Marital Conflicts and the Reformation in Geneva, 1542–1555

This paper is based on research of the published records of Genevan Consistory cases from 1542 to 1555, a time of religious and social upheaval. The Consistory was a church and moral discipline body. This article highlights select marital conflict cases, demonstrating that many people used the Consistory as a forum in which to express their demands and complaints about their partners. In some instances, parties were successful in getting the Consistory to grant them divorces. Thus some Genevans fell short of the ideals of harmonious and permanent matrimony that their reformers proclaimed. The majority were told to remain in their problematic marital unions. This study sheds light on Reformation marriage theology and law, the successes and failures of the Genevan Consistory, the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the population, and gender relations in early-modern Europe.     

J. Wentzel van Huyssteen: Refiguring Rationality in the Postmodern Age

In his three books J. Wentzel van Huyssteen develops a complex and helpful notion of rationality, avoiding the extremes of foundationalism and postmodern relativism and deconstruction. Drawing from several postmodern philosophers of science and evolutionary epistemologists who seek to devise a usable notion of rationality, he weaves together a view that allows for a genuine duet betweenscience and theology. In the process he challenges much contemporary nonfoundationalist theology as well as the philosophical naïveté of some cosmologists and sociobiologists.     

“THINGS COUNTER,ORIGINAL, SPARE,STRANGE”: DEVELOPING A POSTFOUNDATIONAL TRANSVERSAL MODEL FOR SCIENCE/RELIGION DIALOGUE

This second of three articles outlining the development and practice of a different approach to neurotheology discusses the construction of a suitable methodology for the project based on the work of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen. It explores the origin and contours of his concept of postfoundational rationality, its potential as a locus for epistemological parity between science and religion and the distinctive and unique transversal space model for interdisciplinary dialogue which he builds on these. It then proposes a further development of the model which has the potential to produce a very different type of additional and original dialogical outcome. While such “transversal” outputs may initially seem counter and strange they not only flow naturally from the models’ own inherent dynamics but also open up the possibility of a distinctively different form of neurotheology.     

‘Il faut éviter le scandale’: Debating Community Standards in Reformation Geneva

Historical scholarship on consistories has overlooked the context of the theological and polemical debates regarding scandal in the sixteenth century, leaving us without a full understanding of the negotiations and debates in which Genevan inhabitants and consistory members engaged regarding the articulation of moral values and the supervision of their community. To address this lacuna, this article considers the failure of scholars to apply a useful, multivalent definition of scandal to practical questions of Reformed discipline. It then sets a deeper local context for Genevan connotations of scandal by examining examples from the Genevan city council, ducal, and other records before 1536 (the establishment of the Reformation there). Finally, it analyzes appearances of the word scandale in the consistory records of the 1540s and 1550s that reveal the variety of meanings of scandal and the ways in which laypeople used the word to negotiate the proper shape and limits of the Christian community of Geneva.     

The Motherhood of the Church in Henri de Lubac and John Calvin

Both Henri de Lubac and John Calvin described the Church as ‘mother’. From the patristic tradition, the motherhood of the Church had two dimensions: (i) the Mother Church as an institution delimited by the episcopacy of which inclusion was a necessity for salvation; and (ii) the Church as the mother of believers through whose ‘motherly’ care of bringing to life, nourishing and teaching through the sacraments God makes provision for his children. Both de Lubac and Calvin stress the maternal functions of the Church, but differ over how the Church’s motherhood relates to its visible identity and why inclusion in the Church is necessary for salvation. This article argues that this connection represents a rich theme for ecumenical ecclesiology. Despite divergent ecclesiological grammars and themes, Catholic and Reformed traditions are drawing from a shared patristic inheritance which gives good ground for dialogue for respective ecclesial self-understandings.     

The unity of the Church according to Calvin and its meaning for the churches in Indonesia

Since the founding of the Council of Churches in Indonesia (DGI), which later changed its name to the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), a recurring question has been asked about what kind of unity the DGI/PGI intends to achieve. This issue was discussed by the General Assemblies, from the first in 1950 until the 10th in 1984, with various ideas being put forward. Some underscored the unity of structural organisations, whereas others emphasised our spiritual unity in Christ. It was only at the 10th General Assembly held in 1984 at Ambon that Indonesian churches discovered the answer they had been seeking all that time. The unity they sought was a shared understanding of Christian doctrine, mutual recognition and acceptance, and co-operation in working together to carry out their task and calling in Indonesia. In this respect, I believe that the view of Indonesian church unity conforms to Calvin’s concept which does not stress organisational unity but rather spiritual oneness, oneness in Christ, and oneness in the basic principles of the faith, in recognising each other as having the true preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments. It is this kind of unity which has been expressed in the Five Documents of Church Unity (LDKG), later called Documents on Church Unity (DKG). The churches of Indonesia can learn much from the view of church reformer John Calvin.     

Jean Calvin dans l'école italienne: Analyse de quelques manuels en adoption dans les lycées italiens

Abstract

This is a comparative, analytic study of eight history text books used in Italian state secondary schools with respect to the presentation and image of John Calvin that is found in them. While very variable, the overall minimalist and often mediocre quality of the account of Calvin (as well as of the Reformation) is considered. There is understandable marginalization due largely to little lasting impact of Calvin in Italy. Further, it is concluded that any evaluation of the Genevan Reformer in these school books relates more to traditionally perceived Calvinist ‘culture’ than to the actual life, work, and thought of Calvin, and so is somewhat inadequate in the context of modern Italian education. The situtation also reflects a regrettable lack of coordination between the school teaching of history and extensive progress made in research.     

Editorial

Abstract

The relationship between John Calvin, Pierre Viret, and Guillaume Farel has been characterized as a ‘triumvirate,’ a ‘patriarchate,’ and as a ‘close friendship.’ Despite the overwhelming attention paid by modern scholars to Calvin alone, the three of them were viewed by contemporary friends and enemies alike as a team. To friends, they were the ‘triumvirs’ who provided much needed leadership to the nascent Reformed Church in the Francophone world. To Protestant enemies, they were the ‘three patriarchs’ who sought to dominate the other pastors in the region. Their personal friendship was close, at least until Farel's marriage to a teenage girl. Scholarship until now, however, has largely ignored the friendship between Viret and Farel, partly because much of their correspondence remains unedited. Looking ahead, a potentially fruitful approach to examining their relationship would be to evaluate their network of associates and correspondents in order to gain a better understanding of exactly where and how their ideas affected sixteenth-century society.     

Calvin and the Ecclesiastical Power of Jurisdiction

Abstract

This study offers a hypothesis that the two marks of the Church in the Calvinist Reformed tradition, together with its disciplinary power, restate the twin classical powers granted to the Church in Catholic tradition, namely the powers of order and jurisdiction. Unlike Luther, for whom the chief ecclesiastical power was the authority to preach and teach, Calvin not only acknowledges the teaching and sacramental functions of the Church, but also stressed a jurisdictional power (jurisdictio fori) with autonomous legislative and judicial competence. This jurisdictional dimension is the key to explaining the role played by Geneva-inspired Reformed churches vis-à-vis the State and differences from other other Protestant traditions.