The Seat of the Image of God: Calvins Christological Understanding of the Soul as Substantia Byung-Ho Moon (Systematic Theology)

1. Anatomy of the soul The word soul, in terms to Calvins writing, reminds us, first of all, of the preface of his commentary on the Psalms, which he calls an anatomy of all the parts of the soul (soleo avvnatmhn omnium animae partium).1 There Calvin anatomizes the soul by enumerating various phenomena of the soul, depicted prominently in the portrait of David, i.e., all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, as well faith, patience, fervour, zeal, and integrity rather than explores the substantial identity and structure of the soul itself and its functions.2 It is of no doubt that phenomena proceeding from a substance both reflect its essence and reveal its reality and truth, but they do not reveal it as a whole. Rhetorical or dialectical approaches are viable to describe multi facets of the soul but they in most cases are not successful in overcoming biographical or analogical sketches, although they are sometimes based on some theological typologies.3 God is the Creator of the soul. The soul is quickened by Gods secret

The Commentaries of John Calvin, 46 vols., Calvin Translation Society Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948-1950), Psalm, The Authors Preface, 1.xxxvii. I use CTS edition for the reference s and quotations of Calvins Old Testament commentaries (vols.1 -15), while I refer to John Calvin, New Testament Commentaries, ed., D. W. Torrance and T. F. Torrance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960-1972) for his commentaries on the New Testament. The quotation appears originally in Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt Omnia, ed., Wilhelm Baum, Eduard Cunitz, and Eduard Reuss (Brunswick: C. A. Schwetsche, 1863-1900), 31.15-16 (hereafter CO). 2 James A. De Jong, An Anatomy of All Parts of the Soul: Insights into Calvins Spirituality from His Psalms Commentary, in Calvinus Sacrae Scripturae Professor: Calvin as Confessor of Holy Scripture , ed. Wilhelm H. Neuser (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994). 2-3. Quot. Comm. Psalm. The Authors Preface, 1.xxxvii, xl (CO 31.15-16, 21-22). 3 Cf. Olivier Millet, Calvin et la dynamique de la Parole: Etude de rh torique r form e (Gen ve: Editions Slatkine, 1992), 515-554. Seeking the rhetorical meaning of Calvins sudden conversion in the preface of his commentary on the Psalms by comparing the humanity of Calvin with that of David, Millet observes: Les motifs de la rhtorique antique, avec son sens de la dignit et de lefficacit oratoires, rejoignent ceux de la culture chr tienne pour interdire Calvin toute expression de soi qui ne serait pas soumise aux impratifs de la distinction des genres, ceux de largumentation, ou encore ceux de ldification collective des mes dans de cadre dune typologie psychologique et spirituelle dont seul le th ologien-ex g te a les clefs. Sur le plan de lethos comme sur celui du pathos, les traits qui pourraient contribuer dessiner le portrait de lauteur ressortissent aux seules rgles, formules par la rhtorique, du discours public (525). 1

inspiration,4 governed by Gods secret plan, and directed by Gods ever-present hand.5 All these are fulfilled and applied on the basis of the fact that Christ is the most perfect (perfectissima) image of God.6 Christ gave His Spirit to all chosen by the eternal divine decreeto the co-heirs with Christ of the kingdom of God as His children(Rom. 8:9, 17). The Spirit of Christ the Mediator is the Spirit of the perfect image of God. Therefore, questions on the being of the soul and the way it works should be given purely theologically, in a God-centered7 and Christ-centered way.8 Based on this theological understanding of the image of God, Calvin deals with the states and faculties of the soul with a firm conviction of its place as the proper seat of the image of God (propria sedes imaginis Dei)9 and then of his contribution to the analysis of the structure of human soul which he believes consists of understanding and will (intellectus et voluntas).10 In so doing, Calvin noticeably turns to the redemption of the soul as the recovery of the fallen image of God by the grace of Christ the Mediator who came to the world as the Son of Man, bearing the perfect image of God. This approach explores a Christological understanding of the soul examined both salvationhistorically and soteriologically, which explains the reason why Calvins frequent references to the necessity of the Mediator are related mostly to Christs incarnation. 11 Therefore, the necessity of the incarnation should be placed at the center of discussions on the origin, substance, essence, reality, faculties, and various phenomena of the soul.
4

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Ford Lewis Battles, ed. John T. McNeill, Library of Christian Classics, vols. 20, 21 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, hereafter Inst.), 1.16.1 (CO 2.144). 5 Inst. 1.16.2 (CO 2.145). 6 Inst. 1.15.4 (CO 2.138). . 7 Cf. James Luther Mays, Calvins Commentary on the Psalms: The Preface as Introduction, in John Calvin and the Church, ed. Timothy George (Louisville: Westminster/John Konx, 1990), 195-204. The author points out, The David of Calvins mirror is a theological rather than a narrative identity. He is a theological typea called and installed man of God who is opposed and afflicted. It is this typical identity, conceived in a theological rather than a biographical way, that often provides the relation between the psalm and those for whom Calvin interprets (201). 8 Cf. S. H. Russell, Calvin and the Messianic Interpretation of the Psalms, Scottish Journal of Theology 21 (1968), 37-47. Regarding the threefold reference of the Psalmist among David, Christ, and his church, the author asserts, the master-key of Calvins exegesis of the messianic elements in the Psalms is the solidarity of Christ and His members both before and after the incarnation (41 -42). He also points out that the Davidic kingdom is not only a mere representation of that of Christ but it also shows that the substance of His kingdom must be in some way regarded as present (42, emphasis mine). 9 Inst. 2.15.3 (CO 2.136): . . . propriam . . . imaginis sedem in anima esse dubium non est. 10 Inst. 2.15.7 (CO 2.142). 11 Cf. Comm. Ex. 3:2 (1.61, CO 24.35-36); Num. 17:8 (4.127, CO 25.231); Isa. 63:17 (4.359, CO 37.405); II Tim. 1:5 (292, CO 52.348); John Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, tr. Arthur Golding, Facsimile Reprint (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), Deut. 32:11-15 (1122a-1127b, CO 28.696-708). 2

In conclusion, the anatomy of the soul described by Calvin needs to be investigated in the light of an overarching Christological scheme.

2. The soul as substance Dealing with Calvins Psalms commentary in his article, An Anatomy of All Parts of the Soul, James A. De Jong rejects the understanding of the soul as merely referring to life and points out that, for Calvin, the soul is closer to what is meant by the heart by quoting his commentary on Psalm 34:2, the term soul . . . signifies not the vital spirit, but the seat of the affections. Then the author explains the soul as the seat of affections including our sentiments, emotions, feelings, and insights and maintains that the soul for the believer must remain steadily focused on God by directing all its affections to him alone. De Jong then relates his argument to the heart-in-hand motto, Cor meum tibi offere[o] Domine, prompte et sincere, and ultimately to Calvins spirituality.12 He keenly relates the soul to the concept of spirituality by fleshing out its affections, but the interior affection of the soulnote that Calvin uses this expression just before the sentences quoted aboveshould be differentiated from the concept of spirituality of which the origin is Catholic habitus and qualitas-centered theology. When Calvin expresses the soul as the seat of affections he means to point out the soul as the place we are persuaded by the Holy Spirit rather than our spiritualitas.13 As we will see later, there is no room for spirituality in Calvins understanding of the soul; there is only the being of the soul and its functions working by the imputatio of Christs vicarious satisfaction through the favor of God.14 The core chapter on the original image of God, 2.15, augmented massively in the final edition of Institutes from its second edition of 1539, presents the being of the soul as substantia and its attributes quite precisely. The image of God engraved reveals the noblest and most remarkable example of His justice, wisdom, and goodness.
12

De Jong, An Anatomy of All Parts of the Soul: Insights into Calvins Spirituality from His Psalms Commentary, 4-5. I change the word offere originally used by De Jong to offero, which I believe is commonly accepted. 13 Comm. Ps. 34:2 (1.558, CO 31.336): Sic enim personare Dei laudes in ore nostro debent, ut praeeat simper interior animi affectus. Itaque hoc loco anima non spiritum vitalem, sed affectuum sedem sedem significant, ad si diceret, sincero animo gloriandi materiam sibi in uno Deo fore ut tantam salutem nulla unquam oblivio obscuret. 14 Cf. Byung-Ho Moon, Calvins Theology of Piety, Unpub. Presented at Seoul: Korea Evangelical Theological Society, 2007. 3

[S]ince God not only deigned to give life (animare) to an earthen vessel, but also willed it to be the abode of an immortal spirit (domicilium immortalis spiritus), Adam could rightly glory in the great liberality of his Maker.15 The purpose of God in creating human beings according to His image is presented here as their willing obedience to God as a living soul each in eternity, which is the eternal glorification of God. The covenant of works was given to the first Adam in token of his subjection (in signum subjectionis) as a test of obedience (obsequii examen) to form the people who praise God in the soul.16 Life immortal, which is the most prominent mark of the image of God, is presented here as a life of praise as well as a life of Gods justice, wisdom, and goodness. This is what Calvin means in his commentary on the creation of human beings by saying that on this soul God engraved His own image, to which immortality is annexed.17 Calvin uses the words soul (anima) and spirit (spiritus) interchangeably. He firmly believes that man consists of soul and body and understands the soul as an immortal yet created essence (essentia), which is his nobler part. Calvin understands the soul as something essential (essentiale quiddam), separate from the body since he believes that something divine (divinum aliquid) has been engraved upon it. Calvin here identifies something divine engraved upon the soul as its own proper essence (propria essentia). Both statements are likely in this case: that the soul is endowed with essence (essentia praeditam) and that the soul is essence. This signifies the createdness of the soul. It denies the preexistence of the soul. In this respect, the soul is suggested as the immortal substance living eternally outside the flesh.18 In the section where Calvin argues for the essential being of the soul he does not designate it as essence (essentia) but as substance (substantia). The word is also definitely used later in a section treating the faculties of the soul an incorporeal substance (substantia incorporea),19 and in his Psychopannychia, which is called the first theological work of Calvin. In Psychopannychia, Calvin introduces three kinds of controversies relating to
15 16 17 18 19

Inst. 1.15.1 (CO 2.134-135). Comm. Gen. 2:16 (1.126, CO 23.44). Comm. Gen. 2:7 (1.112, CO 23.36). Inst. 1.15.2 (CO 2.135-136). Inst. 1.15.6 (CO 2.140).

the soul. Some people whom he calls the Anabaptists while admitting a real existence, imagine it sleeps in a state of insensibility from death to the last judgment. Others regard the soul as anything than its real existence as merely a vital power. These arguments formerly introduced are not to be accepted. Calvin then sets forth his view that the soul is a substance (substantia), and after the death of the body truly lives, being endued both with sense and understanding.20 Calvin notes that in the Bible the word soul is used to mark metonymically for life or a living man while the word spirit for breath and wind and that when they are joined soul means will (voluntas) and spirit means intellect (intellectus) (Isaiah 26:9; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12).21 However, Calvin maintains that whatever name the thing itself is called, it means the immortal essence (essentia immortalis) which is the cause of life in man.22 Therefore, as to the substantial entity of the soul the two words should be used indiscriminately. Calvin notes that this is especially so when we deal with the soul as the seat of the image of God.23

3. The soul as the seat of the image of God Based on the fact that the spirit or soul of man is a substance distinct from the body, in Psychopannychia Calvin deploys the theory of the seat of the image of God.24 Calvin refers to the image of God as the Spirit of God, which is separate from the body. He highlights the way God created man by His breath and pointedly the fact that God is Spirit. He then directs us to hold the image of God in man to be that which can only have its seat in the Spirit.25 He ultimately relates the Spirit as the seat of the image of God to Christ our Mediator who is the Bishop of our souls(I Peter 2:25). For this argument Calvin refers to biblical passages from Romans 8, I Peter 1-2, I Corinthians 2, II Corinthians 7, and Hebrews 12, which reveal most prominently the work of the secret

20

John Calvin, Psychopannychia, in Tracts and Teatises in Defense of the Reformed Faith , tr. Henry Beveridge, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958), 419-420, Psychopannychia MDXXXIV, Vivere apud Christum non dormire animis sanctos qui in fide Christi decedunt , CO 5.177 (hereafter Psychopannychia). 21 Psychopannychia, 420-422 (CO 5.179-180). 22 Psychopannychia, 422 (CO 5.180). 23 Psychopannychia, 420-427 (CO 5.178-184). 24 Psychopannychia, 427 (CO 5.184): . . . animam aut spiritum hominis, substantiam esse a corpore distinctam. . 25 Psychopannychia, 423-425 (CO 5.180-182). Quotation is from CO 5.182: . . . illam imaginem Dei in homine retineamus, quae, nisi in spiritu, sedem habere non potest. 5

and inner work of the Holy Spirit. By pointing up Christ as the only Bishop, Calvin shows undoubtedly his intention to identify the soul or the spirit with the Spirit of God the Father and the Sonespecially the Spirit of God the Son delivered as another Paraclete.26 The life of the regenerated, the life of the Spiritthe spiritual lifedoes show the seat of the image of God to live according to God in the spirit. What is the life of the spirit? Calvin, treating the immortality of the soul with reference to Christs preaching to the spirits in prison in I Pet. 3:19, points out the believer s union with Christs death and resurrection proclaimed in the preceding verse I Pet. 3:18 and mentions that all the godly must be confirmed to His [Christs] image. 27 It is noteworthy that Calvin here explains the immortality of the soul, which is the most crucial essence of the image of God, by referring to a new life and living in union with Christ.28 Calvins definite view of man constituted of body and soul have made some scholars regard him as Neoplatonic 29 or at least as a person who read Pauls swma/pneuma duality in the light of Platos body/soul dualism.30 However, Calvins

first theological work makes clear how he deals it with theologically although not yet as refined as his later work, represented by the final edition of the Institutes. Seeing that the young Calvin already grasped the Gnostic pitfalls of Apollinaris view of Christ, is it not Christ-centered sufficiently?

Let any one of you now put on a supercilious air, and pretend that the death of Christ was a sleepor let him go over and join the camp of Apollinaris! Christ was indeed awake when he exerted himself for your salvation; but you sleep your sleep, and, buried in the darkness of blindness, give no heed to his wakening calls! Besides, it not only consoles us to think that Christ, our Head, did not perish in the shadow of death, but we have the additional security of his Resurrection, by which he constituted himself the Lord of death, and raised all of us who have any part in him above death, so that Paul did not hesitate to say, that our life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Elsewhere he says, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Gal. 2:20). What remains for our opponents but to cry with open mouth that Christ sleeps in sleeping souls? For if Christ
26 27

Psychopannychia, 425-426 (CO 5.182-183). Psychopannychia, 428 (altered, CO 5.185): . . . pios omnes oportere as eius imaginem conformari. . . 28 Psychopannychia, 427-430 (CO 5.184-186). 29 Timothy George, Calvins Psychopannychia: Another Look, in In Honor of John Calvin, 1509-64, ed. E. J. Furcha(Montreal: Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 1987), 103-105. 30 George H. Tavard, The Starting Point of Calvins Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 53. 6

lives in them he also dies in them. If, therefore, the life of Christ is ours, let him who insists that our life is ended by death, pull Christ down from the right hand of the Father and consign him to the second death. If He can die, our death is certain; if he has no end of life, neither can our souls ingrafted in him be ended by any death!31 Is that not sufficiently God-centered? Where shall we find any Platonic or Neoplatonic fragments when the sovereignty of God is maintained based on analogia fidei, not based on analogia entis? And if God is the faithful life of the soul, just as the soul is the life of the body, how can it be that the soul keeps acting upon the body so long as it is in the body, and never is for an instant idle, and yet that God should cease from acting as if He were fatigued! If such is the vigour of the soul in sustaining, moving, and impelling a lump of clay, how great must be the energy of God in moving and actuating the soul to which agility is natural! Some go the length of saying, that the soul becomes evanescent; others, that its vigour is not exercised after the fetters of the body are dissolved. What answer then will they give to Davids hymn (Psalm 73), wherein he describes the beginning, middle, and end of the life of the blessed? He says, They will go from strength to strength; the Lord of hosts will be seen in Zion; or, as the Hebrew has it, from abundance to abundance. If they always increase till they see God, and pass from that increase to the vision of God, on what ground do from that increase to the vision of God, on what ground do these men bury them in drunken slumber and deep sloth?32 In the two passages quoted Calvin argues very emphatically that the soul as substance keep acting upon the body as it is being endowed with its essence by God through the mediation of Christ at the right hand of the Father. In the 1559 Institutes Calvin elaborates his position explored in Psychopannychia more systematically. In the first place he points out that in no part of man, not even the body itself, do the sparks of Gods glory not shine at all, but the proper (propria) and primary (primaria) seat of the image of God is the soul. 33 Here Calvins tone is more polemic than in Psychopannychia, where his definite position is to separate the body from the soul since the former is of the earth while the latter is of the image of God, pneuma.34 In the final edition of the Institutes Calvins criticism is poured out mainly upon
31 32 33 34

Psychopannychia, 439 (CO 5.193). Psychopannychia, 441 (altered, CO 5.195). Inst. 1.15.3 (CO 2.136, 138). Psychopannychia, 423-424 (CO 5.180-181). 7

Andreas Osiander who contends that the image of God dwells not only in the soul but also in the body equally and, from this point of view, suggests that Christ would have to become man even if Adam had remained upright since Christ was the exemplar and type of [that] corporeal figure (exemplar ac typus corporeae [illius] figurae) which was then formed.35 Osianders position on the person of Christ is based on the assumption that the divine essence cannot take on humanity. He understands the eternal existence of the Son of God as featured by the eternal presence of the divine essence invariably throughout, before, and after incarnation. Therefore, he argues, although man is not depraved, Christ would become flesh. As a result, Osiander denies the necessity of the coming of Christ as the Mediator, because he believes that man, being created by the image of Christ, bears the original righteousness infused through his divine essence. Osianders contention is not based on the free imputation of the righteousness of Christ but on the fact that we are righteous together with God (nos una cum Deo iustos esse).36 Similar criticism goes subsequently to Severtus who asserts that Adam was created to conform to Christ, the sole image of God37 and to Catholic theologians who distinguish zelem and demuth in Genesis 1:26 and apply zelem to the substance of the soul (in substantia animae) and demuth to its qualities (in qualitatibus). 38 Calvin confirms that both terms denote the integrity (integritas) with which Adam was endowed and stand for the soul as the proper seat of the image of Godour highest perfection (summa nostra perfectio) which should have been perfected if the first covenant had been kept valid.39 Calvin does not regard the original perfection of the image of God as incompatible with the concept of its fulfillment in the future, since he understands free will as one of the most significant elements of the image of God which was endowed

35

Inst. 1.15.3 (CO 2.137). For the necessity of the coming of Christ the Mediator regardless of the fall maintained by Osiander, Inst. 2.12.5-7. 36 Inst. 3.11.5-12, quot. 3.11.11(CO 2.541). For the debate between Calvin and Osiander over the image of God, see J. Faber, Imago Dei in Calvin: Calvins Doctrine of Man as the Image of God by Virtue of Creation, tr. J. D. Wierenga, in Essays in Reformed Doctrine (Alberta, Canada: Inheritance Publications, 1990), 234-239; Peter Wyatt, Jesus Christ and Creation in the Theology of John Calvin (Allison Park, Pa.: Pickwick Publications, 1996), 39. 37 Cf. John T. McNeill, Inst. 1.15.3, footnote, 10. 38 Cf. John T. McNeill, Inst. 1.15.3, footnote, 11. 39 Inst. 1.15.3 (CO 2.138). 8

with for the glory of God according to His peoples willing obedience to His covenantal promise while they are in the state of posse sive peccare sive non peccare.40 So, originally, the original image of God did not either predict or aim at the perfection of Christ, but the depraved image of God did, in His eternal decree,41 to be recovered by Christ who bears the living and express image of God.42 Commenting on II Corinthians 4:4, Calvin writes: When Christ is called the image of the invisible God the reference is not merely to His essence (essentia), because He is, as they say, co-essential with the Father, but rather to His relationship to us because He represents the Father to us.43 This eternal image of God in Christ was revealed even to the ancient Israelites.44 In this case, Calvin points out the fact that Gods face (facies), which indicates the living and express image of God revealed in Christ, shone forth in the law. By so doing, he explains Christs mediation of the law for the knowledge of God. 45 From these observations we are led to the next point deployed by Calvin.

4. The Soul as substance imputed, not infused As seen above, in Psychopannychia Calvin turns to the being and working of the Holy Spirit in dealing with the soul as the proper seat of the image of God. He there suggests the substantial identity between the image of God and the Spirit of Christ. In the final edition of Institutes, Calvin treats this more polemically in relation to its
40

With regard to the reason why God gave an imperfect will to the first humans, he states in the same vein, no necessity was imposed upon God of giving man other than a mediocre and even transitory will, that from mans fall he might gather occasion for his own glory ( Inst. 1.15.8, CO 2.143). Cf. Anthony N. S. Lane, Did Calvin Believe in Free Will? Vox Evangelica 12 (1981), 72-75. 41 For Calvins supralapsarianism, Inst. 2.12.5 (CO 343-344). 42 Cf. Comm. Isa. 6:1 (vol. 1, 201, CO 36.126); Col. 1:15 (308-309, CO 46.84-85), Jn. 1:18 (1.25, CO 46.19); Jn 14:10 (2.78, CO 46.326), Heb. 1:5 (10-12, CO 55.14). 43 Comm. II Cor. 4:4 (55-56, CO 50.51). Cf. Serm. Deut. 5:17 (165, CO 26.333). Calvin here writes that not only must we acknowledge that we are formed in the image of God, but we must also remember that we are members of our Lord Jesus Christ and that ther e exists [now] a more strict and sacred bond than the bond of nature which is common in all human beings. 44 Cf. Comm. Gen. 28:12 (2.112, CO 23.391). Col. 1:15 (308-309, CO 46.84-85); Jn. 1:18 (1.25, CO 46.19); Jn. 14:10 (2.78, CO 46.326); Heb. 1:5 (10-12, CO 55.14); Isa. 6:1 (1.201, CO 36.126). For Calvins Christological understanding of the image of God, see Hans Helmut Esser, Zur Anthtopologie Calvins Menschenw rdeImago dei Zwischen Humanistischem und Theologischem Ansatz, Hervormde Theologiese Studies 35/1-2 (1979), 33-34, 38-39; J. Faber, Imago Dei in Calvin: Calvins Doctrine of Man as the Image of God in Connection with Sin and Restoration, tr. J. D. Wie renga, in Essays in Reformed Doctrine (Alberta, Canada: Inheritance Publications, 1990), 264-267; Randall C. Zachman, Jesus Christ as the Image of God in Calvins Theology, CTJ 15/1 (1990), 45-62. 45 Comm. Ex. 20:3, et al. (1.419, CO 24.262): . . . true and pure religion was so revealed in the Law, that Gods face (Dei facies) in a manner shone forth (tradita) therein. 9

salvific significance. On the condition that the image of God should be thought of as for the reflection of Gods glory, Calvin succinctly remarks on the truth and reality of the image of God after the fall.

There is no doubt that Adam, when he fell from his state, was by this defection alienated from God. Therefore, even though we grant that Gods image was not totally annihilated and destroyed in him, yet it was so corrupted that whatever remains is frightful deformity. Consequently, the beginning of our recovery of salvation is in that restoration which we obtain through Christ, who also is called the Second Adam for the reason that he restores us to true and complete integrity (in veram et solidam integritatem restituit). For even though Paul, contrasting the life-giving spirit that the believers receive from Christ with the living soul in which Adam was created(I Cor. 15:45), commends the richer measure of grace in regeneration, yet he does not remove that other principal point, that the end of regeneration is that Christ should reform (reformet) us to Gods image. Therefore elsewhere he teaches that the new man is renewed . . . according to the image of his Creator(Col. 3:10). With this agrees the saying, Put on the new man, who has been created according to God(Eph. 4:24).46 Following this passage Calvin mentions three distinctive features of the image of Godknowledge, pure righteousness, and holinessand proclaims the substantial continuity between the image of God created, the perfect excellence of human nature which shone in Adam before his defection, and the image of God recovered by Christ, that is, between the living soul and the soul reformed by the life-giving Soul. . . . what was primary in the renewing of Gods image also held the highest place in the creation itself. To the same pertains what he teaches elsewhere, that we . . . with unveiled face beholding the glory of Christ are being transformed (transformari) into his very image(II Cor. 3:18). Now we see how Christ is the most perfect image of God; if we are conformed to it (ad quam formati), we are so restored (instauramur) that with true piety, righteousness, purity, and intelligence we bear Gods image.47

Then how should we be conformed or transformed to the perfect image of Christ? The answer: by being reborn in the spirit (regeniti spiritu).48 Then, what is the meaning of the rebirth or regeneration of the spirit (or spiritual regeneration)? Is it a
46 47 48

Inst. 1.15.4 (CO 2.138). Inst. 1.15.4. (CO 2.138-139). Inst. 1.15.4. (CO 2.139). 10

re-inpouring of the breath of God? Calvin noted that this idea had been revived in his time by Servetus who re-introduced the Manichean heresies, especially on the celestial body.49 Calvin criticized Servetus, for he understood the soulthe breath breathed into by Godas a derivative (tradux) of Gods substance. The soul should not be regarded either as a secret inflowing (influxus) of divinity or as something from (ex) Gods essence (emphasis added). As Calvin puts it, we are Gods offspring (Acts 17:28), but in quality, not in essence, inasmuch as he, indeed, adorned us with divine gifts. . . . Therefore we must take it to be a fact that souls, although the image of God be engraved upon them, are just as much created as angels are. But creation is not inpouring, but the beginning of essence out of nothing (Creatio autem non transfusio est, sed essentiae ex nihilo exordium).50 Servetus view, which Calvin criticized, is well deployed in his letter to Calvin while he was in prison. The main principle of which you are ignorant is that every action comes about through contact. Neither Christ, nor God Himself, acts on anything which He does not touch. Indeed, He would not be God if there were anything that escaped His contact. You dream up imaginary qualities, like the servitudes of lands. Neither the power of God, nor the grace of God, nor any such thing is in God which is not God Himself; nor does God send a quality into any part in which He Himself is not present. God, therefore, is truly in everything. He acts in everything, and He touches everything. Everything is from Him, through Him, and in Him. When, therefore, the Holy Spirit acts in us, His deity is in us and He touches us.51

This passage demonstrates that Servetus regards the presence of the unique property of each person of the Trinity as the personal appearance of the same essence of God. The incarnation of Christ denotes the transformation of the human matter into God in the process of the intermingling of the deity of God with human flesh, and thus the
49 50

For Manis heresy and its influence on Servetus, Inst. 2.13.2; 2.14.8. Inst. 1.15.5 (CO 2.139-140). 51 Philip E. Hughes, ed. and tr., The Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the Time of Calvin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), 284-285 (CO 8.799-800): Hoc est principium maximum, quod tu ignoras, Omnis actio fit per contactum. Nec Christus, nec Deus ipse agit in rem aliquam quam non attingit. Imo iam nos esset ipse deus, si esset res aliqua fugiens contactum eius. Qualitates imaginarias tu somnias, quasi servitutes agrorum. Nec virtus dei, nec gratia dei, nec quicquam eiusmodi est in deo, quod non sit ipsemet deus: nec mittit deus qualitatem in partem aliquam, in qua non sit ipsemet. Est igitur vere deus in omnibus, agit in omnibus, et attingit omnia. Omnia ex ipso, per ipsum, et in ipso. Cum igitur spiritus sanctus in nobis agit, deitas ipsius in nobis est et nos tangit. 11

hypostatic union in the person of Christ denotes the substantial unity (substantialis unitas) of divinity and humanity. In the same vein, the believer s union with Christ is understood as the indwelling of the deity of God in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. Servetus was convinced of the indwelling of the deity of God in all creatures. Based on this seemingly neo-Platonic and even pantheistic view, he argues for the existence of substantial deity (deitas substantialis) in angels and in the elect from the beginning.52 As the creation of the soul is not from Gods essence but out of nothing, so the regeneration of the soul is not from any kind of Christs inpouring or impartment of essential righteousness, which is not different from righteous essence, as Osiander argues, but from the imputation of His righteousness.

. . . man is made to conform to God, not by an inflowing of substance, but by the grace and power of the Spirit. For he [Paul] says that by beholding Christs glory, we are being transformed into his very image . . . as through the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18), who surely works in us without rendering us consubstantial with God.53 As seen above, Calvin indicates that Osiander refers to Christ the Mediator as the bearer of the perfect image of God in respect only to His corporeal being while he applies the fact that God is spirit only to the Holy Spirit. Osiander, influenced by the Cabbalistic understanding of the person of Christ, equated Christs human nature with works and his divine nature with faith, and understood the justification of man before God as an inpouring or infusion of Christs divine nature.54 Osiander seems here to try to keep the biblical doctrine of sola fide by grasping the effective cause of justification as faith. However, he replaces the concept of essential righteousness, which is infused according to the merit of faith, with the gratis imputation of Christs merit. Ultimately
52

Sententiae vel propositiones excerptae ex libris Michaelis Serveti, quas ministri ecclesiae Genevensis . . ., XXXIII, XXXIV (CO 8.506). Ernst Wolf calls this position of Servetus spiritualistisch pantheistische Verbum-Spiritus-Christologie. Deus Omniformis: Bemerkungen zur Christologie des Michael Servet, in Theologische Aufs tze: Karl Barth zum 50. Geburstag (M nchen: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1936), 464. 53 Inst. 1.15.5 (CO 2.140): . . . non substantiae influxu, sed spiritus gratia et virtute, hominem fuisse Deo conformem. Dicit enim (II Cor. 3:18) Christi gloriam speculando, in eandem imaginem nos transformari tanquam a Domini spiritu: qui certe ita in nobis operator ut Deo consubstantiales nos reddat. . 54 Gottfried Seeba, Osiander, Andreas, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, vol. 3. ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 184a-184b. 12

Osiander turns to the Catholic concept of gratia infusa in order to explain the change which Christian faith makes in the life of the believer as the indwelling of Christ. In so doing he overemphasizes the perfect redemption of Christ the Mediator as the substantial cause of a substantial communication or impartment.55 However, Gods righteousness is neither infused (infusa) nor transfused (transfusa), but imputed grace (gratia imputata). So no concept of essential righteousness (essentialis iustitia) is applicable both to the doctrine of creation and to the order of salvation.56

5. The soul as the substance where the Spirit of Christ the Mediator dwells and works In the 1559 Institutes, Calvin devotes just one chapter (1.15) to human nature in its created state. In contrast, there are five chapters (2.1-5) in his discussion of our fallen state, and of our redeemed state, twenty chapters (3.1-20). These three discussions are not separate but inter-connected. In the first part, Calvin mentions the working of the Spirit of Christ in the redemption of the image of God as well as the creation of the soul as the proper seat of the image of God. In the second part, devoted to his discussion of the fallen state, Calvin does not omit taking account of the grace of the original image of God and anticipating its redeemed state. For example, when he mentions that while man after the fall sins of necessity, yet sins no less voluntarily,57 Calvin shows his position to presuppose something original remaining after the fall despite the total depravity of the soul. He takes the same position when he quotes from Augustine who says, will is not taken away by grace, but is changed from evil into good, and helped when it is good. This view is confirmed by another quotation from Augustine: the

55

James Weis, Calvin Versus Osiander on Justification, Springfielder 30/3 (1965), 31-47, esp. 33-35. For the meaning of justification in Osiander, Wilhelm Niesel, Calvin wider Osianders Rechtfertigungslehre, Zeitschrift f r Kirchengeschichte 46 (1927), 410-430; Trevor Hart, Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in Our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin, Scottish Journal of Theology 42 (1989), 77-78. 56 Cf. Inst. 3.11.5, 10 (CO 2.536-537, 540-541); Contra Osiandrum (CO 10/1.166): Essentialem iustitiam sibi nulla ratione imaginatus est. Nam etsi eo trahit scripturae testimonia, quae Deum in nobis habitare asserunt, et nos unum cum ipso fieri: nihil tamen inde probatur, quam arcana spiritus virtute, dum coalescimus in Christi corpus, uniri simuo Deo. Adde, quod essentialis illa communicatio ex Manichaeorum deliriis sumpta est. Nec video quomodo excusari possit hoc absurdum, essentialem Dei iustitiam esse accidens, quod adesse nunc homini possit, nunc abesse. For the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, Comm. Rom. 5:17 (117, CO 49.100). 57 Inst. 2.5.1 (CO 2.230); 2.3.5 (CO 2.213-215) 13

human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but obtains freedom by grace.58 It is clear that the point Calvin is concerned with is not the existence of the image of God but the way Gods grace works. The third part devoted to the discussion of the restoration of the image of God is especially significant with respect to the faculty of the soul in faith. Faith is presented as the instrumental cause of salvation working through its whole process.59 It is indisputable that for Calvin, as we see in the chapter on faith in the Institutes, the entity of faith is presented as a divine gift only for the regenerated, but we should not disregard the fact that Calvin sees the obedience of Adam and Eve before the fall as faith or faithfulness when he says, disobedience was the beginning of the fall. . . . Unfaithfulness, then, was the root of the fall.60 From this we learn that what interests Calvin in reference to faith is not its material existence or the entity itself but how it exists and works by the grace of God working though the secret operation of the Holy Spirit. In his commentary on I Corinthians 15, Calvin differentiates between the natural life in the original image of God, which is born of the living spirit, and the spiritual life in the restored image of God, which is accomplished by the life-giving Spirit of Christ.61 Calvin suggests the present quality of the body [given life by the soul] be called animation (animatio); and its future quality, inspiration (inspiratio).62 This qualitative difference is not originated from any substantial difference but from the impact of spiritual regeneration. Believers can be called to be being transformed (transformaur) into the image of Christ as they are imputed His righteousness more and more.63 There is no substantial difference because there in no substantial infusion and impartment. Therefore,

[T]he principle cannot be overthrown, that what was primary in the renewing of Gods image also held the highest place in the creation itself.64 When Calvin expresses salvation as believers conforming to the image of
58 59

Inst. 2.3.14 (CO 2.223-224); 2.3.6 (CO 2.215). Cf. Inst. 3.14.17, 21 (CO 2.575, 578). Comm. Rom. 3:24, 5:19 (74-75, 118, CO 49.61, 101). 60 Inst. 2.1.4 (CO 2.178-179). 61 Comm. I Cor. 15:44-50 (337-341, CO 49.557-560). 62 Comm. I Cor. 15:44 (337-338, CO 49.557-558). 63 Comm. I Cor. 15:49 (340-341, CO 49.560). 64 Inst. 1.15.4 (CO 2.138): . . . non potest tamen principium hoc convelli, quod in renovatione imaginis Dei praecipuum est, in ipsa etiam creatione tenuisse summum gradum. 14

Christ, he does not mean by it just their following the pattern of Christ;65 rather it means mystica unio cum Christo in which believers are continuously communicated with His righteousness.66 The emphasis does not lie in the life of believers itself but in the life of the Spirit of Christ.67 This is what Paul means: Now your body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit of Christ which dwells in you is life because of righteousness (Rom. 8:10).68 The Spirit of Christ is identified with life, which we believe signifies the soul. Ultimately the Spirit of Christ is identified with the soul. Only in this sense, can spiritual union be described as bodily union:

Christ is not outside us but dwells within us. Not only does he cleave to us by an indivisible bond of fellowship, but with a wonderful communion, day by day, he grows more into one body with us, until he becomes completely one with us.69 The image of God is revealed in Christ as the most perfect, express, and living one. Human beings, who bear the image of God, are alive (vivens) because of the lifegiving (vivificans) working of the Holy Spirit. The image of God is the power of the Spirit of Christ who reveals Himself as the eternal Word of God. Christ does not impart His own substance, but He imputes His righteousness to us, by this He gives Himself to us so that we may be one with Him. He [Christ] is said to be the express image of God, because in Him God had entirely revealed Himself, inasmuch as His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power appear in Him substantially. . . . But as Christ does not simply declare what He is in Himself, but what we should acknowledge Him to be, it records His power rather than His essence.70 The power of the Spirit of Christ works not only for redemption but also for creation. Man was created according to the image of God by the grace and power of the
65

This view is shown in Richard Prins, The Image of God in Adam and the Restoration of Man in Jesus Christ: A Study in Calvin, Scottish Journal of Theology 25(1972), 42-44. 66 Cf. Inst. 3.11.5, 10; Comm. Rom. 8:9-17 (163-171, CO 49.144-151). 67 Comm. Rom. 6:8 (CO 49.108-109): If they[believers] ought to represent in themselves the image of Christ, both by mortifying the flesh and by the life of the Spirit, the mortifying of the flesh must be done once for all, while the life of the Spirit must never cease. 68 Inst. 3.2.24 (CO 2. 418): . . . mortuum est propter peccatum; sed spiritus Christi, qui in vobis habitat, vita est propter iustitiam. 69 Inst. 3.2.24 (CO 2.418): . . . quia Christus non extra nos est, sed in nobis habitat, nec solum individuo societatis nexu nobis adhaeret, sed mirabili quadam communione in unum corpus nobiscum coalescit in dies magis ac magis, donec unum penitus nobicum fiat. 70 Jn. 14:10 (78, CO 46.326). 15

Holy Spirit working through Christs mediation.71 This shows a typical expression of the economy of the Trinity working together for creation.72 Calvin specifically calls the Holy Spirit working through Christs mediation the Spirit of Christ as he highlights the operation of the Word for creation in explaining the deity of Christ in the chapter on the Trinity.73 With reference to creation, as in the case of salvation, Calvin designates the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ in that the Son, as the eternal Word, is of the same Spirit with the Father and works as the Mediator.74 In the same vein, although not explicitly, Calvin designates the Holy Spirit working for creation and its government as the Spirit of the life-giving Word, Christ the Mediator: . . . the Word of God was not only the fount of life to all creatures, so that those which had not yet existed began to be, but that His life-giving power(vivifica eius virtute) makes them remain in their state. For did not His continued inspiration(continua eius inspiratio) quicken the world, whatsoever flourishes would without doubt immediately decay or be reduced to nothing. In short, what Paul ascribes to God, that in Him we have our being and move and live(Acts 17:28), John declares to be accomplished by the blessing of the Word. It is God, therefore, who gives us life; but He does so by the eternal Word.75 Christs mediation works as the witness and accomplishment of the economy of the Trinity. The Son is the eternal Word of the Father and works as His Spirit. The Spirit of the mediation of the Word works the triple office (munus triplex) in the whole process of creation and redemption.76 After the fall Christs mediation for creation works only for making men inexcusable of their ignorance 77 since the natural gifts were corrupted but the
71

Inst. 1.15.5 (CO 2.140): . . . non substatiae influxu, sed spiritus gratia et virtute, hominem fuis se Deo conformem. 72 This has been expressed as the principle of opera ad extra trinitatis indivisa sunt since the era of the early church fathers. Inst. 1.13.24 (CO 2. 111-112): Nunc ergo nisi concedant patris, filii et spiritus communem fuisse creandi potestatem, et commune iubendi imperium, sequetur Deum non intus secum ita loquutum esse, sed direxisse ad alios extraneos opifices sermonem. 73 Inst. 1.13.7 (CO 2.358-360). From this point of view, Calvin deals with Christ as the instrumental author of the creation and providence in the following book. Peter Wyatt, Jesus Christ and Creation in the Theology of John Calvin (Allison Park, PE: Pickwick, 1996), 56-72. 74 Inst. 3.1.2 (CO 2.394-395). 75 Comm. Jn. 1:4 (11, CO 47.5). 76 Cf. Edmondson, Calvins Christology, 29-35. Here the author maintains that Calvin understands Christs mediation for creation and redemption as the comprehensive working of the munus triplex. 77 Cf. Inst. 1.15.8 (CO 2.142-143), 2.2.22 (CO 2.204); Comm. Rom. 1:20 (31, CO 49.23-24). 2:14-15 (CO 49.37-39). For scholars views of natural law, I. John Hesselink, Calvins Concept of the Law 16

supernatural taken away. 78 The depraved are blinder than moles to be able to recognize Gods existence and His fatherly love. They are living according only to the teaching of the law of nature or natural law. Only people regenerated by the Holy Spirit are endowed with the knowledge of the will of God revealed in the divine law.79 Without the illumination and persuasion of the Holy Spirit no will exist to live according to Gods will.80 In the fallen natural state remain natural reason and natural will. Both work for the establishment of the ordered life either personal or social. 81 In the realm of nature only common grace works; only the Spirit of Christ for the government of creation, not that of regeneration, works. 82 The Spirit of regeneration and sanctification dwells in believers to make each of them a temple of the Spirit. The same Spirit works as common grace for all people not according to the law of grace but according to the law of creation (lex creationis). 83 Whats the difference? The difference can be traced from the soteriological point of view. It depends upon how the grace of Christ the Mediator works. The difference between common grace and special grace, furthermore between the image of God in creation and redemption, depends upon whether Christ works for the Mediator of creation or of redemption. From this perspective, we can understand both the fact that Christ is the most perfect image of God and the fact that the end of regeneration is that Christ should reform us to Gods image.84 6. Concluding remarks Calvin believes that the soul is the proper and primary seat of the image of God and man is so constructed that the image overflows, as it were, to the body. However, the image of God does not signify any participation in the essence of God. Rather it represents the place where Christ works as the Mediator for creation and redemption, bearing the living, express, and perfect image of God. Calvin understands the soul as a substance, of which the essence is represented as the image of God endowed from the beginning. The soul is not just a mirror of Gods glory, nor is the image of God a
(Allison Park, Pa.: Pickwick Publications, 1992) 56-60. 78 Inst. 2.2.4, 12 (CO 2.187-190, 195-196). 79 Inst. 2.2.18-25 (CO 2.200-207). 80 Inst. 2.2.6-9, 26-27 (CO 2.180-184, 207-209). 81 Inst. 2.2.5, 7 (CO 2.190, 191); 2.3.5 (CO 2.213-215); 2.4.1 (CO 2.224-225). 82 Cf. Bolt, Spiritus Creator: The Use and Abuse of Calvins Cosmic Pneumatology, 27. Professor Bolt concludes that Calvin emphasizes the cosmic work of the Holy Spirit but does not regard it as representing the whole operation of the Holy Spirit. 83 Inst. 2.2.16 (CO 2.199). 84 Inst. 1.15.4 (CO 2.138). 17

spiritual reflection in holiness and righteousness, as T. F. Torrance contends.85 Calvin definitely sees the soul as substance and from this point of view explores the imputation of the merit of Christ in the soul. So Torrances following observation should be rejected: the strength of the imago dei and its continued maintenance in man lie in the Word of God and not in the soul of man.86 Even scholars concerned with Calvins understanding of the soul as substance have focused mainly on the place he stands as to its facultiesunderstanding and will, whether in a Platonic position or in an Aristotelian, whether in an intellectualist position led by Aquinas or in a voluntarist originated from Duns Scotus. They refer mainly to the phenomena of the soul themselves but do not mind investigating the origin, nature, and faculties of the soul in the light of its Christological significance.
87

Mary Potter Engel,

criticizing Torrances position as reflecting Barthian bias, contends the comprehensiveness and elegant complexity of Calvins doctrine of the imago dei from the God-centered objective and subjective human perspectives, but she does not go further and just speaks of the consistency of these two radically different sets of claims.88 Richard A. Muller is right when he maintains that Calvin refers particularly to the soteriological meaning of the faculty of human soul, comprising the intellect and the will, rather than to its philosophical or metaphysical significance. 89 However, Muller view of soteriological voluntarism does not show its Christological foundation.90 Our study of the concept of the soul in Calvin presents its veritas, which can be, according to his usage, translated into reality as well as truth. 1) When Calvin defines the soul as the proper and primary seat of the image of God, he understands it as substantia. 2) The soul as substantia is a being created, out of nothing, but not by substantial infusion (the infusion of divine substance).
85 86

T. F. Torrance, Calvins Doctrine of Man (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), 35-37, 52. Torrance, Calvins Doctrine of Man, 52-60 (quotation from 52). 87 Cf. scholars views of the faculties of the soul, Dewey J. Hoitenga, Jr. John Calvin and the Will: A Critique and Corrective (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 14-21. 88 Mary Potter Engel, John Calvins Perspectival Anthropology (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 52, 63. 89 Cf. Richard A. Muller, Fides and Cognitio in Relation to the Problem of Intellect and Will in the Theology of John Calvin, Calvin Theological Journal 25/2 (1990), 215-216. 90 For soteriological voluntarism. Hoitenga, Jr. John Calvin and the Will: A Critique and Corrective , 5152. 18

3) The soul is called the seat of the image of God, in that God, who is the Spirit, dwells within it by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ the Mediator. The entity of the soul does not signify any qualitative existence but believers communion with Christ and communication with His righteousness (merit) in unio mystica. 4) The image of God is designated as the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ the Mediator who works both for the creation, preservation, and government of the creature and for the redemption of the soul as the life-giving Spirit. 5) Redemption does not mean another creation of the image of God but its restoration according to the perfect image of Christ. In this respect, it is called recreation. Its substance is in continuity; its faculties are new. This presents its essence viewed Christologically.

(Soli Deo Gloria in Aeternum)!

19