An Analysis of Calvin's Argument for Providence

LEE UNIVERSITY

AN ANALYSIS OF CALVIN'S ARGUMENT FOR PROVIDENCE

PRESENTED TO TERRY CROSS, PhD

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THEO-250: SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY I

THE SCHOOL OF RELIGION

BY

QUENTIN MURRAY

CLEVELAND, TENNESSEE

24 NOVEMBER 2015

AN ANALYSIS OF CALVIN’S ARGUMENT FOR PROVIDENCE

In I.17.1 of John Calvin’s work, Calvin argues that people do not need to worry about anything they do not understand because God takes care of everything. It is important to understand that this is not the beginning of Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion, because his points in chapter sixteen set the basis for his argument in this next section. Chapter sixteen on providence gives the foundation of Calvin’s theology that nothing happens outside the control of God and everything has its divine intervention. The entire sixteenth chapter focuses on this doctrine and how it is a useful tool for the Christian life.

Near the beginning of this section, Calvin states that it creeps in people’s minds that affairs are due to some fortune or misfortune. Calvin says this is drawn from the fact that our flesh or carnal nature sees “As if God were making sport of men by throwing them about like balls” (211). On the contrary, Calvin would argue that if people focus their attention on scriptures and the higher things, God’s divine plan would be clear to them. Since humans do not and God’s logic remains hidden to them, it is important for people to understand God as a good God. Through this understanding of God humans do not have to worry about anything because God has everything under divine providence and control. This is the argument that Calvin sets up in chapter sixteen in its simplest way. Calvin’s argument in its syllogistic form would flow like the following:

1. As humans our carnal minds think of events as happening because of fortune or God’s divine game.

2. If we are to fight the ideas in our carnal minds about providence,...