The
" DEUS ABSCONDITUS" in Calvin's Theology The
" DEUS ABSCONDITUS" in Calvin's Theology
(Rev. Paolo de Petris)
In an article "To the Unknown God", B.A. Gerrish(1) states that while " Luther's doctrine of the Deus Absconditus has been subjected to intense study in more than a dozen books and articles devoted directly to the theme ...., surprisingly , however, there is no such body of literature on what Calvin thought about God's hiddenness" . Gerrish goes on to state that Calvin scholars "have been skeptical about the genuine unity of the various motifs that have been clustered under the common rubric of" God's hiddenness". More likely," he adds "the problem has simply been neglected, at least in its full scope; and it would require a major monograph even to assemble the relevant sources and shape the " problematic" for an adequate, comprehensive analysis." T. H L. Parker, the British Calvin scholar has also noted that " the concept of Deus Absconditus is as native to Calvin's theology as it is to Luther's "(2).
By having in mind the basic distinction traced by Paul Althaus between the "hiddenness" of God apart from Christ , with the mystery of God in Christ (3), I will try to demonstrate that the idea of the Hiddenness of God outside His revelation is of central importance in understanding Calvin's theology, and in particular his doctrine of Providence which, as Edward A. Dowey states, was " permeated in an almost uncanny manner with the immediate presence of a mysterious will.(4)" Calvin was convinced that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ does not exhaust God's mystery, since the Scripture describes God not in regard to His inner life ( non quis sit apud se) but as He reveals Himself towards us ( sed qualis erga nos)(5). God, as He is in Himself, the ineffable and incomprehensible essence of God, must be distinguished from God as He reveals Himself to us , that is God accommodates Himself to our finite and sin-blurred perceptual apparati(6). There is an unsearchable wisdom and a profound justice of God behind and beyond His revelation, as Calvin made clear by stating:
There is in the book of Job, a Divine and remarkable distinction made between that wisdom of God which is unsearchable, and the brightness of which holds all human nature at an immeasurable distance, and that wisdom which is made manifest to us in His revealed and written Law. In the same manner you, if you did not thus confound all things, ought to have made a distinction between that wonderful and profound justice of God, which no human capacity can comprehend, and that rule of justice which God has prescribed for the regulations of the lives of men, in His revealed Law(7). The grave of Calvin ?
Although some secrets are now revealed, God's plan still remains secret as does the order, end, and reason for which some events happen(8). God hides Himself(9) and reveals to us only what we need to know for our salvation(10). His purpose is sometimes manifest and sometimes hidden, but always just(11). We are not able to comprehend why God performs any particular action. His Providence is secret, His judgements are incomprehensible, like a great depth or abyss. His wisdom is secret . Even though every wind and every drop of rain is an expression of God's will, it remains a mysterious will emanating from the secret purpose of the Father, His secret or mysterious judgements, or His secret counsel(12). God's secret design is worked out in history through opaque judgements ( occulta, obscura judicia) and the meaning of history will not be disclosed until the last day, when God's justice will be revealed and order restored(13). Meanwhile, we can only revere in awe what we do not understand.
By keeping in mind the centrality of the Hiddenness of God, which turns out to be a central and unifying theme running throughout all his writings, one understands why Calvin :
1) so often and insistently used adjectives like hidden (absconditus), secret ( arcanus), concealed (occultus) and incomprehensible (incognitus) with reference to God(14); 2) devoted a treatise to defend the Secret Providence of God. In fact such a work derives its meaning only when the idea that God rules either the universe or history is questioned;
3) referred to the concept of the Hiddenness of God , when challenged concerning the justice of the action of God. This happened mainly in the context of: I) the origin of the fall and consequently of evil(15);
II) God's use of the wicked(16);
III) double predestination(17);
IV4) the death of Christ(18);
V) the contrast of attitudes of believers and unbelievers (19);
VI) in the episodes of the epileptic boy(20) and of the man born blind(21);
VII)in other quite innumerable cases(22).
From these considerations one elements appears clear: the idea of the Hiddenness of God works as a sort of hermeneutical principle in Calvin's attempt to vindicate and clear God's justice before those who " presume to subject the tribunal of God to their own understanding"(24). This conclusion has been questioned by some scholars who have thought that Calvin's theology, marked by a strong accentuation of the idea of the omnipotence of God, leaves room neither for human freedom nor for the anguished problem of human suffering(25) . It seems to me that these conclusions are simplistic and far from justifiable. In fact Calvin lived in a very difficult time marked by severe persecution of the Huguenots(26). In a world that appeared chaotic and meaningless he was continually forced to questions the sense of believing in God . He did not fail to recognize that the wicked may go unpunished in this life(27) and this distasteful fact tempted him to " remonstrate with God because he does not hurry to free the faithful and applaud their good fortune as if there were no judge in heaven"(28). He knew that " numberless mortals were taken out of life while yet perfect infants"(29). He himself knew well the full meaning of adversity. He was forced to seek asylum for three years in Strasbourg. His only child died followed a few years later by the death of his wife. His own life was hard. Diseases ravaged his body. He repeatedly quoted 1 Cor. 13:12 (30) to describe the difficulty of perceiving providence in the midst of a history which is ambiguous and awash in blood(31).
Notwithstanding, despite the turmoil of existence, the French Reformer preferred to believe in the continual, efficacious activity of a hidden divine Providence in the universe and in history, and he steadfastly refused to surrender his conviction that what may appear chaotic and meaningless is nevertheless ruled and overruled by His secret Providence(32) . God moderatur, tenet, dirigit, disponit. Nothing happens at random or as result of ineluctable fate. Every event depends on God's secret Providence(33). Even though God's justice is still partly hidden and not always discernible in this life(34), the believers must maintain that " whatever God wills is, by definition, just"(35), since "His justice is by no means to be measured by the short rule of human justice"(36). Despite the disorder of history God governs the world justly(37), since" His power and justice are inseparable"(38).The believers must always realize that they have to deal with their Creator in the matter of providence and must accordingly reverence His secret judgements(39). It is certainly true, as Richard Stauffer has pointed out(40), that Calvin used other kinds of arguments to defend God's justice, stating that:
a) God allowed the existence and manifestation of evil so that evildoers could condemn themselves to a deserved death by their actions.
b) Evil was willed by God as the just judgement that He exercised towards humanity.
c) Evil was willed by God so as to test the faithfulness of the true believers.
d) Evil was used by God in the execution of a redemptive plan.
Nevertheless, all these arguments were very far from either exhausting Calvin's defence of God's justice(41) or imperiling his basic tenet: namely, that although sometimes it is possible to understand why God moves events in the way He does, the counsel of God is without doubt more profound and more deeply concealed than the human mind can penetrate(42).
On the contrary these four arguments named above belong to a so-called " first line defence" that, in most cases, turns out to be completely unsatisfactory. Indeed , one might wonder: Are these explanations capable of giving a satisfactory answer to the sufferings of Job or to the death of Christ, not to mention to the Holocaust? The answer is unequivocal: They are not. Because Calvin was perfectly aware of the substantial weakness of this kind of defence, he refused to confine God's defence to such narrow borders. It is certainly true, he argued, that when God punishes evildoers , this derives from His revealed justice but, does the same hold true when bad things happen to good people? In response to this question, Calvin had no doubt that such chastisement derived from God's secret justice(43). What appears confused , fortuitous and even unjust must be regarded as part of God's secret plan. He agreed with Augustine that what is done against God's will is not done without God's will(44). From this seemingly irreducible paradox he was able to escape only by resorting to the idea of the Hiddenness of God and to the consequent distinction between God's hidden or secret will, and God's revealed or commanding will(45). To those who had criticised him for having posited two wills in God, Calvin faced the problem squarely : It is not because God is double-willed , but because of the foolishness (imbecillitas ) of our human minds that cannot grasp the mind of God(46). There is no changeableness or inconsistency in God.
By resorting to the concept of the Hiddenness of God Calvin was also able to reformulate the terms of traditional theodicy(47) . In fact he stated that:
1) God is omnipotent and rules universe and history, although His Providence is hidden.
2) God is righteous , although His justice is hidden and not always discernible in this life.
3) Evil is an objective reality , that although is done against the will of God, is not done without His will .
Deeply convinced that apart from the notion of Deus Absconditus Calvin's writings are unintelligible, it is my intention to demonstrate that in it resides one of the most relevant hermeneutical keys of his entire theological production which was itself a theodicy, as Horton Davies points out (48). In addition to his opus magnum The Institutes of Christian Religion, I will concentrate on some works which have been little noted in Calvin studies recently ; that is, on his commentaries, his treatises on the Secret Providence of God, on the Eternal Predestination, on Against the Fanatic and Frantic sect of Libertines and on his sermons, particularly the Sermons on the Book of Job.
NOTES
1. B.A. Gerrish, To the unknown God": Luther and Calvin on the Hiddenness of God , Journal of Religion, Vol. 53 (1973) 263.
2. Calvin's Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, (2d ed. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1959, 11).
3. I owe this reference to Dillenberger God Hidden and Revealed: The interpretation of Luther's Deus Absconditus and its significance for religious Thought , Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1953, 58-59) .
4. The Knowledge of God in Calvin's theology, New York, 1947, 7
5. Institutes 1559, 1,10,2.
6. C. J. Kinlaw in his article Determinism and the Hiddenness of God in Calvin's Theology (in " Articles on Calvin and Calvinism" , volume 19, New York, London, 1992 ,169) agrees on this distinction by pointing out that "Calvin maintains that God's will as revealed in Christ is not God-as-He-is-in-Himself, is not, we must assume, God's true ontological nature".
7. The Secret Providence of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, London , 1855, 327.
8. Institutes 1559 , 1,16, 9.
9. CO 35:458.
10. 19th sermon on Job, CO 33, 240; 43th sermon on Job, CO 33, 534; 157th sermon on Job, CO 35:481.
11. The Secret Providence of God in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, Michigan, 245.
12. Institutes,1557, 1,17,1-2.
13. CO 34:259,380,395,688.
14. The following are described as HIDDEN: Abyss, Blessing, Bridle, Counsel, Decree, Doctrine, Election, Favour, Glory, Grace, Hand, Impulse, Inspiration, Influence, Judgement, Love, Majesty, Manner, Measure, Means, Methods, Movements, Mystery, Nature, , Operation, Order, Power, Providence, Punishment, Purpose, Reason, Recesses, Strength, Things, Treasure, Vengeance, Will of God.
The following are described as SECRET : Adoption, Agency, Appointment, Blessing, Cleansing of His Spirit, Counsel, Curse, Decree, Direction, Efficacy of His Spirit, Election, Energy of the Spirit, Fountain , Grace, Guide, Impulse, Influence, Influx, Inspiration, Instigation, Instinct of his, Spirit, Irrigation of His Spirit, Judgement, Mystery, Movement, Operation, Ordination, Pleasure, Power, Predestination, Providence, Purpose, Rein, Revelation, Testimony, Things , Virtue , Will, Working of divine, Wisdom, of God.
The following are described as INCOMPREHENSIBLE : the Counsel, Essence, Glory, Judgements, Justice, Love, Majesty, Power, Wisdom, Work of God.
The following are described as CONCEALED: causes of event, Counsel , Curse, Reason of Providence, Salvation of God. The above references are taken from the Institutes of Christian Religion, 1559 and from some Commentaries.
15. To the question of why did God not sustain Adam by the virtue of perseverance, Calvin responds that this " is hidden in His counsel" ( Institutes,1559 , 1,15,8. See also: Institutes, 1559, 3,23,4,7,8).
16. See: Institutes, 1559, 1,17,2; 1,18,3; 3,20,43.
17. See Institutes, 1559, 3,3,21; 3, 22,10; 3, 24,1-2, 8 and 15-17 and "Calvin's Calvinism", p. 162 "For how God condemns the wicked, and yet justifies the wicked, is a mystery that is shut up in that secret mind of God, which is inaccessible to all human understanding. Wherefore, there remains nothing better, nothing more becoming us, than to stand in awe with the apostle, and exclaim, " How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! " (Rom. xi. 33.)".
18. See: The Secret Providence of God, art. IV, p. 81" When the Father gave up the Son;--when the Lord gave up his own body;--when Judas delivered up the Lord;--how was it, that in this one same ' delivering up,' God was righteous, and man guilty ? The reason was, that, in this one same thing, which God and man did, the MOTIVE was not the same, from which GOD, and man, acted. Hence it is that Peter without hesitation declares, that Pontius Pilate, and Judas, and the other wicked people of the Jews) had done " what God's hand and his counsel had before determined to be done " (Acts iv. 28); as Peter had just before said, " Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." (Chap. ii. 23.) Now if you turn your back on the term " foreknowledge," the definitiveness of the terms, determinate will floor you at once. Nor indeed does the former passage leave the least degree of ambiguity behind it;--namely, that Pontius Pilate and the Jews, and the wicked people, did " whatsoever God's hand and his counsel had before determined to be done." Now if your understanding cannot hold a mystery and a secret so deep as these, why do you not wonder, and exclaim with the apostle Paul, " O the depth ! "-- why do you daringly trample upon them, as an infuriated madman ?
19. Beyond this contrast of attitudes of believers and unbelievers, the great secret of God's counsel must necessarily be considered. For, the seed of the word of God takes root and brings forth fruit only in those whom the Lord, by his eternal election, has predestined to be children and heirs of the heavenly kingdom. To all the others (who by the same counsel of God are rejected before the foundation of the world) the clear and evident preaching of truth can be nothing but an odour of death unto death. Now, why does the Lord use his mercy toward some and exercise the rigour of his judgment on the others? We have to leave the reason of this to be known by him alone. For, he, with a certainly excellent intention, has willed to keep it hidden from us all. The crudity of our mind could not indeed bear such a great clarity, nor our smallness comprehend such a great wisdom. And in fact all those who will attempt to rise to such a height and will not repress the temerity of their spirit, shall experience the truth of Solomon's saying (Prov. 25:27) that he who will investigate the majesty shall be oppressed by the glory. Only let us have this resolved in ourselves that the dispensation of the Lord, although hidden from us, is nevertheless holy and just. For, if he willed to ruin all mankind, he has the right to do it, and in those whom he rescues from perdition one can contemplate nothing but his sovereign goodness. We acknowledge, therefore, the elect to be recipients of his mercy (as truly they are) and the rejected to be recipients of his wrath, a wrath, however, which is nothing but just. Instruction in Faith ( Westminster/J. Knox Press, Louisville, 1977,38).
20. "Hence we infer that this punishment was not inflicted on account of the sins of the individual, but was a secret judgment of God. True indeed, even infants, as soon as they have come out of the womb, are not innocent in the sight of God, or free from guilt; but God's chastisements have sometimes hidden causes, and are intended to try our obedience. We do not render to God the honor which is due to Him, unless with reverence and modesty we adore His justice, when it is concealed from us" C.O. 45.494-495 ( on Mark 9:21).
21. Here Calvin says that "Christ declares that we ought not to seek the cause of the blindness in sin "...Consequently, when the causes of afflictions are concealed, we ought to restrain curiosity" (Comm. on the Gospel of John, chapter 9, verse 3).
22. Two examples may suffice: in his commentary on the extermination of Midianites ,while recognizing that this episode may be repugnant, Calvin nevertheless insisted on the fact that "God tempers the most severe punishment with the most perfect equity; yea, that although he may for a time overlook, or at any rate not so severely punish, the same sin in the Moabites which he sorely avenged upon the Midianites, there is still a most just cause for this distinction, although it may be hidden in His own breast".(23)
23. Comm. Num.31:14 ' " -
24. The Eternal Predestination of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, 34.
25. For Case Anna Winters, Calvin's idea of the omnipotence of God has as its consequences: "1) the severe curtailment, if not the complete denial of human freedom; 2) an accompanying aggravation of the theodicy problem ( making a credible freewill defence untenable) and 3) the promotion of oppression in the human community through the divinizing of power of this sort."( In God's power : traditional understandings and contemporary challenges, 1st ed. Louisville, Ky. : Westminster/J. Knox Press, 1990, 63-64). On the other hand Griffin summarizes his work concerning the problem of theodicy by saying that " Calvin's God is not morally perfect God", Power and Evil: A Process Theodicy, 130)
26. "Our Lord has wanted to afflict His own in many places. Poor people have had their throats cut, there have been many horrible and bloody butcheries, many outrages, tyrannies and cruelties. Then the poor faithful will be expelled from their homes, and it will be much if they escape with their lives. Their goods will be seized, their wives and children will be like poor vagabonds, fleeing here and there, always in danger, like a bird on a branch" Serm.No.31 on II Samuel, 272-273.
27. Richard Stauffer points out that "Calvin est extremement sensible au scandale de l'impunite des mechants et de la souffrance des bons", Dieu, la Creation et la Providence dans la Predication de Calvin, Bern, 1978, 280-281)
28. Comm. on Phil
29. The Secret Providence of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, Grands Rapids, Michigan, 335
30. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known".
31. CO:33:105-6,273,373,586; 34:216,266,348, 482, 514; 35:66,192,388,398.
32. The Secret Providence of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, 204.
33. CR 40:687
34. CO 35:141,246
35. CO 34:98, 257, 347, 360; 35:141
36. The Eternal Predestination of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, 131.
37. CO 33:451; 34:221; 35:458
38. CO 35:131, 206, 369, 454 and The Eternal Predestination of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, 248.
39. Institutes 1557, 1,17,2.
40. Dieu, la Creation et la Providence dans la Predication de Calvin, 279.
41. In his Dieu, la Creation et la Providence dans la Predication de Calvin, 280-281, Richard Stauffer draws the same conclusion by saying that " les trois reponses que le predicateur de Geneva donne a' ceux qui se demandent comment l'activite' de la providence peut se concilier avec l'ouvre des mechants, n'epuisent pas, a' ses yeux, le problem du mal".
42. The Eternal Predestination of God,in Calvin's Calvinism, London, 1855, p. 71.
43. Nous avons desia dit ci dessus, que la iustice de Dieu se cognoist doublement. Car aucunesfois Dieu punira les pechez qui sont tout notoires aux hommes. Voila Dieu qui chastie quelqu'un. Et pourquoy ? On l'aura cognu un paillard infame, plein d'ordure et de vilenie: on l'aura cognu un blasphemateur, on l'aura cognu un yvrongne et dissolu, on l'aura cognu un homme abandonné à rapines et à toute desloyauté. Et bien, quand Dieu exerce sa iustice on telle sorte, il n'y a celuy qui ne voye bien, Voila, Dieu est iuste iuge, quand il ne permet point que les fautes demeurent impunies. La iustice de Dieu se cognoist aussi. en ses iugemens secrets, quand nous voyons des personnes où il n'y avoit point des vices notables, mesmes où il y avoit quelques vertus: Dieu les afflige et les tormente (Sermon 35 on Job, p. 438)
44. " Let that sentiment of Augustine be ever present to our minds, Wherefore, by the mighty and marvellous working of God that in a wonderful and ineffable way, is not done, without His will, which is even done contrary to His will; because, it could not have been done, had He not permitted it to be done; and yet, he did not permit it without his will, but according to His will (The Secret Providence of God, in Calvin's Calvinism, Grands Rapids, Michigan p.33).
45. The same tension between the hidden and the revealed will arose when Calvin said that on one hand sinners are God's ministers since they do God's hidden will, and on the other hand denied that they serve God's revealed or commanding will.
46. "Still, however, the will of God is not at variance with itself. It undergoes no change. He makes no pretense of not willing what he wills, but while in himself the will is one and undivided, to us it appears manifold, because, from the feebleness of our intellect, we cannot comprehend how, though after a different manner, he wills and wills not the very same thing. Paul terms the calling of the Gentiles a hidden 268 mystery, and shortly after adds, that therein was manifested the manifold wisdom of God, (Ephesians 3:10.) Since, on account of the dullness of our sense, the wisdom of God seems manifold, (or, as an old interpreter rendered it, multiform,) are we, therefore, to dream of some variation in God, as if he either changed his counsel, or disagreed with himself? Nay, when we cannot comprehend how God can will that to be done which he forbids us to do, let us call to mind our imbecility, and remember that the light in which he dwells is not without cause"(Institutes, 1559, 1,18,3)
47. In their simplest form the terms of theodicy can be sum up, in the following statements:
1) God is Omnipotent:
2) God is wholly good;
3) and yet the Evil exists.
There are contradictions between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false. For example if one admits that God is not the wholly good, or not quite omnipotent, or that evil does not exist, or good is not opposed to the kind of evil that exists, or that there are limits to what an Omnipotent God can do, then the problem of Evil will not arise.
The terms of the question were firstly formulated by Epicurus ( 341-270 B.C.):
God either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is
neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able.
If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; If He is neither able nor willing, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God'; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils or why does He not remove them?
48. See The vigilant God: Providence in the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Barth ( New York: P. Lang, 1992) p. 7.