"Calvin, to some extent, based his ideas on Luther's (and, indirectly, Biel's). However, Calvin, especially in his view of double election, strikes me as even more nominalist than Luther and his soteriology. In other words, if God wills some to go to heaven and others to hell, it is not for humans to question. God's Will defines that which is good and bad. It is not constrained by some preexistent essence or form of divine virtue."
Dear Mark, Except I don't think that is where it comes from. Keep in mind that doctrine of predestination is articulated first by St. Augustine, a thorough-going Neo-platonist. Philosophically Calvin was a Scotist which is sort of half-way between Realism and Nominalism. That is why he could come up with sensible medium between Zwingli's symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist and Luther's insistence on the Real Presence. Calvin held that Christ was really present in the Eucharist, but spiritually, not physically. Luther's more extreme nominalism would have prevented him from seeing merely a spiritual presence as really real. "Yes, the Enlightenment reconstruction of humanism often focused on an imagined essence of humanity or on the view that humanity is governed by certain ideal forms." Yeah, but I'm talking about Renaissance Humanism. Humanism got its jump start principally from the introduction of classical Greek works into Europe, and chief among them were the works of Plato. Philip Melancton taught Luther Greek, howbeit he used it to read the New Testament, not Plato. warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
