Transubstantiation and consubstantiation equally infer the ubiquity of Christ’s physical body, a matter which Calvin now begins to address. The notion that Christ’s physical body (in Bethlehem’s manger, on the cross, resurrected in walking along the Galilean shore) is in…
Calvin’s doctrine of the Supper, often (too often!) referred to (incorrectly) as one of “real presence” is one of communion with Christ crucified and resurrected. It’s focus on the bodily nature of this communion (there is no other Christ with…
Calvin’s great concern is that Christians should “rightly use the Lord’s Supper.” He is, from beginning to end, a pastoral theologian (surely any other kind is guilty of a category mistake?). In seeking to serve the church he wants to…
Calvin now turns to the theme of the Lord’s Supper. His concern is twofold: (i) to provide a simple explanation of the Supper and (ii) to resolve difficulties related to it. What he does in IV. 17. i is worthy…
One of the perplexities we modern Christians encounter in admiring magisterial reformers like Calvin is the severity of their attitude to, and treatment of, Anabaptists. In Calvin’s case this may seem all the more mysterious since he married the widow…
Calvin was, and remains, a theologian of the ages. Of course his theology comes to us clothed in the garments of the sixteenth century. But some things never change–including many of the arguments, pro and con, in relation to the…
For some, Calvin seems to be at his most feisty when he writes on the sacraments. Against those who complain that infant baptism is a travesty of the gospel, he stoutly insists “these darts are aimed more at God than at…
Another objection to infant baptism is considered: infants are incapable of understanding the gospel and therefore cannot be regenerated. Therefore they should not be baptized. If, Calvin argues, they are not in Christ, they must be in Adam (there is…
“What does this have to do with baptism?” is the frequent response to citing Jesus’ blessing the little children (Matt. 19:13-15), as much in Calvin’s day apparently as today. Calvin’s response? “If it is right for children to be brought…
A polemic in favor of infant baptism built on the following platform: 1) An anagogic relationship between circumcision and baptism: both are covenantal signs and seals to faith of forgiveness of sin; the power of the signs consist in the underlying…
