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“Neither the Spirit Without the Flesh”: John Calvin’s Greek Doctrine of the Beatific Vision

“Neither the Spirit Without the Flesh”: John Calvin’s Greek Doctrine of the Beatific Vision “Neither the Spirit Without the Flesh”: John Calvin’s Greek Doctrine of the Beatific Vision By Steven W. Tyra “According to the error of the Greeks and the Calvinists, the [departed soul] has not gone to God, but to the lower world, or to some other place outside heavenwhereGodisnotanymorepresentthanheisherewithus.” Withthis statement, the Jesuit polemicist, RobertBellarmine, summed up what he con- sideredoneofReformedProtestantism’schiefheresiesinthesixteenthcentury. TheCalvinistswerepreachingthat,upondeath,faithfulsoulsdidnotimmedi- ately ascend to God and enjoy the “beatific vision” as was the traditional hope oflatemedievalChristians.Rather,theymigratedto“someotherplace”where they rested until the last judgment and resurrection. Only then would they enjoy the fullness of beatitude and behold God “face to face.” Bellarmine had no doubt who was to blame for this false teaching in his own day. “[John] Calvin stubbornly defends the notion that souls do not see God [animas non videre Deum]” before the last day, he warned. The Genevan heresiarch had drunk from a polluted stream whose headwaters lay to the East. The error of theCalvinistswas that ofthe Greeks. HoweverfamiliarCalvin’sGreeksensibility wasto nearcontemporarieslike Bellarmine, it is likely to surprise modern scholars. The most complete treat- mentsofthereformer’seschatologyremainthoseofHeinrichQuistorp(1941) and GeorgeH. Tavard (2000). Despite their different eras and aims, these studies agree in casting Calvin as a “traditional” voice regarding the visio Dei http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History de Gruyter

“Neither the Spirit Without the Flesh”: John Calvin’s Greek Doctrine of the Beatific Vision

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2020 by Gütersloher Verlagshaus
eISSN
2198-0489
DOI
10.14315/arg-2020-1110108
Publisher site
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Abstract

“Neither the Spirit Without the Flesh”: John Calvin’s Greek Doctrine of the Beatific Vision By Steven W. Tyra “According to the error of the Greeks and the Calvinists, the [departed soul] has not gone to God, but to the lower world, or to some other place outside heavenwhereGodisnotanymorepresentthanheisherewithus.” Withthis statement, the Jesuit polemicist, RobertBellarmine, summed up what he con- sideredoneofReformedProtestantism’schiefheresiesinthesixteenthcentury. TheCalvinistswerepreachingthat,upondeath,faithfulsoulsdidnotimmedi- ately ascend to God and enjoy the “beatific vision” as was the traditional hope oflatemedievalChristians.Rather,theymigratedto“someotherplace”where they rested until the last judgment and resurrection. Only then would they enjoy the fullness of beatitude and behold God “face to face.” Bellarmine had no doubt who was to blame for this false teaching in his own day. “[John] Calvin stubbornly defends the notion that souls do not see God [animas non videre Deum]” before the last day, he warned. The Genevan heresiarch had drunk from a polluted stream whose headwaters lay to the East. The error of theCalvinistswas that ofthe Greeks. HoweverfamiliarCalvin’sGreeksensibility wasto nearcontemporarieslike Bellarmine, it is likely to surprise modern scholars. The most complete treat- mentsofthereformer’seschatologyremainthoseofHeinrichQuistorp(1941) and GeorgeH. Tavard (2000). Despite their different eras and aims, these studies agree in casting Calvin as a “traditional” voice regarding the visio Dei

Journal

Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History – de Gruyter

Published: Oct 1, 2020

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