First Flashcards
How integral is the Trinity to Calvin’s understanding of God?
The whole of Calvin’s institutes has a Trinitarian structure
How is Calvin’s Trinitarian focus more like the East rather than the West?
Calvin’s focus is on the three Persons and his baptismal formula is reminiscent of Basil
Why is God not truly known unless He is distinctly conceived as triune?
Because the fruit of baptism is that God the Father adopts us in His Son and through the Spirit reforms us into righteousness.
How does Calvin’s understanding of the triune God not undermine the unity of God?
The three persons imply a distinction, not a division.
What is Calvin’s Eastern interpretation of Romans 8:9- “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
There is no gradation in the Godhead -> The Spirit’s whole fullness is poured on Christ as our Mediator and Head, so that each one of us might receive from him his own portion
What is Calvin’s Western interpretation of Romans 8:9- “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
The same Spirit is common to the Father and the Son, who have ONE essence and the same eternal deity.
How does Calvin explain Christ handing back the kingdom back to God?
He will not abdicate from the kingdom but transfer it from His Humanity to His divinity- His humanity won’t hold us back from a nearer vision of God
What are the implications of the Son being autotheos?
The Son does not receive His deity from the Father
What is the premise of autotheos?
God is one and indivisible. Therefore, all three persons share in the one identical and undivided being of God.
What did the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 pronounce regarding the Son’s begetting?
Generation was not according to essence, since the divine essence can’t neither beget nor be begotten, but it is the Father who begets and the Son who is begotten. Hence, generation is according to person or hypostasis
