoned) by the text. Add to this a suspicion about Scripture's perspicuity (the Westminster Confession a century...

Calvin's great concern is that Christians should "rightly use the Lord's Supper." He is, from beginning to end, a pastoral theologian (surely any other kind is guilty of a category mistake?). In seeking to serve the church he wants to be sensitive to two things: (i) the mystery of the Lord's Supper...

Calvin now turns to the theme of the Lord's Supper. His concern is twofold: (i) to provide a simple explanation of the Supper and (ii) to resolve difficulties related to it. What he does in IV. 17. i is worthy of imitation, namely the provision of a simple but rich exposition of the meaning of...

One of the perplexities we modern Christians encounter in admiring magisterial reformers like Calvin is the severity of their attitude to, and treatment of, Anabaptists. In Calvin's case this may seem all the more mysterious since he married the widow of a former Anabaptist! Our problem is partly--...

Calvin was, and remains, a theologian of the ages. Of course his theology comes to us clothed in the garments of the sixteenth century. But some things never change--including many of the arguments, pro and con, in relation to the baptism of infants. This he passionately believed to be a biblical...

For some, Calvin seems to be at his most feisty when he writes on the sacraments. Against those who complain that infant baptism is a travesty of the gospel, he stoutly insists "these darts are aimed more at God than at us"! But a little reflection reveals he is also at his most thoughtful, and his...

Another objection to infant baptism is considered: infants are incapable of understanding the gospel and therefore cannot be regenerated. Therefore they should not be baptized. If, Calvin argues, they are not in Christ, they must be in Adam (there is no middle ground). This means that all infants...

"What does this have to do with baptism?" is the frequent response to citing Jesus' blessing the little children (Matt. 19:13-15), as much in Calvin's day apparently as today. Calvin's response? "If it is right for children to be brought to Christ, why not also to be received into baptism, the...