Reading Doctrines as Theological Images in Reformed Protestantism 9781463205942, 2016017349, 1463205945

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Reading Doctrines as Theological Images in Reformed Protestantism

Perspectives on Philosophy and Religious Thought 16

Perspectives on Philosophy and Religious Thought (formerly Gorgias Studies in Philosophy and Theology) provides a forum for original scholarship on theological and philosophical issues, promoting dialogue between the wide-ranging fields of religious and logical thought. This series includes studies on both the interaction between different theistic or philosophical traditions and their development in historical perspective.

Reading Doctrines as Theological Images in Reformed Protestantism

Corneliu C. Simuţ

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Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2016 by Gorgias Press LLC

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2016

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ISBN 978-1-4632-0594-2

ISSN 1940-0020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Simuţ, Corneliu C., author. Title: Reading doctrines as theological images in reformed Protestantism / by Corneliu C. Simut. Description: Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press, [2016] | Series: Perspectives on philosophy and religious thought, ISSN 1940-0020 ; 16 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016017349 | ISBN 9781463205942 Subjects: LCSH: Reformed Church--Doctrines. | Protestant churches--Doctrines. | Protestantism. Classification: LCC BX9422.3 .S56 2016 | DDC 230/.42--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017349 Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .............................................................. vii Introduction ....................................................................... 1 The Image of Marriage in Guillaume Farel .................... 11 The Distortion of Priesthood and Marriage ............. 11 The Sacralization of Marriage................................... 22 The Desacralization of Marriage............................... 34 Restoring the Sanctity of Marriage ........................... 44 Instructions for Husbands and Wives ...................... 56 Instructions for All God’s Children .......................... 66 The Image of Worship in Jean Calvin ............................. 77 Worship from the Heart ........................................... 77 The Inner Temple .................................................... 82 The Word of God ...................................................... 88 Reason and Feelings .................................................. 95 Earnestness and Moderation .................................. 102 Inner Edification ..................................................... 109 The Image of God in John Bradford ............................ 133 God’s Relationship with Christ as God ................... 133 God’s Relationship with Christ as Savior ................ 142 Man’s Relationship with Christ for Eternal Life..... 146 Man’s Relationship with Christ in History ............. 154 Man’s Relationship with Himself ............................ 164 The Benefits of God’s Image in Man...................... 176 The Image of Moses in Richard Hooker ....................... 189 Moses as Image of Salvation ................................... 189 Moses as Image of God ........................................... 196 Moses as Image of Rationality................................. 207 Moses as Image of Spirituality ................................ 214 v

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Moses as Image of the Law ..................................... 222 Moses as Image of Scripture ................................... 231 Conclusion ...................................................................... 245 Bibliography ................................................................... 257 Books ....................................................................... 257 Book Chapters ......................................................... 269 Articles ..................................................................... 275

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The following people deserve special mentioning for playing a significant part in the publication of this book: Ramona, my wife; Ezra and Lara, my children; Benjamin K. Forrest, chair of Practical Studies at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity; as well as Melonie SchmiererLee and Matthew Steinfeld, acquisition editors at Gorgias Press. I am forever in their debt. Corneliu Simuţ April 5, 2016 Oradea, România

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INTRODUCTION This book brings together four main doctrines pertaining to Reformed thought—samples with the capacity to shape Reformed theology as a whole. I describe these doctrines as ‘theological images’ for the simple reason that some people may find the idea of doctrine a bit too abstract, and a practical approach may help them to understand the dogmatic content of these theological issues. In this respect, the most practical aspect I can think of when presenting the abstract character of doctrine is the concept of ‘image’. While an image can be abstract in terms of the message it communicates, its capacity to convey the reality of color—and I am thinking here of images as paintings— is rather practical. Consequently those who can appreciate the practical side of doctrines more than their abstractness will realize that reading theology through images—as if seeing pictures or paintings on a wall—may prove more helpful than thinking of theology in terms of dogmas. Regarding the Reformed tradition, the four theological images presented in this book point not only to fundamental doctrines of Protestantism but also to common tenets of Reformed thought, namely marriage, worship, anthropology, and soteriology, the last one being presented by referring to Moses, a traditional biblical metaphor of salvation. For practical purposes I have limited my research to French and English Reformed theology as well as to only four theologians: Guillaume Farel and Jean Calvin as representatives of French Reformed thought (both French by birth despite their association with the Swiss Reformation), and John Bradford and Richard Hooker as key people for the English Reformed tradition. 1

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To connect the doctrines—or theological images—with people, I investigated the image of marriage in Guillaume Farel, the image of worship in John Calvin, the image of God in John Bradford, and the image of Moses (as embodiment of the idea of salvation) in Richard Hooker. While the book is organized dogmatically with a focus on doctrines and then on theologians, the latter are listed chronologically based on the ascending order of their birth dates: Guillaume Farel (1489–1565), John Calvin (1509–1564), John Bradford (1510–1555), and Richard Hooker (1554–1600). Thus, in Chapter 1, the image of marriage in Guillaume Farel is important for his theology primarily because marriage is not just a reality which exists within the social order of humanity. On the contrary, marriage is an indicator of what happens with one’s life in general. Thus, as Farel puts it, marriage is an image or a representation of salvation, so whenever something goes wrong in marriage it means that one’s salvation is not far from destruction and ruin. This is why in speaking about marriage Farel is not exclusively concerned with offering advice on what marriage is or is not in society; what he wants to do is to point to the higher reality of salvation from sin, so what he has to say about marriage should be understood as also pointing to the reality of personal salvation. Given this soteriological preoccupation, one can easily see that Farel’s approach to marriage is both biblical and christological. Farel therefore makes constant references to various biblical texts in favor of his arguments while his oftentimes harsh criticism is also based on what God’s word has to say about sin. At the same time, he constantly points to the person and work of Jesus Christ who is described not only as the savior of humanity from sin, but also as the savior of marriage from sexual immorality. In debating marriage and the challenges of sixteenth century society—which seem to have remained the same ever since—Farel writes about the immorality of the clergy by showing how various priests, friars, and monks distorted the theology of mar-

INTRODUCTION

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riage. He then tackles the issue of holiness within marriage by explaining what happens when the sacredness of marriage is lost and what can be done to restore it. To this end, he offers some practical advice to husbands and wives, on the one hand, and to the members of society in general, on the other. All his instructions are meant not only to provide specific practical advice to husbands and wives or even to those who are not yet married, but also to argue that the state of one’s marriage is a vivid reflection of one’s salvation and especially of one’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As Farel explains in his Sommaire 1—a work pertaining to his early theology when he was the uncontested leader of the Genevan reformation 2 and its complex theological 3 and liturgical 4 program of 1

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Guillaume Farel, Sumaire et briefue declaration daucuns lieux fort necessaires a vng chascun Chrestien/ pour mettre sa côfiâce en Dieu/ et ayder son prochain (Genève, 1534). The edition used for the purposes of this book was J.-G. Baum (ed.), Le sommaire de Guillaume Farel reimprimé d’après l’édition de l’an 1534 & précédé d’une introduction par J.-G. Baum (Genève: Jules-Guillaume Fick, 1867). Farel was heavily involved in carrying out the reformation in more than just Geneva, so he travelled to cities like Bern, Basel, Neuchâtel, Strasbourg, and Metz. See Julien Leonard, ‘L’exile des huguenots messins à l’époque moderne’, 123–145, in Moreana 44.171–172 (2007): 127. He is famous, however, for attempting to start the reformation in Geneva alongside Calvin. See Joël Cornette, ‘Exclusivisme scripturaire et discipline des comportements le registre du Consistoire de Genève (1542–1544)’, 113–123, in Revue de synthèse 4.1 (1998): 114, n. 5. One of the most salient aspects of Farel’s theological reform consisted of making the sermon the central event of Sunday worship. See Gerard S. Sloyan, ‘Symbols of God’s Presence to the Church. Verbal and Non-Verbal’, 304–320, in Theology Today 58.3 (2001): 315. Farel’s liturgical program of church reform focused on the singing of psalms performed first by children and then, after some

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ecclesiastical renewal 5—the pursuit of a healthy marriage should never be a goal in itself; one’s desire to have a good marital life must be an expression of his or her spiritual desire to walk as closely to God as possible and practice—on a daily basis—the kind of love God himself requires both for marriage and salvation. In Chapter 2, Calvin’s view of worship is connected with singing of Psalms which played a crucial role in the life and theology of the French Protestants. Also known as Huguenots, they founded their entire religious existence on the singing of Psalms which once put together were used as Psalters, the most important of which was the Huguenot Psalter. One has to establish from the start that the phrase Huguenot Psalter may refer to two totally different aspects. First, it may point to a church-related phenomenon with evident artistic connotations which belongs to the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century France and appears to be based on the singing of psalms by the French Protestants in a wide range of specific historical, political, and social contexts. When this is the case, the Huguenot Psalter does not refer to a specific work, but rather to the totality of psalms which were sung by the French Protestants in different occasions, especially im-

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practice, the whole community was invited to join in worship. See Daniel Trocmé-Latter, ‘The Psalms as a Mark of Protestantism: the Introduction of Liturgical Psalm-Singing in Geneva’, 145–163, in Plainsong and Medieval Music 20.2 (2011): 151. In 1536–1538, Farel was assisted by Calvin whom he had convinced to stay in Geneva and help the cause of the Reformation. After their expulsion from the city and Calvin’s return in 1541, the two continued to stay in touch on various subjects ranging from theological issues to atrocious massacres, such as that of the Waldensians which coincided with the opening of the Council of Trent in 1545. See Mary B. McKinley, ‘Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre et la Dédicace du Tiers Livre. Voyages mystiques et missions terrestres’, 169–183, in Romanic Review 94.1/2 (2003): 176.

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mediately before they were executed by Catholics on the charge of heresy. Consequently, from this particular perspective, one can speak of the Huguenot Psalter even as early as 1524, when Jean Leclerc, a Protestant pastor from Meux, sentenced to death by burning at the stake for heresy, went to the place of his execution while singing verses from Psalm 115 apparently based on a melody which he himself had just made up. 6 Second, the Huguenot Psalter may point to the totality of the printed editions of various psalters published in France and Switzerland—as, for instance, those of Geneva, Lyon, and Lausanne— although the phrase itself eventually ended up referring almost exclusively to the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1562 7 and which seems to be the result, at least to a certain significant extent, of Jean Calvin’s theological activity. 8 In this chapter, the phrase Huguenot Psalter overlaps with the Genevan Psalter, whose dogmatic foundation is based on Calvin’s theological insights from various edi6

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Other executions followed: Wolfgang Schuch at Nancy in 1525, Aymon de la Voye in 1542, a Protestant named Nicholas in 1548, Macé Moreau from Troyes in 1550, Pierre Milet in 1550, Étienne Gravot in 1553, Jean Filleul and Julien l’Éveillé in 1555, Jean Bertrand in 1556, Jean Rabée in 1556. All these and many others as well died by burning at stake while singing psalms. For details, see Orentin Douen, Clément Marot et le psautier huguenot. Étude historique, littéraire, musicale et bibliographique contenant les mélodies primitives des psaumes et des spécimens d’harmonie, tome premier (Paris: L’Imprimerie Nationale, 1878), 2–6. Kimberley J. Hackett, ‘Politics and the ‘Heauenly Sonnets’: George Wither’s Religious Verse, 1619–1625’, 360–377, in History 94.315 (2009): 363. See also Eliane Engelhard, ‘Les traductions en vers du psaume 84 entre 1542 et 1562’, 265–287, in Véronique Ferrer, Anne Mantero (éds.), Les paraphrases bibliques aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Actes du Colloque de Bordeaux des 22, 23, et 24 septembrie 2004 (Genève: Droz, 2006), 265.

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tions of his Institution de la religion chrétienne, 9 which provides us with a vivid theological image of worship in Calvin’s thought. Throughout its six sections, the chapter presents three kinds of information: first, a brief description of Calvin’s theology on church worship with specific reference to hymn singing; second, a historical contextualization of how psalms were used by the French Protestants in singing, and third, a concise explanation of how the Huguenot Psalter may be relevant to the ecclesiastical life of contemporary Protestant churches in an attempt to highlight the actuality of Calvin’s theology not only for the Huguenot Psalter itself, but also for the theology and practice of today’s Protestant churches. Concerning the Huguenot Psalter, the singing of psalms may be as old as the Reformation, it may reach back in time beyond what is currently known as contemporary music, and it may be French, but this does not mean that it cannot be of tremendous use and support for the meaningful worship of contemporary churches, regardless of whether they stay within or even stretch beyond the boundaries of confessional Protestantism. In John Bradford, 10 as seen in Chapter 3, the theme of God’s image is tackled in numerous passages which ex9

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For details about Calvin’s role in the writing and publishing of the Huguenot Psalter, see Jean-François Gilmont, John Calvin and the Printed Book, translation by Karin Maag (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2005), 257–260, and Willem van ‘t Spijker, Calvin. A Brief Guide to His Life and Thought, translation by Lyle D. Bierma (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 56. While Guillaume Farel and Jean Calvin are world-famous due to their efforts to implement the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, John Bradford may not be such a well-known figure. His martyrdom, however, is perhaps one of the aspects of his life which recommends not only his work for the cause of Protestantism in England, but also a careful reading of his writings, most of which were produced in prison. One of the first accounts about

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plain that the notion of relationship is what serves best for a clarification of the image of God. Thus, God’s image is investigated in six distinct areas: God’s relationship with Christ as God, God’s relationship with Christ as Savior, 11 man’s relationship with Christ for eternal life, man’s relationship with Christ in history, man’s relationship with himself, and the benefits of God’s image as reflected in man’s life. Although the doctrine of God’s image is primarily connected with the reality of man’s creation and how he existed before sin came into his life, the image of God is also the center of the doctrine of salvation, especially when placed in the proximity of christology. Bradford, therefore, approaches the issue of God’s image not only when he describes the creation of the human being, but also when he delves into the depths of man’s salvation; what God placed in man through creation and was made deficient by sin is eventually restored in Christ. 12 The essence of man’s existence in the world can be explained

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Bradford’s life, works, and martyrdom is John Foxe, An Universal History of Christian Martyrdom being a Complete and Authentic Account of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive as well as Protestant Martyrs, in All Parts of the World, from the Birth of the Blessed Savior to the Latest Periods of Pagan and Catholic Persecution, together with a Summary of the Doctrines, Prejudices, Blasphemies, and Superstitions of the Modern Church of Rome, edited by John Milner (London: Crosby and Co. Stationer’s Court, 1807), 709–739. Christology was essential for Bradford and the very doctrine which inspired his martyrdom. See John R. Knott, Discourses of Martyrdom in English Literature, 1563–1694 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 148. Salvation, and especially election, is what Bradford wanted to convey to his readers, because if one’s salvation is secure in Christ, then martyrdom—should it occur in one’s life—is only the confirmation of one’s election. See Lacey Baldwin Smith, Fools, Martyrs, Traitors. The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1997, reprinted 1999), 195.

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through the notion of God’s image which refers to a wide range of qualities extant in God and the human being. They were severely damaged because of sin, but they can be brought back to their initial status through the redemptive work of Christ, who shares God’s image with the human beings he saved from the bondage of sin. Consequently, God’s image is a reality which emphasizes not only man’s relationship with God through creation, but also man’s relationship with Christ through re-creation and the benefits of salvation. 13 Chapter 4 is an investigation of various contexts in which Richard Hooker 14 uses the name of Moses throughout the first three books of his Laws. The limitation set for the current research which focuses on Hooker’s first three books to the detriment of the rest has nothing to do with the fact that the former would be more important than the latter. All of Hooker’s books of the Laws make reference to Moses’ name, but choosing to delve into all of Hooker’s Laws would have produced a study 13

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It is the doctrine of salvation which, in my view, places Bradford among Reformed theologians, and especially God’s sovereignty in salvation and creation. He was also one of Martin Bucer’s students in Cambridge, which speaks powerfully about Bradford’s Reformed credentials. For details about Bradford and Bucer, see Patrick Collinson, Godly People. Essays in English Puritanism and Protestantism (London: The Habledon Press, 1983), 31–32. Some may wonder why Richard Hooker was included in the gallery of Reformed theologians. While the issue of pigeonholing Richard Hooker’s thought as Reformed or non-Reformed has been a hot potato in academy theology for the past two decades, I am fervently in favor of placing Hooker in the Reformed camp as I sought to demonstrate in two of my books: Richard Hooker and His Early Doctrine of Justification. A Study of His Discourse of Justification (Farnham: Ashgate, 2005) and The Doctrine of Salvation in the Sermons of Richard Hooker (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Verlag, 2005).

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which is more appropriate for a book rather than for a chapter. A quick glance at the paragraphs in which Moses’ name is present within Hooker’s first three books of the Laws reveals a range of crucial theological issues discussed by Hooker often in great detail. His main concerns, which emerge from the texts in which Moses’ name appears constantly, revolve around the doctrines of salvation and God, aspects of man’s constitutional nature such as rationality and spirituality, as well as fundamental concepts like law 15 and Scripture 16. For all these, Moses is an ‘image’, a name which sometimes serves as a pretext, other times merely as a prop for Hooker’s complex purposes. Either way, however, Moses becomes a notion which turns out to be crucial for each argument Hooker discussed in his texts. Methodologically, the idea of reading doctrines as images occurred to me while studying the image of God in John Bradford. According to the Scripture, nobody has seen God, depicted by Christian theology as transcendent and totally other, a personal reality said to exist in as an ontologically real and metaphysically uncreated being. In creating man, however, this God decided to make something known about himself, so when he built the human being from the earth of the world he created men and women in his ‘image’. In other words, when we look at ourselves we see God’s image; whenever I look at another 15

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See also Stanley Cavell, Philosophy. The Day after Tomorrow (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 58, and A. J. Joyce, Richard Hooker and Anglican Moral Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 152. Compare Nigel Atkinson, Richard Hooker and the Authority of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. Reformed Theologian of the Church of England? (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1997), an excellent resource for Hooker’s interest in Scripture alongside Philip B. Secor, Richard Hooker, Prophet of Anglicanism (Tunbridge Wells: Burns and Oates, 1999), 260.

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person I see something of God in his or her physical and psychological constitution. Individual human persons and humanity as a whole may not convey everything about God, but something of God or a certain image of this divine being can be seen whenever any of us looks in the mirror or at somebody else. Thus, since an image cannot always impart all its details to the perplexed viewer because the latter is incapable of perceiving its complexity— the image, however, is there for anyone bold, careful, and patient enough to have a closer look—it appears that while doctrines may not present all their abstract details to most readers, they should be able, if read as theological images, to highlight at least some practical aspects to practically-oriented readers. Concretely, each of this book’s four doctrines—which can, and for the purposes of this work, should be seen as theological images—are presented in six main aspects, and if the word ‘aspect’ is too abstract it should be replaced with ‘color’; this book therefore is an album of four theological images painted in six distinct colors.

THE IMAGE OF MARRIAGE IN GUILLAUME FAREL THE DISTORTION OF PRIESTHOOD AND MARRIAGE In Farel, the discussion about marriage is important not because it refers to a special relationship between two human beings, namely between a man and a woman, but because it points to an even more important relationship, that between the human being and God himself. This clarification is necessary in order for anyone to understand why so early during the Protestant Reformation the discussion about marriage emerged as a crucial standpoint for the new confessional cause of those Christians—later called Protestants—who chose to distance themselves from the ‘papists’, so severely criticized by Farel. 1 Thus marriage and the teaching about marriage have nothing to do with going against Catholicism for the sake of being different or even repairing a wrong which reportedly was done to Catholic clergy for centuries, 2 but rather for the specific purpose of correcting a doctrine which speaks primarily not about men and women, but rather about their relationship with God. When it comes to the human 1

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Farel was always extremely critical of the papists as representatives of the ‘Old Church’. See Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations, second edition (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 241. For a useful timetable of events related to clerical celibacy, see William E. Phipps, Clerical Celibacy. The Heritage (New York, NY: Continuum, 2004), ix–x.

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being’s relationship with God, however, Farel is aware that man’s ignorance towards it—and consequently towards the correct doctrine which regulates man’s relationship with God—is not just a state of mind resulting from man’s limited character as a being. On the contrary, it has to do with the fact that a higher power decided to go against God and his creation while he specifically targeted the human being with the purpose of having him pushed away from God. Farel obviously refers to the devil, 3 whom he calls the ‘adversary’ and who should carry the blame for whatever bad happened within God’s creation. 4 Farel explains that the devil opposes everything God created and it is his nature to distort God’s creation to the point that he debases all the things that God intended to be held in high esteem. For instance, Farel writes, God wanted the first human beings not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of right and wrong under the threat of death. The devil, on the other hand, did what he has always done given his antagonistic nature, namely he distorted God’s reality into something which appeared to man as utterly appealing: God’s commandment was pictured as optional and his threat as not so serious. 5 As far as Farel is concerned, the devil is a master of deception in 3

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The word ‘devil’ appears to be part of Farel’s theological artillery, because it was used frequently whenever he had something to criticize. See, for instance, Jonathan A. Reid, King’s Sister—Queen of Dissent. Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549) and her Evangelical Network, Volume 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 273, n. 69. For more details about Farel’s view of the devil, see Theodore van Raalte, ‘Farel’s Upward Spirituality: Unceasing Prayer (1529– 1545)’, 71–101, in Jason Zuidema and Theodore van Raalte, Early French Reform. The Theology and Spirituality of Guillaume Farel (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 91. Farel is concerned that people are so easily fooled by the devil. See Jody Enders, Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 101.

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the sense that he seems to be capable of mocking everything God does; this is why God’s commandments and warnings are presented in lively colors, so that humans are lured into not believing and not fearing them to the point of their destruction. It now becomes evident why Farel took time to talk about the devil as God’s adversary: not only to present him for what he really is, but also to explain why the order of nature was inflicted with disorder and why the state of some things is no longer according to God’s initial plan. Farel comes up with two particular examples when it comes to the things distorted by the devil—priesthood 6 and marriage—despite that they were initially created in a state of perfection. 7 Concerning the first, namely priesthood, Farel writes that God intended it to be characterized by honor, although—under the evil influence of the devil—it became something completely different. According to Farel, priesthood was supposed to be holy and in this capacity it was entrusted with the power of the sword, most likely a reference to the Word of God. 8 The harsh reality, howev6

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Farel obviously refers to the Roman clergy which, in his opinion, seems to be the work of the devil, and so must be stopped. See, for details, Carlos M. N. Eire, War against the Idols. The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, reprinted 1989), 189. Farel, Sommaire, 99–100. Farel wrote a book which presented God’s Word as a sword, see Guillaume Farel, Le Glaive de la parolle veritable tiré contre le Bouclier de defense: duquel vn Cordelier Libertin s’est voulu seruir pour approuuer ses fausses et damnables opinions [The Sword of the True Word, Drawn against the Shield of Defense which a Libertine Monk Wanted to Use to Approve of His False and Damned Opinions] (Genève: Jean Girard, 1550). While the title only connects the word ‘glaive’ (sword) with the phrase ‘parole veritable’ (true word), it is clear that Farel refers to God’s Word because on the title page of his book he also printed a quotation from Hebrews

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er, presents us with a priesthood which is no longer capable of correctly using the sword of God’s Word in a holy way. 9 On the contrary, Farel contends, the priesthood trampled the power of God’s sword or Word to the point that it no longer has the efficiency for which it was originally intended. 10 Such an image of priesthood presents us with a dual perspective on reality, which Farel pictures for us based on two distinct aspects: ‘the things God wanted to be honored’ or the initial state of creation and the things ‘dropped so low’ or the actual state of creation. 11 The first category is evidently prelapsarian while the second is postlapsarian with the devil standing between the two as the very cause for the debasement of the first into the second. For a better understanding of Farel’s view of creation, one needs to realize that both God and the devil are presented as ontologically real beings or beings that exist in a way which is not only real, but also actual. God is seen as the creator of the world, while the devil is the corruptor of the world. Quite obviously, the two do not seem to share the same dignity and power, so Farel is not a promotor of any sort of dualism. Since God created everything, his power is undeniably greater than that of

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4:12, which reads ‘la parole de Dieu est vive et d’efficace’ (God’s Word is alive and active, «New International Version»). One way in which the servants of God from the Roman Church were led astray by the devil is the invention of purgatory, a false doctrine which—according to Farel—was devised by the devil himself. See Henry W. Sullivan, Grotesque Purgatory. A Study of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Part II (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2008), 77. Farel was convinced that the ministers of God have the duty to preach the Word of God, as he himself was advised when he arrived in Aigle in 1526. See Michael W. Bruening, Calvinism’s First Battleground. Conflict and Reform in the Pays de Vaud, 1528–1559 (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), 106. Farel, Sommaire, 99–100.

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the devil, but the devil’s capacity to wreck God’s creation through sin is nevertheless worthy of being taken into account although he is no match for God’s almightiness. Farel does not seem to be concerned though with comparing God and the devil, but is eager to present his readers with an informed view of the world which not only presents God for what he is as creator, but also describes the devil in terms that point to his evil character. True Christians, Farel seems to imply, should be fully aware of this dual character of creation: its initial holiness ascribed to it by God himself and its subsequent sinfulness caused by the devil. The creation’s prelapsarian holiness is perpetuated into the actual postlapsarian sinfulness of the world through God’s commandments which are ‘true, holy, and pure’. God’s commandments are the only vestiges of the creation’s initial holiness because in a world which utterly despises God and his Word true Christians ‘must keep and fear’ all the imperatives of God. This is why true Christians must not only know the importance of God’s decrees but also be aware of how to obey them in a world full of sinfulness and corruption. According to Farel, the key to this awareness of the true Christian is the realization that death stands between the reality of creation’s initial holiness and the actuality of the world’s current decrepitude. Thus, the Christian must understand that death is not only a state of man’s existence or even of his nonexistence, but something which was neither desired nor intended for him as part of God’s initial creation. 12 Consequently, Farel argues, even the image of death was distorted by the devil who presents it to human beings in terms of something which is not so dramatic and serious; in other words, the devil managed to corrupt not only God’s creation, but also man’s perspective on death which is no longer seen as gravely dangerous. To use 12

Farel, Sommaire, 99–100.

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Farel’s rendering, the devil mocked not only God’s commandments but also the very image of death itself with devastating consequences on all human beings to the point that even priesthood was caught up in this chain of degradation. The result is that priests no longer see priesthood as crucially important but rather the things of the world, which made Farel angry enough to criticize the Roman clergy to the point that they were unable to respond. 13 To make the whole situation worse, even things which have no value appear precious in the eyes of priests who, instead of subjecting themselves to the power of God’s word, tread on it under the corrupting influence of the devil while being deceived into thinking—like the first man and woman—that they can somehow be like God himself. This is how Farel explains the transition from the initial purity of God’s prelapsarian creation to the actual sinfulness of the postlapsarian world: Cest la nature de laduersaire de nostre Seigneur, que tout ce que Dieu a honore & magnifie, de le mespriser, abbaisser, & deshonnorer & faire contemptible. Comme au commencement nous lisons du vray, sainct & pur commandement quon deuoit tenit & craindre, que toutesfoys quon mangeroit du fruict de larbre de science de bien & mal on mourroit. Mais le serpent le print en mocquerie, disant quon ne mourroit pas: ains grand bien en aduiendroit en mangeant, cest quon serroit faict semblable a Dieu. Ainsi voyons nous es choses que Dieu a voulu estre honnore. En la saincte puisssance du glaiue, laquelle par prebstrise a este 13

For the inability of Roman priests to answer Farel’s criticism, but also his theology, see Arthur C. Cochrane, ‘Introduction to The Lausanne Articles of 1536’, 112–114, in Arthur C. Cochrane (ed.), Reformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century, New Introduction by Jack Rogers (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 112–113.

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mise si bas quelle na peu faire son office, estant en subiection de ceulx qui deuoient estre subiectz au glaiue, pour vng peu de rasure ou dhuyle, tenant soubz les piedz ceste saincte & tres necessaire puissance. 14

The second example of a reality which was devastatingly distorted by the devil is marriage. The damage done by the devil in this respect resulted in an almost complete dehumanization. 15 Farel is extremely critical of those who defile marriage whom, he contends, it is very difficult to call human beings since they appear to have nothing human left in them. Moreover, those who despise marriage can easily be considered devils but even this designation seems to be quite commendable. To Farel, the people who bring disgrace to marriage are neither humans, nor devils because in the time of Jesus, devils appeared to show at least some degree of reverence for Jesus and his words or, by extension, to God’s Word. The people who break the bond of marriage on the other hand display no reverence whatsoever for marriage itself, which is an indication that they treat Jesus the same way. In Farel, disrespecting marriage means rejecting Jesus; in other words, whoever shows no consideration for the vows of marriage and breaks them is automatically placed in the camp of those who are now willing to accept God. Farel has a series of harsh words for such people whom he calls, among other colored appellatives, ‘villains’ in a state that is worse than 14 15

Farel, Sommaire, 99–100. This is why the new Reformed Church needed an equally new marriage liturgy which was introduced in Geneva as early as 1533 by Farel himself. See John Witte, Jr., ‘Marriage contracts, Liturgies, and Properties in Reformation Geneva’, 453–488, in Philip L. Reynolds and John Witte, Jr. (eds.), To Have and to Hold. Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400–1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 463.

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‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. While it is difficult to say whether Farel refers to homosexuality here, it is quite obvious that marriage occupies a chief position in his system of values. If, however, he does refer to homosexuality, deprecating marriage or having sex outside the wedlock seems to be far worse for Farel than engaging in same-sex relationships. The explanation for such an understanding of marriage and homosexuality has to do with Farel’s view of salvation. In fact, marriage is the very image of salvation in Farel, 16 so desacralizing marriage is a direct rejection of salvation and Christ’s fidelity, 17 while homosexuality is nothing but an expression of utter obscenity. Lewdness is a manifestation of sin which pollutes the human being in various ways, but while homosexuality is a ‘normal’ expression of the human being’s sinfulness, the destruction of marriage does not only fall within the ‘normality’ of sin, but can also be described as an attack on salvation itself. 18 Farel makes it clear that the human being was created without sin, so the pollution of lewdness and obscenity was not part of his initial prelapsarian constitution. Sin, however, changed this state into a reality which resulted in manifold manifestations of sexual deviations, of which the 16

17

18

This perspective on marriage as an image of man’s spiritual marriage with Jesus Christ in salvation was quite famous in the sixteenth century, especially among Catholic theologians such as Guillaume Briçonnet, the bishop of Meux. For details, see Bernard Cottret, Calvin. A Biography (London: Continuum, 2000, first published 1995 in French), 60. The origin of Farel’s comparison between marriage and salvation may lie with Guillaume Briçonnet’s circle in Meaux, to which Farel belonged in the early 1520s alongside other famous names such as Gérard Roussel, François Vatable, Michel d’Arande, and Martial Masurier. See Valérie Zuchuat, ‘L’écriture du conflict intérieur dans le Discord de Marguerite de Navarre’, 25–45, in French Forum 30.1 (2005): 43, n. 31. Farel, Sommaire, 99–100.

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most serious appears to be the destruction of marriage. Man was not only created but also saved to be a temple of the Holy Spirit 19 and a limb of Jesus Christ’s body—most likely a reference to the church—a spiritual reality which is physically embodied, as well as spiritually represented by marriage. This is why breaking marriage is so grave a sin according to Farel, namely because it is not only a factual destruction of a physical and psychological human relationship, but also a rejection of a spiritual reality which causes the rupture of the intimate connection between man and God. Farel underlines that it is man’s duty in his capacity as spiritual temple (of the Holy Spirit) to protect the sanctity of marriage because, in so doing, he also guards his own salvation as well as the sanity of his personal relationship with God. Man must always be vigilant when it comes to the reality of marriage, for marriage seems to be the mirror of his own salvation; in other words, a bad marriage points to a damaged relationship with God, while the actual breaking of marriage is nothing but an indication that salvation has been compromised. Careful attention to one’s marriage is also beneficial for one’s salvation since the two are connected in such an intrinsic way; this is why Farel warns that marriages must be kept without blemish or stain, because this also speaks of one’s purity in one’s relationship with God. 20 Man is indwelled by the Holy Spirit so the quality of his relation19

20

Farel’s analogy of the body as the temple of God appears to have exerted a powerful influence on Calvin. See John Witte, Jr., From Sacrament to Contract. Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition, second edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), 177–178. In other words, marriage should be indissoluble, an idea Farel seems to have impressed on Calvin. Michael F. Graham, The Uses of Reform. Godly Discipline and Popular Behavior in Scotland and Beyond, 1560–1610 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 24.

20

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ship with God will always reflect the actual state of his marriage. Consequently, Farel advocates the need for constant vigilance which is able not only to keep man away from bawdiness, but also defend him against utter dehumanization. This is how Farel explains it: Car ilz sont telz que ie ne scay si ie les doys appeler hommes, qui nont rien humain. Ou plus tost diables: sinon que les diables ont plus porte dhonneur a Iesus & a sa parolle que ces paoures & malhereux meurtriez de ames, loups enragez, hordz, paillardz, plus vilains que Sodome et Gomorre. Ceulx icy ne deuoient point estre en si noble estat comme est le sainct mariage: mais comme pourceaulx estre tousiours en leur boue & fange, loing de sainct estat lequel est ordonne pour garder de toute souillure les sainctz temples de Dieu, lhabitation du sainct esperit, les membres de nostre Seigneur Iesus: affin quilz ne fussent pollutz par paillardise. 21

One should notice that marriage can be kept pure and holy despite the utter sinfulness of humanity. While neither men nor women are exempt from the sin which causes so many problems within marriage, the solution is equally available to both although Farel himself chooses not to insist on it, most likely because he believed it to be evident in his explanation. Since the destitution of marriage is the result of man’s dehumanization, the solution for its improvement could lie in a reverse process, namely that of humanization. When it comes to dehumanization, Farel is clear: man loses his humanity because of sin to the point that nothing human can eventually be found within some men and women. 22 As a matter of fact, some people 21 22

Farel, Sommaire, 100–101. Farel was extremely critical of various aspects of social life which had a negative influence on marriage, such as carnivals. See

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become so dehumanized that they can easily be considered devils. Whoever reaches this stage—the lowest of one’s existence according to Farel—must have done something serious enough to have caused such a disaster, like for instance display a totally wrong attitude towards God, as Farel points out. To be more precise, this negative attitude towards God consists of a sheer lack of respect for Jesus and his word. What Farel wants to convey here is that one’s willingness to disrespect Jesus and his word inevitably and automatically leads to dehumanization, which leads to spiritual transformation of human beings into devils and the desacralization of marriage. Thus, in order for man to reverse the process of dehumanization, and consequently to restore sacrality to marriage, one needs to show respect—in Farel’s words, to honor—Jesus and his word; in short, to honor God. 23 It appears that Farel views this process of desacralization and re-sacralization in terms of physical distance: the further away one goes from Jesus and his word, the more he becomes dehumanized, the more he resembles the devil, and the worse his marriage gets. Conversely, the closer one gets to Jesus and his word, the more he becomes human, the more he resembles God, and the better his marriage turns out to be. Man must always keep his guard up because it comes natural to him to walk in ‘mud and mire’, but it takes serious spiritual discipline to stand firm within the sanctity of Jesus’ presence and word. Those who decide to stick as close to God as they can will have to exercise their spiritual discipline in a very practical way, namely to guard their bodies against any sinful stain or, in other words, to keep a safe distance between themselves— which includes their marriage—and anything that could

23

Glenn Ehrstine, Theater, Culture, and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523–1555 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 117. Farel, Sommaire, 100–101.

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cause harm to the purity and sanctity of their relationship with God. According to Farel therefore one needs to pay heed to one’s distance from Jesus and his word, because it is the distance between man and God that establishes whether sanctity or sinfulness is pursued as well as whether the wellbeing or the destruction of marriage is what lies ahead. In Farel, the key to a good marriage is respect for God, while the path to a wrecked marriage is disrespect for God; so respect for God leads to the sacralization and strengthening of marriage while aversion to God results in its desacralization and ruin. 24

THE SACRALIZATION OF MARRIAGE In Farel, the sacralization of marriage refers both to the fact that marriage was established in a state of holiness through God’s direct act of creation and to the need that marriage should be kept that way despite man’s propensity for sin and scandal. 25 It is crucial to notice that, in Farel, marriage is not merely a relationship between a man and a woman, but rather something more complex which points to an important spiritual reality that connects anthropology with soteriology. Thus, marriage is not only a key aspect of anthropology, but also an image which indicates how God deals with humanity from the standpoint of soteriology. Both anthropology and soteriology deal with 24 25

Farel, Sommaire, 101. Farel himself was the subject of a serious scandal when he decided—at the age of 69—to marry a woman in her twenties; other sources claim that she was only 17, see Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin. A Pilgrim’s Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 186. For details about the whole incident which had serious repercussions on Farel’s friendship with Calvin, see John Witte, Jr. and Robert M. Kingdon, Sex, Marriage, and Family Life in John Calvin’s Geneva, Volume 1: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), 279–280.

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sin, although the complexity of the holistic approach to sin in soteriology is far more encompassing than the range of sins tackled by anthropology. In other words, while soteriology shows how God approaches the intricate reality of sin in all its multifaceted sophistication, anthropology—in this case regarding marriage—deals only with the sins associated with sexual sinfulness. What Farel notices is that both God’s work of salvation and the reality of man’s marriage have to face sin one way or another; this is why he underlines that the importance of marriage resides in its capacity as representation, in the sense that marriage represents physically what happens spiritually in the work of salvation. 26 Thus, for Farel, marriage is an image of salvation, hence the need to explain how marriage was instituted by God, since it points to such an important spiritual reality as God’s salvation of humanity from sin. In Farel, the establishment of marriage as part of God’s creation is fundamentally prelapsarian, which means that marriage was instituted directly by God before man’s fall into sin. In its prelapsarian state, marriage is characterized by holiness and dignity because it is the direct result of God’s involvement in creating the world and the human being. In postlapsarian times, marriage becomes associated with the reality of salvation because of the work of Jesus Christ. Farel sees Christ as ‘our Lord’ and ‘our Savior’ who sanctifies marriage despite the debauching effects of sin which causes the whole creation—marriage included—to be devastated by the ravages of sin. Farel refers to what happened at the famous wedding feast of Cana, depicted in the New Testament, more precisely in the Gospel of John 2:1–11. According to Farel, the marriage which was celebrated at Cana was honored by Jesus Christ, which is an indication that God himself—in and through Jesus as 26

Farel, Sommaire, 100.

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Lord and Savior—treats marriage in a special way. The actual act of honoring the marriage happened in two ways: first, through the very presence of Jesus Christ at the wedding feast, and second, through the transformation of water into wine, which both point to the fact that a certain lower state of affairs was turned into something better. Thus, while the presence of Christ at the wedding feast points to the pervading power of his being to work the sanctification of a relationship between two otherwise sinful people, the transformation of water into wine shows how the reality of human sinfulness is turned into something better, in this case a sanctified relationship between a man and a woman approved by God himself. 27 Consequently, one can see how Farel moves the focus of his analysis from the sinfulness of humanity to the sanctification of marriage. In other words, what would otherwise be just a carnal and psychological relationship between two sinners becomes—through the very presence of Christ—a blessed physical and spiritual relationship between two redeemed sinners whose union is not only approved by God, but also actively supported by him through the sanctifying presence of Jesus Christ in his capacity as Lord and Savior. This is why Farel insists that marriage points to salvation; thus, marriage becomes the ‘mystery, sign, and representation’ of humanity’s salvation from sin, but not a sacrament of salvation. 28 The destruction caused by sin is cancelled by God’s presence in Jesus Christ; in marriage, two redeemed sinners become one body, while in salvation, sinners in general become one spiritual reality or body with Jesus Christ himself. Farel therefore indicates that anthropology is connected not on27 28

Farel, Sommaire, 100. See also Joseph Visconti, The Waldensian Way to God. Following the Light through Eight Centuries of Darkness and Discord (Xulon Press, 2003), 252.

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ly with soteriology but also with ecclesiology since the redeemed human beings who get married in the presence of God and who are saved by him become one with Jesus Christ who is the groom or the husband of the church as congregation of saints: Pareillment le sanct & digne estat de mariage: lequel dignement a este institue fus tous par nostre Seigneur avant le peche de lhomme, honnore par la presence de nostre Sauueur ou il commenca a monstrer la puissance de Dieu son pere, muant leaue en vin, voulant que le sanct mariage feust mystere, signe & representation de nostre salut, de nostre bien, de nostre triumphe. Cest que ainsi que le mary & la femme ne sont que vng corps, vne chair: ainsi les chrestiens sont vne chose auec Iesus. Lequel est lespoux de la saincte congregation des fideles, laquelle il a richement aornee & accoustree. 29

In Farel, the sacralization of marriage is not accomplished exclusively through the presence of God in and through Christ, so there is not only a divine element which works out the state of sanctification and holiness which should characterize marriage. There is also a human element which counts enormously for the wellbeing of marriage and its fundamental sacralization. In this respect, Farel mentions the necessity of charity or love, which is a compulsory aspect of marriage. Farel is aware that there is no marriage without love, so in order for marriage to be holy and pure the two spouses need to exercise and practice love in full accordance with God’s commandment. Love is the ‘end of the law’, Farel writes, in the sense that love cancels the punishments required by the law. 30 True love 29 30

Farel, Sommaire, 100. In Farel’s case, love seems to have cancelled more than just the requirements of the law and especially the age difference between

26

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annihilates not only legal punishments, but also any possible accusations, so within marriage there should be no strife and problems without solution if God himself is the one who sanctifies the union between the two spouses and if they are accustomed to practicing genuine love. 31 In order though for love to function in marriage, it has to display at least two main characteristics: truthfulness and perfection. So, in Farel, love must be true and perfect if marriage is to work as God planned it to work. The two spouses therefore become not only one body, but also— quite logically—one heart to the point that they both understand God’s initial intentions with marriage, namely that the woman was created to be a support for her husband while the husband was meant to love her with full loyalty. As far as Farel is concerned, within true marriage the husband is a man who is capable of recognizing his children as ‘his children’—meaning that he did not sleep with other women to the point that he never knows which children are his—while the wife is a woman whose faithfulness has always been exclusively dedicated to her husband, so that her heart has never been given to a man other than her spouse. Both the husband and wife, how-

31

himself and the young Marie Torel whom he married despite Calvin’s indignation. See Wulfert de Greef, The Writings of John Calvin. An Introductory Guide, translated by Lyle D. Bierma, expanded edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, first Dutch edition 2006), 45–46. As far as Farel was concerned, genuine love seems to have transcended everything since it was in old age that he married Marie Torel who was about twenty years old or even much younger, according to some sources. Farel, however, was not the only one to have married a young woman despite his old age; Johannes Oecolampadius did the same when he married Wibrandis Rosenblatt who was twenty years younger than him. See Gadi Algazi, ‘Scholars in Households: Refiguring the Learned Habitus, 1480– 1550’, 9–42, in Science in Context 16.1/2 (2003): 22.

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ever, should realize that their love is not actually theirs, but it comes from God himself who instituted, honored, and commanded love as the very foundation of marriage. 32 Love, therefore, is a gift from God, but it must nevertheless be practiced—both physically and spiritually—by the man and woman who decide to get married. In this respect, marriage should be the opposite of sin in the sense that while it is sinfully natural for people to engage in illicit intercourse outside marriage, marriage itself should help both men and women to avoid sexual temptations and sins. Farel is not shy when it comes to speaking about sex in marriage; on the contrary, he is very practical in pointing out that the husband has his wife and the wife has her husband for the satisfaction of their sexual desires; moreover, sexual intercourse within marriage can and should be conducted in ‘all sanctity’ which indicates that even sex—if performed within the limits of marital vows as approved by God—can contribute to the sacralization of marriage because, at the end of the day, marital sex is the result of God’s will: Dieu veult que celuy que ne peult estre continent sans conuoiter femme, quil se marie. Et que lhomme pour euiter fornication, ayt sa femme: & que la femme ayt son propre mary: conuersantz ensemble en toute sainctete, pour fuyr tentation de incontinence. Et na donne Dieu aucune exception de temps, de personnes, sinon de peu de degrez de parente (la ou nul nest si rude quil nentende que en telz degrez mariage ne se doit faire) voulant autrement que le mariage faist du consentement des parties, du pere & de la mere de

32

Farel, Sommaire, 102.

28

READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ceulx qui se marient […] vienne en effect sans estre iamais separe. 33

In order for marriage to work as a sacred institution, Farel warns, love must be physically and spiritually exercised forever. This is why marriage must be sealed only after both parties express their consent regarding their marital union, the parents of the persons who get married must also approve of their decision, and the spouses themselves accept that the bond of their love should endure for as long as they live. 34 In other words, as Farel puts it, the husband and wife must never be separated as happens with those who go against God’s commandments and, in so doing, pursue no less than the desacralization of marriage. 35 The sacralization of marriage on the other hand is a state which requires permanent attention and decisive efforts to keep the bond between the husband and wife within the confinements of God’s Word. Farel is clear when he indicates that there is no way in which marriage can be destroyed in the eyes of God. There is no room for divorce no matter what happens. This is why he explains that marriage should never be done in haste, but rather after careful thinking and attentive conversations between the persons who want to get married as well as their families; marriage must never be forced in any circumstances whatsoever. 36 It is so easy to move towards the direction which leads to the desacralization of marriage that there is nothing too difficult to be done before marriage is sealed before God. Consequently, Farel insists that those who 33 34 35 36

Farel, Sommaire, 102. These ideas greatly influenced Calvin who also supported the indissolubility of marriage. See Graham, The Uses of Reform, 25. Farel, Sommaire, 101–102. This idea was also defended by Calvin. See Witte and Kingdon, Sex, Marriage, and Family Life in John Calvin’s Geneva, 140.

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intend to get married should be taken into consideration not only the spirituality of love, but also the practicality of everyday life in matrimony to the point that love goes far beyond any possible boundaries, including those set by certain confessions of faith. 37 In order never to reach the situation when a husband is separated from his wife, Farel recommends that families meet and discuss the marriage, which indicates that the authority of parents is a key ingredient for the wellbeing of marriage. It is not that parents should interfere in the affairs of the married couple, but Farel does seem to imply that before marriage is actually performed and becomes effective, parents should have an important role in openly saying whether the two should get married or not. Nothing is said about whether children should obey the advice of their parents at all costs, but it seems that children should at least pay attention to what their parents have to say concerning their marriage. 38 What can be seen easily in Farel’s argument is that one of the fundamental roles of the parents within the family is that of correction; parents must take action when it comes to correcting their offspring and the validity of this particular role extends from early childhood to the moment when they start their married life. It is a pity that Farel does not elaborate on the role of parents for their children’s decision to get married, but he does seem to imply that the life experience of parents can at least assist children in making the right decision concerning their matrimony. Nothing is insignificant when it comes to mar37

38

For instance, Farel had difficulties when it came to join in holy matrimony a Reformed girl and a Lutheran boy, but he seems to have celebrated their union nonetheless. See Hubert Wyrill, Réforme et Contre-Réforme en Savoie, 1536–1679. De Guillaume Farel à François de Sales (Lyon: Réveil Publications, 2001), 48. Farel, Sommaire, 101–102.

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riage, so children should do whatever it takes to consider their marriage from as many perspectives as possible before they actually officialize their relationship in matrimony. Lest marriage should end up in divorce, the parties involved should carefully consider all options which include whatever advice parents may have for their children. Farel admits that there are instances when marriage should not be performed between a man and a women because of their immaturity; again, it is regrettable that Farel does not insist on this aspect, but it appears that immaturity was taken for granted back in those days as a serious cause for stopping two people from entering the covenant of marriage. 39 This indicates that marriage should not happen at all costs; marriage should happen only after all parties involved have considered as many aspects as they can including the corrective advice of their parents. Such a perspective on marriage must be appropriated by all those who intend to get married because there is no turning back from marriage to a non-marital status for the man and the woman sealing the bond of matrimony. Farel implies that marriage happens before God 40 since he points out that God mentioned no exceptions for separation in marriage, so once performed and made effective, marriage must be kept always so separation is not permitted between the husband and wife. Various occasions, opportunities or persons should never interfere with one’s marriage, so irrespective of what can happen, the husband and the wife must stay together in marriage because there is nothing which allows them to separate in the eyes of God. The husband and his wife should never take the path leading to the desacralization of marriage but rather 39 40

Farel, Sommaire, 102. This idea is also supported by Calvin. See Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 178.

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do whatever it takes to promote its sacralization through actively living out the kind of love God requires from them. 41 Thus, the love which is necessary for marriage to work within the parameters set for it by God himself has at least two main characteristics. First, it focuses on doing the good, which means that both the husband and his wife should try their best to treat each other with goodness 42, so that peace reigns in the family. 43 No details are given here by Farel, but leaving aside the frustration caused by the lack of such necessary information, one may infer that Farel wanted to convey the idea that the spouses should find a way to deal with each other based on a daily attitude of benevolence. Goodness therefore should be a constant feature of married life and in order for matrimony to function well, the expression of goodness between the two spouses has to be performed every day. Farel, however, seems to be aware that the permanent display of goodness between the husband and the wife is not enough. While not only a worthwhile exercise but also a necessary ingredient for the wellbeing of marriage, constant goodness may prove insufficient for the married couple. In other words, goodness and goodness alone does not suf41 42

43

Farel, Sommaire, 102. Families therefore must display a certain degree of Christian piety and tranquility. See Scott M. Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors. Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536–1609 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 100. It is interesting to note how the idea of peace was perceived by the early Genevan reformers in the sense that while peace was considered a compulsory aspect of family life, it was not obligatory in society. Calvin, for instance, was troubled that the existence of peace could be a sign of compromise between Protestants and Catholics. For details, see Christopher Ocker, ‘The Birth of an Empire of Two Churches: Church Property, Theologians, and the League of Schmalkalden’, 48–67, in Austrian History Yearbook 41 (2010): 62.

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fice for the very simple reason that married life needs an increase or a growth when it comes to the manifestation of goodness between the two spouses. Thus, constancy implies progression, and goodness needs to share both these qualities in order for marriage to blossom on a regular basis. The husband and the wife must find various ways to express their love by growing better and better in their attempts to show goodness to one another. 44 Farel even comes up with a ‘device’ which is apparently capable of measuring the amount of goodness that can be manifested between the married couple. Given that the reality of evil cannot be avoided in life—let alone married life—the husband and the wife must realize that there has to be a compensation when it comes to the manifestation of goodness between themselves. Evil is constant in life and married life is no exception to this rule. 45 Consequently, in order for the spouses to compensate for the permanent presence of evil in their lives as human beings, they must focus on the actively practical manifesta44

45

Farel was so convinced about the benefits of marriage that he asked Pierre Viret to accompany him to a Franciscan convent for women in an attempt to persuade the nuns to convert to the new Protestant faith and consequently get married. Farel and Viret failed miserably in their mission because, in order to avoid hearing their sermons, the nuns stuffed wax into their ears, screamed from the top of their lungs, and spat at the two reformers who were forced to leave the convent in bewilderment. See Thomas Head, ‘The Religion of the Femmelettes. Ideals and Experience among Women in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century France’, 149– 175, in Lynda L. Coon, Katherine J. Haldane, and Elisabeth W. Sommer (eds.), That Gentle Strength. Historical Perspectives on Women in Christianity (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1990), 155, and Carrie F. Klaus, ‘Architecture and Sexual Identity: Jeanne de Jussie’s Narrative of the Reformation of Geneva’, 279–297, in Feminist Studies 29.2 (2003): 290. Farel, Sommaire, 102.

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tion of goodness in marriage not only for the sake of compensating evil, but also to measure the quality of their love. How? Farel has an answer: by showing genuine sadness whenever something bad happens to them as a married couple. When they both truly regret the evil things that may occur during their married life, it is then and only then that they genuinely realize how trustworthy, powerful, and sincere their love is. Love must be lived out as a way of life; life manifested in goodness and regret over bad situations must be lived out as a way of married life ‘at all times and hours’. In other words, there is no exception to the obligation to express one’s love through goodness in the daily life of married persons for as long as sincere regrets are being expressed whenever bad things surface during their wedlock. Practicing goodness as a genuine manifestation of love can prove to be quite a burdensome endeavor; 46 as time elapses, people tend to get accustomed to virtually everything and since evil comes naturally to everybody, marriages can end up being a wide range of evil deeds which husbands and wives perform against each other. This is why love has to grow and goodness has to increase if evil is to be kept at a distance in marriage, but when evil does happen and the spouses do fail in showing love and goodness to one another, then the expression of true regret is not only necessary to re46

Long before he himself got married, Farel noticed that married life was often times not easy at all, but love must overcome all obstacles as he saw in the life of Marie Dentière who, having been left with several children following the death of her first husband, Simon Robert, eventually decided to marry Antoine Froment and continue the reformers’ work in Geneva. See Mary B. McKinley, ‘Introduction’, 1–16, in Marie Dentière, Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre and Preface to a Sermon by John Calvin, edited and translated by Mary B. McKinley (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 5.

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pair their relationship, but also a means to measure the genuine character of their love. Any failure to express goodness is a failure to express love. Moreover, and Farel is clear in this respect, any failure to express genuine regret for the bad things that usually happen in the lives of husbands and their wives is just another step towards the utter desacralization of marriage. 47

THE DESACRALIZATION OF MARRIAGE It is interesting to notice that Farel does not speak about the desacralization of marriage in society or outside the church. On the contrary, he focuses on what happens with marriage within the church, so the instances when marriage is affected are discussed within the context of the church. It is true that in Farel’s time the predominant model of the church was based on the idea of Christendom which presupposes a close connection between the state and the church to the point that there is a perfect overlapping between the two so the members of society— or of a certain city for instance, like Strasbourg or Geneva—are all in fact members of the church, but it is nevertheless crucial to understand that Farel is indeed bothered by this state of affairs based on the crude reality that marriage is desacralized first and foremost within the church or under the authority of the church. Although he does not offer clear-cut cases of ecclesiastical figures who should be blamed for the deplorable situation of marriage, he gives enough information for his readers to understand that it is the people of the church who carry the burden for the plight of marriage in society. He uses the words ‘monks’, ‘friars’, and ‘priests’ 48 in connection with the evil 47 48

Farel, Sommaire, 102. Farel’s aversion towards the Roman clergy did not remain confined to theology, but also had practical repercussions in ecclesiastical polity. Thus, when Farel and Viret came to Geneva in 1535,

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things that happen in society and especially in marriage, but other than that he speaks only in general about ecclesiastical servants who behave in such a way that they cause harm to the institutions of marriage and the church instead of cultivating the holiness and purity necessary for the wellbeing of both. 49 In pointing to these ecclesiastical figures whom he blames for the wretched state of marriage, Farel calls them ‘correctors of God’ 50 because they behave as if they knew better than God himself how things concerning marriage should develop within families and how the state of marriage should be in society. These ecclesiastical servants can be accused not only of pride—given that they are more than willing to correct even God, but also of usurpation— since they place themselves above God, as Farel puts it. In other words, these church people are preoccupied by taking God’s place in the church, society, and family by issuing certain ecclesiastical rules which, instead of preserving the holiness of marriage, cause irremediable damage to matrimony because of the way it is presented to society. For instance, Farel shows, the servants of the church should describe marriage in terms of purity and beauty, but what they do instead is insist on the fact that marriage is vile and ugly. Moreover, they seem to be convinced, at least according to what Farel has to say about them, that

49 50

they settled in a former friary after the imprisonment of a Dominican Friar named Guy Furbiti who opposed the role of Berne in Geneva’s politics. See Euan Cameron, The European Reformation, second edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 227. Farel, Sommaire, 102–103. It is difficult to say whom Farel had in mind when he criticized the Roman clergy, but his reaction against Catholics may have something to do with his confrontation with Erasmus who had nothing but hatred for Farel. See Desiderius Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 246, n. 12.

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marriage is not only abhorrent and repulsive, but also evidently inferior to their ecclesiastical status, so they recommend that—in certain cases which Farel does not identify—the husband and his wife should not engage in sexual intercourse as part of their marital bond. Farel is obviously disgusted by such tactics, especially since they are promoted by certain servants of God in the church, but again he does not elaborate on the subject; what he does in turn is briefly to comment on what he considers to be the unfortunate advice of ecclesiastical servants against marital coitus by implying that such a recommendation presents marriage in unfavorable terms as if Adam and Eve had not been sanctified in their own marital bond. This is how Farel presents his position against the church servants who criticize marriage even though it was created and instituted by God himself: Mais les correcteurs de Dieu se mettantz plus hault de luy: & ordonnantz sur son ordonnance, ont trouve quil y a certain temps, si sanct que ce vilain & pollu estat de mariage ne doit estre consomme, ne le mary estre conioinct auec sa femme. Comme si le temps ou Adam & Eue furent mariez ne feust sainct. 51

The presumed superiority of the clergy over the commoners reportedly due to the former’s celibacy and noninvolvement in marriage as set against the latter’s decision to engage in matrimony is what caused Farel to burst out in anger against the men of the cloth. He openly accuses them of fantasizing about their presupposed holiness— and especially its falsely inflated greatness—associated with a nonexistent purity and dignity which reportedly prevents them from getting entangled in the vileness of marriage. These ecclesiastical ‘characters’, as Farel calls them, deceive themselves into wrongly believing that they 51

Farel, Sommaire, 102–103.

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are so holy that marriage is unfit for them, so such a low estate is to be reserved only for the common people who are not worthy enough to wear the church’s vestment. 52 Farel also fiercely criticizes those clerics who got married—most likely before they became ecclesiastical officers through simony or bribery—but now ‘feel’ forced to reconsider their marital status to the point of actual spousal separation after they move up the church’s hierarchy. Farel staunchly disagrees with such an attitude which is not only perniciously hypocritical, but also morally disastrous. Thus, assuming an ecclesiastical office is no grounds for divorce based on the excuse that the church requires clerical celibacy or, even worse, because marriage itself with its normal sexual intercourse is falsely considered dirty and unworthy of God’s grace for church service. 53 As far as Farel is concerned, none of these so-called excuses are valid before God if one truly believes that the creator of marriage is God himself. All the members of the clergy who either disdain marriage for being allegedly in52

53

It is possible that Farel’s critical attitude towards the Roman clergy was fueled by the fact that when the Reformation began to gain terrain to the detriment of Catholicism in Basel, the priests and monks started to desert the city instead of standing firm and fight the new theological ideas of the Reformers. The conflict between the cause of the Reformation and that of Catholicism in Basel was quite fierce because when Farel launched a series of theological attacks against Erasmus, the latter felt compelled to appeal to the civil magistrates for Farel’s eviction from the city, a mission he managed to carry out successfully. See Cornelis Augustijn, Erasmus. His Life, Works, and Influence (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991, reprinted 1995, first German edition 1986), 150. Because Farel expressed concern about the state of marriage and wrote about the need that even clerics take a wife, Erasmus called him ‘Phallicus’, while Farel dubbed Erasmus ‘Balaam’. For details, see James D. Tracy, Erasmus and the Low Countries (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996), 157.

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ferior to ecclesiastical calling or separate from their wives as a result of being invested in a church office prove to be nothing but fornicators in a constant pursuit of sexual sins which are reportedly ‘excused’ through a wide range of ecclesiastical ordinances and impediments. It is now that Farel lashes against the ‘monks’, ‘friars’, and ‘priests’ whom he accuses of debauchery and adultery especially when they shrewdly advise married women to abstain from sexual intercourse with their husbands only to give themselves to these corrupt servants of the church: Et aussi quil y a des personnages, purete & dignite, que jamais ne peuuent estre en ceste hordure si vile de mariage. Et sil aduenoit que telz sans auoir regard a leur grande dignite & noblesse […] se mariassent, ilz doiuent estre separez. Ilz ont trouue tout plein de degrez, conditions, conditions & empechementz, ou le mariage ne tient pas […]. Si ces saincteds & dignes gens sont paillardz, adulteres ou vilains comme moynes commettantz cas enormes, il y a quelque peu de peche […] mais ce nest rien au pris de prendre cest hord estat de mariage […]. Mais que diront aucuns abuses par les cordeliers & prebstres qui soubts lombre de ie ne scay quelle facon de sainctete se abstiennent de leurs femmes certain temmps & iours: & elles aussi de eulx pour commetre leur adultere auec ces sainctz instructeurs? 54

In Farel therefore the desacralization of marriage begins in the church because the clergy hold a false doctrine of marriage. Considering that marriage is inferior to the service of the church is fundamentally wrong because it not only plays down marriage in the eyes of common people, but it also encourages clergy to abuse their ecclesiastical

54

Farel, Sommaire, 103–104.

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offices 55 and engage in illicit sexual practices which are otherwise condemned by the church or, if not by the church, then at least by God through its Word revealed in the Bible. When God, however, is discarded by the very people who should support his Word in the church, namely monks, friars, and priests—especially under the umbrella of a false holiness which, instead of encouraging people to get married and enjoy sexual intercourse as part of their matrimony, promote and proliferate patterns of debauched sexual behavior among the ranks of the clergy—then, Farel seems to imply, this appears to be the most decisive step towards the desacralization of marriage. 56 Farel continues to write about the desacralization of marriage by asking a series of rhetorical questions whose answers are more than conspicuously evident. He no longer makes references to the church and the servants of God, but rather to the whole world which is severely afflicted by the terrible consequences of the degradation of marriage. Throughout the world marriage should be held in high esteem, but the disconcerting reality says otherwise. What should be a state of holiness and sanctity became a mockery of what God instituted in the world through his act of creation. Farel is aware that despising marriage means deprecating God’s work of creation and, since marriage is the image of salvation, it also implies an utter disregard for God’s intention to save the world from the ravages of sin. This is why Farel notices that the initial 55

56

In Geneva, Farel’s accusations that the Roman clergy abuses church offices were left unanswered. The Catholic clergy proved to be weak and their power of reaction could not match the versatility of the Reformers. See Hans J. Hillerbrand, The Division of Christendom. Christianity in the Sixteenth Century (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 302–303. Farel, Sommaire, 104.

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state of holiness ascribed to marriage through God’s act of creation was turned into something horrifically unholy; this is why he notices that marriage, as it is today in the world, stands contaminated and dishonored by the devastating effects of human sinfulness. 57 The world and the people living in it show no consideration whatsoever for marriage; this is why Farel depicts the world as brutal, most likely with reference to the essentially brutish nature of the world in understanding love. The holy and careful love which should characterize marriage is, because of sin, devoid of any care and attention; it is frightfully sensual to the point of sheer brutality. In other words, instead of loving each other as creatures of God, men and women indulge themselves in a kind of love which looks like the sexual behavior of animals. According to Farel, the world is not only brutal, but also devoid of sensitivity and understanding, two key elements which should not only define love as created by God and instituted for marriage, but also be constantly made manifest in the lives of the spouses. Unfortunately though, as Farel points out, the world has nothing in common with what marriage was in prelapsarian times. The postlapsarian state of marriage is marred by dishonor, brutality, blindness, and a sheer lack of holiness. The present world suffers from blindness simply because it has no eyes to see how marriage was created in the beginning. Because of sin, the world was left within those eyes which could have helped it see the purity of marriage; these days, however, the state of the world is so terribly serious that it lacks the most basic instruments which could assist it in perceiving 57

Farel was painfully aware that marriage was not doing well those days, so he drafted a series of ordinances regarding marriage which he sought to implement in Geneva. See Roger Haight, SJ, Christian Community in History. Comparative Ecclesiology, Volume 2 (London: Continuum, 2005), 93–94.

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itself and marriage in a way that is a bit closer to God’s perspective. 58 Since the world means people, it is clear that in Farel the features of the postlapsarian world are exactly the same with the characteristics of the sinful men and women inhabiting it. To be more precise, in sharing the characteristics of the world, men and women are defiled by sin, dishonored by its marring effects, brutal like animals when it comes to loving each other, and having no spiritual eyes whatsoever, so their blindness comes as a given state which needs healing from God himself. 59 It is perhaps easier now to understand why Farel compares marriage with salvation to the point that marriage is a physical image of the spirituality of salvation. Marriage is so bad in this world that something must be done in this respect, and there is nothing but God’s saving intervention which can restore humanity to a state which comes closer to God’s initial image of love. Until or unless that happens, men and women are literally condemned to grope in the darkness of sin like a blind person who hopelessly tries to find his way in the middle of the day without knowing where to go and how to get there. It is as if the world and its people got accustomed to being blind to God’s perspective on creation and marriage, so they no longer bother about whether to honor marriage or just indulge in living like animals: blind to the spirituality of marriage and brutal towards each other in what they mistakenly accept as love. This is how Farel explains the plight of marriage in the postlapsarian world:

58 59

Farel, Sommaire, 104. Farel managed to impress on Calvin his full appreciation for the gravity of sin. See Edward A. Gosselin, The Reformation, Kindle edition (London: HarperCollins, 2011), ‘John Calvin and his ‘Reformed Church’.’

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READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES O sanct estat de mariage que vous estes souille & deshonore. O monde brutal & destitue de tout sens & entendement, es tu sans yeulx, es tu si auegle que tu chemine a taston en plain midy, comme es profondes tenebres? Pensez vous que en aucuns temps ce sainct estat soit deffendu? & que accomplir le commandement de Dieu soit peche? & que venir clairement contre le pur & expres commandement de Dieu soit moindre & plus petit peche, que de garder le commandement de Dieu? 60

Even though the world has a wrong perspective on marriage and love, this is no excuse for delving even deeper into the mire of sinfulness because the entire world with whatever it does stands before God. People may not like the veracity of such a claim, but—as far as Farel is concerned—God is not only the creator of the world; he is also the one who constantly judges it according to his own justice and, in so doing, God keeps the same measurement unit for love and marriage as he did in the beginning. In other words, the reality of human sin does not change God’s standards; on the contrary, he demands the same love and loyalty in marriage as he did when he himself instituted marriage as permanent bond between a man and a woman. Prelapsarian times and postlapsarian reality appear to be one huge timeframe in the eyes of God who not only supervises all details of human life—of which marriage is a key element—but he also imposes the same criteria on how life and marriage should be conducted among human beings irrespective of the damage inflicted by sin in the world. 61 Consequently, no one should even consider the possibility that God might change his mind about marriage in the sense that he might somehow become a bit more leni60 61

Farel, Sommaire, 104. Farel, Sommaire, 104.

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ent when it comes to its sanctity and how this becomes visible through the daily practice of marital love. Farel makes it clear that the sanctity of marriage has not become less important for God; the devastating effects of sin may have tarnished marriage and the love God instituted for its foundation, but this does not mean that God has become less demanding in asking men and women to love each other in marriage based on his initial commandments concerning spousal interaction. Farel underlines that both marriage and marital love are part of the same divine love, so they must be kept to the letter if marriage is to work properly as blessed by God before the whole community of believers. 62 There is no way around God’s commandment that men and women should love one another with permanent faithfulness and undeterred commitment, and it is in this respect that we are reminded why Farel compares marriage with salvation. If there is no way around the divine requirements for salvation, then whatever God requires specifically from men and women concerning marriage cannot be avoided. Salvation has not changed over the course of history; likewise, marriage has not changed, at least not in the eyes of God. Man’s perception of salvation and marriage has been severely distorted and hopelessly damaged, but this does not change the reality that God has kept the same standards for both. Since marriage is a command of God, it follows that it has to be kept exactly as God devised it. This is why Farel explains, in an interrogative way, that keeping God’s commandment concerning marriage is certainly not a sin as some clerics may believe based on the false perception that celibacy is superior to married life. At the same time, the clerics who parade 62

For details about the public character of marriage in Farel, see James A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism (Rapidan, VA: Hartland Publications, 2002), 985–986.

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such a creed—as well as anybody else who shares this wrong view of marriage—must understand that going against God’s commandment leads to the desacralization of marriage and the best way to restore its sanctity is to be decisively undeterred in keeping God’s commandment. 63

RESTORING THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE For Farel, the restoration of the sanctity of marriage is not only a moral and a social imperative, but also a religious need which must be carried out by all those who consider themselves Christians. The issue of restoring marriage to the sanctity required by God himself is not optional, but rather a compulsory duty for all Christians. The world is going in the wrong direction, namely away from God, and Farel is well aware that such a situation is exclusively the result of sin. The fact that sin pushes humanity away from God may or may not be so obvious to everybody, but the state of marriage in the postlapsarian world is a good example of man’s departure from God. Consequently, one can appreciate again why Farel compares marriage with salvation; the further away from God man decides to go as a result of indulging in sin, the worse marriage looks and becomes, not only in the eyes of God, but also of those who are in charge of keeping it on the right track, namely true and genuine Christians. Since marriage is not only the image of salvation, but also its ‘barometer’, Farel urges Christians to take a stand against sin 64 and in favor of marriage. 63 64

Farel, Sommaire, 104. Farel’s determination to stand against sin was the reason of his eviction from Geneva because he and Calvin were convinced that those who committed sins should be excluded from the community unless they confess their offenses publicly. See Annemarie S. Kidder, Making Confession, Hearing Confession. A History of the Cure of Souls (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2010), 126.

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Such a stand though needs to be considered in practical terms; this is why Farel demands that Christians should stop from walking away from God and return to God. The return of Christians towards God should have a powerful, as well as beneficial impact on the state of marriage and salvation. Christians must return to God, Farel contends, lest they should find themselves in a state of contempt towards God; when Christians put a distance between themselves and God what happens is that they develop a sense of discontent and aversion for the things of God. It is only logical then to expect that when Christians turn their backs on God, their salvation and consequently their marriages will abruptly fall in a state of disparagement. Christians must honor the things of God, marriage and salvation included, but if they choose to distance themselves from God, then they begin to show contempt for all the things which were honored by God. Farel actually writes that Christians may find themselves looking down with contempt on the things which Jesus, their savior, holds in high esteem. Christians thus may run against Jesus himself, and when they do that they not only blow their marriages away; they also destroy their lives and push away God’s salvation. Farel stresses that Christians must never forget that they are children of God and it is in this capacity that God requires them to honor both their salvation and marriage since both were honored by Jesus, their savior. 65 Ultimately, it is not an issue of whether Christians should honor marriage and salvation because Jesus honored them; it is an issue of obeying the commandments of 65

This is because the Word of God is written in the hearts of all God’s children. See also C. Partee, ‘Farel’s Influence on Calvin: a Prolusion’, 173–186, in P. Barthel, R. Scheurrer, R. Stauffer (eds.), Actes du Colloque Guillaume Farel, Neuchâtel, 29 septembre - 1er octobre 1980, Tome 1 (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1983), 179.

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God as their creator. God is not only the savior of humanity; he is also its creator and irrespective of whether people like it or not, Christians must be fully aware of God’s dual role in salvation and creation because while feelings of discontent towards salvation and marriage may develop in the mind of Christians, the fact that they are all created by him is a fact cannot be denied. This is why, having realized that they were not only saved but also created by God, Christians should obey God’s commandment to honor marriage and salvation. According to Farel, Christians must learn how to stand against those who go against Jesus’ demands; in fact, as Farel points out, Christians must not let themselves be seduced by people for whom salvation and marriage are worth nothing. Christians should be mature enough to see these kinds of men and women for what they really are: enemies of Jesus and antichrists. Spiritual maturity is compulsory for every Christian who wants to honor God by appreciating the fact that he created and saved him; when such an attitude of respect for one’s standing before God as created and saved through Jesus is entertained on a regular basis as a feature of one’s Christian life, then one can be sure that one appreciates not only one’s salvation, but also one’s marriage. This is how the sanctity of marriage can be restored, but it takes determination so that Christians no longer tread on the path of sin, but rather willfully return to God: Helas chrestiens retournez vous, & si ne mesprisez ce que Iesus vostre sauuer a honnore. Enfans de Dieu tenez a bon ce que vostre pere a ordonne & ne vous saissez plus seduire par ces faulx antechristz, ennemys de Iesus. 66

All Christians should return to God, Farel explains, but especially those placed in higher positions of leadership. 66

Farel, Sommaire, 104.

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Since society in Farel’s time was identical with the church, it goes without saying that whatever happened in the church was automatically assumed by society, while whatever society went through was also a problem for the church. The plight of marriage at the beginning of the sixteenth century was only a problem for the church, Farel contends, but it is an utter disaster for the whole society, and this is why its most prominent members should act in a such a way that the situation be reversed and the sanctity of marriage be restored according to God’s commandment and expectations. In urging the leaders of the then society to take action against sin and, in so doing, defend marriage as well as its sanctity before God, Farel identifies some categories of people who should be made aware of their enormous responsibility within society and implicitly the church. Thus, he addresses his words to ‘kings, princes, lords, judges, and others’ or the civil magistrates 67 in their capacity as leaders of society who are not only responsible for addressing the calamity of sin and its devastating consequences, but also for watching over the people who were entrusted to them as subjects. 68 Farel seems to be convinced that the sanctity of marriage can be restored if the leaders of society take their responsibility 67

68

Farel’s relationship with the Swiss magistrates was colorful, to say the least, because while Farel was preoccupied with the welfare of the community as church, the magistrates were concerned to seek the welfare of the community as society or political body. See William G. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 34. Appealing to the magistrates was common in the sixteenth century. Farel’s detractors, most notably Pierre Caroli, did the same when he wrote an extremely bellicose letter against Farel, which was later refuted by Calvin. See, for details, Mathilde Bernard, ‘«Sa main contre tous, la main de tous contre lui»: la dissidence de Pierre Caroli à travers la Défense de Guillaume Farel (1545)’, 2–11, in Les Dossiers du Grihl 7.1 (2013): 2–3.

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seriously and act accordingly. Such a turn in social and ecclesiastical morality can be possible—and this seems to be Farel’s basic argument—provided that the leaders of society assume their leadership with responsibility and discernment. In order for this to happen though, they need to realize that they were entrusted with leading the people by God himself; they are social and ecclesiastical leaders by divine appointment. This is not only an enormous privilege, but also an equally demanding responsibility because it is God himself who not only demands that they should take action against sin and in favor of marriage, but also expects visible results in this respect. 69 At this point, Farel’s argument takes a specific turn which explains that, in his mind, the church and society are the same. 70 Since the reality of sin devastated the church to the point that most men of the cloth were caught in sexual immorality, Farel does not expect results from ecclesiastical figures, but rather from the leaders of society. Thus, he no longer urges the ‘priests, friars, and monks’ to do something against sin and for the benefit of marriage; he seems to have exhausted his patience with the clergy, so the turns to ‘kings, princes, lords, judges, and others’ for help. It is this latter category which must watch over the former; the kings, princes, lords, and judges are commanded by Farel to open their eyes and see the sexual debauchery of the clergy, so it is ultimately the people of the sword who need to act against the people of the cloth: Vous Roys, Princes, Siegneurs, Iuges & autres, ausquelz nostre Seigneur a donne la charge de son 69 70

Farel, Sommaire, 104–105. Calvin shared Farel’s conviction, as one can see in Nancy Lyman Roelker, One King, One Faith. The Parlement of Paris and the Religions Reformations of the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996), 173.

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peuple, ne voyez vous point les grandz scandales que les prebstres, cordeliers, & moynes font en voz terres & seigneuries? Rauissantz & seduissantz filles & femmes, & commettantz manifestement hordz & infames adulteres & fornications, de forte quon voit par milliers paoures filles par eulx seduictes & perdues, & innumerables mariages gastez & rompus: dont plusieurs meurtres adviennent […]. 71

Farel’s list containing the sins of the clergy is disconcerting; the sexual lechery committed by the so-called servants of God range from seduction to adultery and from fornication to the utter destruction of marriage. The top of the list, however, is occupied by murder, which is the most infamous result of sexual immorality. Whether Farel refers to actual, physical murder or to a more spiritualized version thereof is of little importance for his main argument; what is crucial has to do with the fact that sexual immorality leads not only to the desacralization and destruction of marriage, but also to the utter demolition of one’s physical and spiritual life. This is why Farel’s determination in urging the leaders of society to act against sin and in favor of marriage is not only an appeal to a better morality; it is also a solemn declaration against murder since the Christians’ dedication to God is not only measured by the degree of honor they give to salvation and marriage, but also confirmed by their appreciation of life and its moral quality. The latter can and should be confirmed, according to Farel, both through the sanctity of marriage and, if this is somehow damaged by sin, through the restoration of the matrimony’s divine sanctity. 72 The restoration of the sanctity of marriage can be achieved, if other means are exhausted—and Farel seems to imply here that ecclesiastical discipline appears to have 71 72

Farel, Sommaire, 104–105. Farel, Sommaire, 104–105.

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failed in correcting sexual immorality, by the drastic intervention of secular authorities in the matters of the church and especially in imposing church discipline precisely because the clergy did not act according to its divine calling. In Farel’s mind, since society and the church overlap and the members of the church are the citizens of society, it is logical to think in terms of overlapping responsibilities for both the church and society to the point that if one fails in its duties then the other takes action in implementing the necessary measures. In the delicate case of marriage, the church failed to apply church discipline, so it was necessary for society to intervene in order for the whole realm to enjoy a morality based on God’s commandments. Farel points out that both church and society should be concerned with the honor of God when the application of church discipline is sought for certain deviations related to doctrine or morality; 73 in this case though, the practicality of morality as applied to married life may or may not stem from a faulty understanding of doctrine, but what is evident has to do with the derelict state of marriage in society which needs correction. If the church cannot or is unwilling to act in the implementation of church discipline in society, then it is the duty of society to take the matter in its own hands and apply the necessary measures. 74 This is why Farel urges the men of the sword, not the man of the cloth, to consider God’s honor when they evaluate the state of marriage in their estates. The clergy is a total failure as far as Farel is concerned, so nothing good is to be expected from monks, friars, and priests, but if this is the case then the secular magistrates must do 73

74

Farel’s insistence on church discipline led to the failure of his first attempts to reform Geneva alongside Calvin. See Alastair Armstrong, The European Reformation, 1500–1610 (Oxford: Heinemann, 2002), 138. Farel, Sommaire, 105.

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something to reinstate the sanctity of marriage in their lands. 75 Consequently, Farel addresses his words to the leaders of society and stimulates them to behave in accordance with what God requires from them. In Farel’s view, there are two demands which are to be met by the magistrates: virtue and care for the moral state of their subjects. Thus, in being virtuous and concerned with how their subjects lead their lives—and this includes what they think about marriage, but also how the act upon it or within it—the magistrates should not only be willing, but also ready to administer certain concrete and practical actions against sexual immorality. 76 In this respect, Farel mentions two such measures which could reportedly uproot sexual immorality and restore the sanctity of marriage: correction and punishment. Since he does not elaborate on either, it is a bit difficult to understand what he means by them, but since they are to be administered by the magistrates, it is quite logical to suppose that the actual administration of correction and punishment in things related to sexual immorality does 75

76

The magistrates, however, were not always in full agreement with the reformers. When Farel was called by the Genevan magistrates to implement the reformation in their city, they had one idea of what the reformation was supposed to do, while Farel had a totally different idea, so confusion and conflict emerged rather quickly. See R. Bruce Douglass, ‘The Difference Calvin Made’, 205– 215, in Theology Today 67.2 (2010): 208–209. Farel must have known that such a claim is often left without resolution because the magistrates are more inclined to ignore such rules rather than be vigilant when it comes to the morality of society as a whole. Furthermore, if told what they should be doing, the magistrates could perceive Farel’s requests as attacks on their authority, which they did when they expelled Farel and Calvin from Geneva. See also Nicole Fermon, Domesticating Passions. Rousseau, Woman, and the Nation (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1997), 67.

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not fall within the Christian categories of meekness or gentleness. Farel though does not seem concerned with the actual state of mind or even with the bodily integrity of those who are to be corrected and punished by the magistrate; on the contrary, he seems more preoccupied with the state of their salvation because correcting marriage should result in one’s better soteriological standing before God. In Farel, the duty of the magistrates to correct and punish sexual immorality for the sake of restoring the sanctity of marriage is not only an issue related to God’s honor which may or may not be in need of a certain restoration itself, but also a reality that leads to the proliferation of crime in society. This is why Farel equates sexual immorality with what he calls ‘abominable crimes’ and if crime—no matter of which kind—must be severely punished by secular authorities, then sexual debauchery is certainly not an exception: Pour lhonneur de Dieu (duquel estes ministres) soyes verteux & sogneux de corriger & punir ces abominable crimes: desquelz auiourdhuy tout le monde est infecte & remply. Et ne vous arrestez aux exemptions & priuileges alleguees par ces vilains pourceaulx: car ce ne sont que friuolles, comme iay dit cy dessus parlant du glaiue & puissance de iustice. Pour obuier a telz scandales & meschancetez il fault que lhonneur soit rendu au sainct marriage selon linstitution & ordonnance de Dieu. Autrement (comme consentantz) serez trouuez coulpables deuant Dieu de leur puante vie & perdition, pour quoy horrible iugement sera faict contre vous. 77

Farel adopts a slightly apocalyptical tone when he refers to the fact that sexual immorality conquered the whole world, but since apocalypticism has a way of conveying a 77

Farel, Sommaire, 105.

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feeling of fear and unease, Farel makes full use of it for implementing his program of moral restoration. With his hopes for the clergy shattered, he turns to the civil magistrates whom he considers ministers of God and it is in this capacity that they should feel compelled to act against sexual immorality. Should they choose to embrace Farel’s methodology for the improvement of civil morality, the magistrates will be faced with a tremendous task and Farel is not unaware of what lies ahead of civil servants. Sweeping away sexual immorality is anything but easy especially because it pervades all layers of society from the commoners to the aristocracy and from the lower social categories to the highest political officials. This is why Farel warns the civil magistrates that exceptions are not to be accepted at all if the moral sanity of society is to be restored; neither common folks, nor clerical persons and not even the highest ranking magistrates are to be exempted from correction and, if necessary, punishment for sexual debauchery. Privileges—social, clerical, political or otherwise—must never be an issue of contention in the application of correction and punishment for the improvement of social morality and consequently the restoration of marital sanctity: everybody who indulges in sexual sinfulness must be corrected and punished accordingly if a clear message is to be sent to society. The world is way too fed up with sexual lechery for the magistrates even to consider the possibility of having some exceptions or privileges taken into account during the application of correction and punishment. 78 The whole issue is a question of justice for Farel and since justice comes from God, it is clear that—at least in his mind—appreciating God’s honor in a practical way beyond the utterance of mere empty words requires decisive action from the civil magistrates. Whoever considers 78

Farel, Sommaire, 105.

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exceptions and privileges for the sake of escaping just punishment falls within the category of ‘villains’, Farel contends, and villains must be dealt with by the power and authority of the ‘sword’. If the Word of God was not enough for the correction of sexual immorality and the clergy failed miserably in their duty to fight against sexual sins, then it is the duty of the civil magistrate to use the sword not only for honoring God as creator and savior of humanity, but also for doing justice to the men and women who were created and saved by God. 79 It seems thus that in Farel civil authority is part of God’s plan of creation, since the ‘sword and the power of justice’ are described not only as a feature of secular leaders, but also as compulsory duties which must be applied for the improvement of social morality. 80 79

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Farel—and he is joined in this conviction by Calvin—believed that magistrates have the God-given duty to fight evil in society even if this means the use of the sword. For instance, in a letter to Sadoleto, Calvin shows that he and Farel strove to restore the power and authority of the magistrates in Geneva so that society could be better defended against the multifaceted influence of evil. See Jean Calvin, ‘Calvin’s Reply to Sadoleto’, 43–88, in John C. Olin (ed.), A Reformation Debate. Sadoleto’s Letter to the Genevans and Calvin’s Reply (Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 1966, reprinted 2000), 49. Farel though preferred that the sword of God’s Word be used first and only when/if people continued to persist in their evil ways, the other sword, the sword of the magistrate, should be used for correction. See Zuidema and van Raalte, Early French Reform, 94. Unfortunately, much too often the magistrates did not only have social morality in mind when they applied corrections and punishments. On the contrary, they sought social peace and stability to the detriment of social morality, which is evident in the punishment applied to Servetus. While it would have been better for Servetus to die by the sword and not by burning—as he himself asked and was supported by Calvin in this respect—the civil mag-

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Farel is fully aware that sexual immorality is the result of people’s spitefulness, so most men and women engage in illicit sexual relationship on purpose, because they want to defile marriage and feel no remorse for desacralizing marriage. In Farel though marriage must never be characterized by scandals, maliciousness, and debauchery, but utterly by honor and holiness. It was God himself who bestowed both honor and holiness to marriage and since the human being destroyed them through a deviant sexuality, men and women showed contempt for God’s institution and commandments. Such an attitude, which results in a wide range of lecherous sexual behaviors, must never go uncorrected and unpunished, so Farel explains that civil magistrates must go against the general tide of social morality in order for the sanctity of marriage to be restored according to God’s initial purpose for husbands and wives. Should civil magistrates choose not to act against sexual immorality, they will automatically be consenting to all the evil practices associated with it which will result—and Farel resorts to his apocalyptic tone again—in God’s punishment being delivered against them. The culpability of civil magistrates is established in relationship with God, this is why Farel points out that they will be found guilty before God if they fail to apply the necessary correction and punishment for sexual immorality. 81 Although Farel’s argument against sexual immorality may seem harsh, especially when he recommends correction and punishment by civil authorities, one should not lose sight of the fact that neither correction, nor punishment is socially punitive in nature even if administered by

81

istrates chose not to commute his sentence, so he was indeed burnt at the stake. See Margaret Bald, Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds, revised edition (New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2006), 42. Farel, Sommaire, 105.

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civil authorities; on the contrary, the correction and punishment of sexual immorality are meant to be socially educational, so that husbands and wives are enabled not only to keep but also, if need be, to restore the sanctity of their marriage. 82

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HUSBANDS AND WIVES Farel is aware that it is crucial for husbands and wives to know what to do when it comes to keeping and, in certain cases, restoring the sanctity of marriage in their own lives. The morality of the whole society is fully dependent on what happens in the family, so when the family is destroyed because the sanctity of marriage has been trampled upon, one cannot expect a lot from society. Farel seems to be aware that social morality cannot be separated from family ethics, so he attempts to use the latter as foundation for the former. This is why he provides his readers with a set of instructions which are aimed at both husbands and wives. What Farel has to say to men and women entering the vows of marriage is centered on the Word of God, but the practicality of his instructions is of paramount importance for what happens in the family primarily because God’s Word is always effective. 83 One may realize that the instructions meant for husbands are not so numerous as those directed to wives, but their importance seems to be fairly equal when it comes to the quality of their married life. The first aspect which saliently emerges from Farel’s instructions to husbands is the reference to God’s Word as the foundation for mar82 83

Farel, Sommaire, 105. In Farel, the effectiveness of God’s Word comes from its capacity to work like a sword, an image which is essential for Farel’s perspective on God’s Word. See also Alison Adams, Webs of Allusion. French Protestant Emblem Books of the Sixteenth Century (Genève: Librairie Droz, 2003), 54, n. 52.

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riage. True marriage cannot exist without God’s Word; this is why husbands must be aware that the centrality of God’s Word for their families is not only a command of God, but also a necessity should they want to be genuinely happy in their marriage. The Word of God, therefore, is not optional for married life; on the contrary, it is compulsory and everything that happens in the family should gravitate around it. While Farel does not elaborate on the reasons for the necessity of God’s Word in married life, one can infer that since God’s Word is the revelation of God himself, husbands must focus on God’s Word simply because in so doing they come closer to God. Consequently, husbands must dwell on God’s Word, they must insist on studying and apprehending it for their own lives as well as for the lives of their wives. 84 Second, the centrality of God’s word for marriage and especially for husbands is set in contrast with the perspective of clergy on marriage. Farel’s disgust for traditional clerics is evident because while he instructs husbands to focus on God’s Word if they truly want to know how to live with their wives, he accuses the ‘monks and priests’ for indulging in ‘chatter and fantasies’. In other words, Farel is convinced that only God’s Word presents married life in its fullest reality, so if any husband is sincere in his quest for knowing what marriage really looks like, he should focus exclusively on what God’s Word has to tell him about marriage. This means not only to read God’s Word conscientiously, but also specifically to avoid the instructions coming from the clergy. What the men of the cloth have to say about marriage has nothing to do with what God has to say about marriage, so while God—through his Word—explains how married life should be conducted in full accordance with God’s will and instructions, the members of the clergy seem to be stuck in the realm of dreams 84

Farel, Sommaire, 105–106.

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and illusions, neither with real profit for the wellbeing of marriage. 85 Third—and this should perhaps have come first because it is the first reason listed by Farel as he developed his argument in writing—husbands are told to love their wives; there is no successful married life without the necessary ingredient of love, so Farel is utterly realistic about what marriage should consist of when he tells husbands that love is not only compulsory for one’s marriage, but also the very foundation thereof. 86 Love though is not an empty concept for Farel, so it needs some further explaining. Love cannot be achieved simply by human means; Farel is no purist and he knows that human love can achieve nothing on its own. On the contrary, if human love does achieve something on its own, then it pushes men and women towards lechery, debauchery, and sexual immorality of all sorts. This is why, in Farel, love must be kept near to God’s Word; true love must be founded, built, and nurtured in close connection with what God has to say to men and women in his Word. Nothing complex but rather extremely practical advice is to be found in God’s Word where husbands are commanded to love their wives by having sex with them in a holy way. Farel does not hide behind words; he plainly states that sexual intercourse can be and is ultimately holy if performed within marriage, where love should be the foundation of spousal life based on the commandments one finds in God’s Word, not in the illusory words of the clergy: Marys aymez vos femmes conuersantz sainctement auec elles pour euiter fornication, arrestez vous a la parolle de Dieu: & non pas aux babilz & songes des moynes & des prebstres. Entendez la dignite de vostre 85 86

Farel, Sommaire, 105–106. The same argument can be found in Calvin. See Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 79.

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estat auquel ont vescu tous sainctz patriarches, prophetes, & apostres, desquelz lescripture parle. De laquelle fault tenit compte & estime, non point de vains songes. 87

Farel strives to convince men that being husbands is not to be taken lightly. The reality of married life and especially the capacity as being a husband presents men with a special attribute which is not only a word, but also a huge responsibility. This is why Farel presents marriage as a holy state, which automatically presupposes that the quality of being a husband is equally holy in nature. 88 Marriage, however, is not only an issue of holiness; it is also an aspect of life imbued with dignity. Hence, the quality of being a husband is also characterized by dignity, so men entering married life must be aware of the new reality they assume for themselves and their wives. While marriage is meant for men and women to avoid fornication, as Farel himself admits, this is not the only reason why married life was devised by God for the sake of human beings. Thus, in addition to being a clear support against sexual immorality, marriage was instituted for men and women with the specific purpose of bestowing upon them a special dignity and holiness. 89 While sexual intercourse may appear vile, brutal, and animalic in itself, when transferred within the context of married life, it emerges—based on God’s Word—in a totally and surprisingly new light as dignified, holy, and 87 88

89

Farel, Sommaire, 105–106. Farel joined Calvin in his effort to reform the social life of Geneva, which includes family life and more delicate subjects like spousal intercourse. For details about what Farel and Calvin did in Geneva concerning married life, see John Witte, Jr., ‘Marriage and Family Life’, 455–465, in Herman J. Selderhuis (ed.), The Calvin Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 455. Farel, Sommaire, 105–106.

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blessed by God. Consequently, in order for husbands to understand how they are expected to live with their wives in marriage, Farel instructs them to look again in the Holy Scripture for examples of successful marriages. The Bible is crucial for the wellbeing of marriage, so Farel urges husbands not only to hold it in high esteem, but also to use it wisely for the improvement of their married life. What God has to say about marriage in Scripture is always to be taken into account, Farel contends, because this is the only way to avoid human fantasies about married life. If husbands really want to have a good life with their wives, then they must cling to Scripture, read it for instruction, and use it against all those who present marriage in lesser terms than God’s own commandments. The vanity of human illusions about marriage must be avoided at all costs; this is why Farel advises husbands to anchor their married lives in the Word of God which not only bestows dignity and holiness to marriage, but also presents the true reality of what a husband is to expect from himself and his wife. 90 Having concluded his instructions for husbands, Farel now turns his attention to the behavior of wives in marriage. A key aspect of his advice for the women who enter married life has to do with Farel’s focus on the Word of God, as in the case of husbands. Thus, what Farel does here is merely to quote texts from the Bible which he then briefly comments based on his personal convictions. For instance, he instructs wives to be obedient to their husbands based on the Bible’s conviction that women must be subject to the men they married. Such a subjection, however, does not imply the women are in any way inferior to men; on the contrary, Farel’s instruction—which replicates word by word God’s expressed commandment in Scripture—presupposes that the subjection of wives to 90

Farel, Sommaire, 106.

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their husbands is based on their subjection to Christ himself in his capacity as savior of humanity. This is another example of why, in Farel, marriage is compared with salvation and it does explain the connection between anthropology and soteriology. The reality of man’s initial creation before the fall into sin is the same with the reality of man’s salvation; in other words, in prelapsarian times, man was ‘saved’ in his relationship with God. Man’s standing before God was ‘correct’ in all respects, so there was nothing which hindered man’s communion with God before sin entered man’s life and the whole reality of creation. In postlapsarian times though, marriage remains the mirror of man’s salvation, so the marital bond needs to point to how a human being is saved by God. Since in salvation human beings—men and women—are subject to God in Christ, in marriage—which is the image and representation of salvation—the wife represents the subjection of the human being to Christ, who in turn is represented by the husband. 91 This is why, based on God’s Word, Farel instructs wives to be subject to their husbands in the same way they are subject to Christ which means first that women should look to their husbands as they look to Christ and second that husbands look at women and also behave with women exactly the way Christ himself looked at and behaved with all human beings when he saved them. In other words, while women are instructed to be subject to their husbands as if they were Christ himself, husbands must be ready to do for their wives what Christ did for humanity. To be even more precise, if women must obey their husbands as if they obeyed Christ himself, husbands must be 91

In Farel, the idea of subjection also refers to the relationship between children and parents, servants and lords, as well as subjects and princes. See for details Partee, ‘Farel’s Influence on Calvin’, 182.

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ready and willing to die for their wives as Christ did for the salvation of humanity. Consequently, in Farel, the wife’s subjection to the husband and the husband’s quality of being the ‘leader’ in the family appears to be a shared responsibility before God; both the husband and the wife share an equal responsibility before God with specific tasks: the wife must be subject to her husband in the same way she would obey Christ himself, while the husband must love his wife as Christ loved humanity, namely to the point of physical death. 92 Such an explanation explains why, in Farel, the wife is under the power or authority of her husband, as humanity is under the power or authority of Christ, who in turn loved humanity so much that he actually died for them—a fair representation of the husband’s duty in his capacity as leader in the family. So, given that husbands and wives share this common responsibility before God—the wife by obedience to her husband and the husband by leadership in the family—they must both watch over one another in love lest they should fall prey to sexual immorality. It is interesting to notice that Farel advises women to watch over the quality of spousal intercourse in order for them to avoid adultery; at the same time, women are those instructed to keep the faith and loyalty they must constantly show to their husbands. This may appear unbalanced and unfair given that such precise instructions were not given to husbands, but in the light of the husbands’ duty to die for their wives if need be, one may indeed consider that the duties in the family are distributed quite fairly between husbands and wives: Femmes obeissez a voz marys & leur soyez subiectes en tout comme a nostre Seigneur. Car le mary est le chef, 92

The image here, also present in Calvin, is Christ’s obedience to the will of the Father, which should be a model for all Christians. See Michael A. Mullet, Calvin (London: Routledge, 1989), 24.

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& la femme est soubz la puissance de lhomme. Gardez vous de vous separer, que vous ne tombez en incontinence. Gardez foy & loyaute […]. 93

What Farel has further to say to women may appear again unfair and biased against them, especially when he warns women against breaking up their marriage as if husbands could not do that. While Farel’s instructions may seem unfair indeed, his whole argument about marriage—which shows that he is not exactly a bigot especially in speaking openly and clearly about sexual intercourse between spouses—should at least give him some credit for addressing his warnings to women rather than to husbands. The fact that Farel warns women against breaking up the marriage shows once more that Farel is a very practical theologian. 94 Thus, he appears to have sensed that marriages have a far better chance of being successful if wives are wise enough to watch over the quality of spousal intercourse. It is not that husbands cannot commit adultery or that they cannot be charged with adultery; on the contrary, Farel is not unaware of male psychology and, since he knows what sin is capable of doing in a man’s life, he is surely quite capable of imagining—and even seeing in real life—how marriages can be and indeed are broken by husbands. However, if wives find a way to show concern for the wellbeing of their sexual relationships with their husbands, then the chances of their marriage remaining undamaged seem to increase significantly. In other words, Farel appears to be convinced that the key to a successful and happy marriage lies primordially in the practical wisdom of women, so this may explain why Farel directs his warnings against women. Thus, women are warned that the

93 94

Farel, Sommaire, 106. Farel, Sommaire, 106.

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penalty for breaking up the marriage is death 95 and even if it is unclear whether Farel refers to physical death as administered by human authorities (the civil magistrates) or to spiritual death as applied by divine intervention, one may sense Farel’s gravity and concern for the well-being of married life as a perfect indicator of one’s soteriological standing before God. The women who break up their marriages must die with the libertines, Farel warns, because in his view adultery is the chief of sins: […] car toute femme qui rompt son mariage, elle doit mourir de mort auec le paillard. Nul larecin ne doit estre si griefuement puny comme adultere. Car violer vng estat si noble & si sainct, est vng cas quon ne scauroit assez punir. Si vous euitez la main des hommes & la mort corporelle, craignez la main de Dieu & la mort eternelle. Laquelle on ne peult fuyr desobeissant a luy. Entendez que au sainct mariage vous estes assemblez par la verty de Dieu & non dhomme. Pourtant craignez celuy qui vous a conioinctz, qui a elleu voz corps pour son sainct temple & habitation. 96

What Farel wants to convey here is the utter seriousness of marriage not only as a bond between a man and a woman, but also a real relationship between humanity and God. Thus, when a marriage is broken, it is not only a human relationship which is damaged, but also the salvation of the two people involved in what used to be a marital bond is compromised. Now, since only women are warned against breaking the marriage and consequently one may imagine that only they are to be blamed for such a situa95

96

For more details about how adultery was punished in sixteenthcentury Geneva, see Robert M. Kingdon, Adultery and Divorce in Calvin’s Geneva (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995, reprinted 1997), 116ff. Farel, Sommaire, 106.

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tion, things may not be as simple as they appear at first glance in Farel. He does indeed warn women against breaking the marriage and he does warn women concerning death as punishment for adultery, but the failure of a women in marriage breakdown is not only her failure, but also the failure of her husband as leader in the family. When a woman breaks up a marriage through adultery, it automatically means that her husband most likely failed in his capacity as leader in the family. This is because both women and men were put together in marriage by God himself, so the sanctity of their union which includes sexual intercourse is not given by their own virtues, but by God’s righteousness. 97 Men and women cannot contribute anything to the sanctity of marriage, in the same way that they can contribute nothing to the sanctity of their salvation simply because they are sinners and sin is utterly incapable of providing any kind of sanctity either for marriage or for one’s salvation. God, however, can and it is he who bestows sanctity upon the marriage of sinful men and women, which is also a proof of the sanctity of the spouses’ salvation. Marriage, like salvation, is the result of God’s election, because it was God who chose men and women both for marriage and salvation since he decided to live within their mortal bodies through the Holy Spirit as proof of his love for human beings even if they are utterly unworthy. 98 Despite the obvious merits of Farel’s argument for underlining the seriousness of marriage and salvation, it 97

98

For details about Farel’s confidence in God’s righteousness as opposed to man’s righteousness, see Melchior Kirchhofer, The Life of William Farel, the Swiss Reformer (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1837), 59–60. See also Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Volume 2 (Glasgow: Blackie and Son, 1843), 505, n. 2.

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does though have one significant drawback because it fails to explain how and if marriage can be holy before God despite the unsaved status of the spouses. In other words, is it possible for two unsaved people to have a holy marriage? If the answer is negative, then it means that in Farel all unsaved people live in adultery even if married and also that marriage is the guarantee of salvation. The answer though is most likely positive in the sense that unsaved people can enjoy sanctified marriages because in Farel salvation from sin is not by marriage, but by faith. 99 If this is true—and it is—then Farel’s preoccupation for the sanctity of marriage is being discussed within the larger context of a community in which all members are considered saved by God’s grace and who are consequently members of his church as children of God.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL GOD’S CHILDREN Farel is not concerned only with husbands and wives when it comes to marriage; he also wants to convey some fundamental issues about married life to those who have not yet entered matrimony but face the basic human problem of sexual desire. It should be highlighted again that Farel is neither shy nor prudish when he discusses marriage and since marriage does involve sexual intercourse, the subject cannot and should not be avoided. Farel has no intentions of forfeiting such a discussion so he delves into the subject as he normally does, namely abruptly and straightforwardly. If husbands and wives need to know exactly what to do as married couples and how to behave with one another in all respects, including sexual interaction, then it is logical that those who are not yet married but do consider the prospect thereof should at least be aware of a set of aspects they all need to know. Since in Farel’s time the overlapping of church and society was al99

Farel, Sommaire, 75.

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most perfect, he directs his advice to the members of society as if they were all God’s children. From the very start, Farel infers that some people may have been given by God the gift of celibacy, 100 but based on how he sees and understands society in general, the number of such people is very low. For the rest, namely those who neither have the gift of being single nor who are capable of living like that without sexual intercourse, Farel has some key pieces of advice. The most important aspect that needs to be known by all God’s people is that staying unmarried presupposes no sexual intercourse whatsoever. Keeping away from sexual interaction though does not mean that one merely does not have physical intercourse with another person; celibacy in this case presupposes chastity which is not only physical, but also psychological. 101 Thus, Farel underlines that those who want to remain unmarried must also be ready not to engage in any sexual activity, physical or psychological. In other words, they must be chaste with their bodies, minds, feelings, and will. In order for a child of God to live alone, he or she must avoid not only to have sexual intercourse with another person, but also to look at other persons in a sexuallydriven way to the point that he or she does not think, feel, or exercise the will in a sexual way when it comes to one’s relationship with another person. Leading a life without sexual engagement of any sort, physical and psychological, is not easy and Farel is keenly aware of it. This is why he does not insist on the need that one should live in celibacy and chastity, but he takes instead a rather negative approach. Thus, he addresses his remarks to those who cannot live in celibacy and chastity. He is not interested in finding people who decide to remain single and chaste; 100 Calvin also believed that celibacy is a gift from God. See Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 80. 101 Farel, Sommaire, 106–107.

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such people―as Farel knows full well―do not actually need the kind of advice he tries to transmit in his writing about marriage. Those who want to remain single and chaste are regularly dedicated people who perceive celibacy and chastity as a spiritual calling for the service of God; the problem is what the rest are doing. This is why he focuses on those who are incapable of staying chaste and single, so he insists that such people should be aware that celibacy and chastity presuppose no physical, mental, sentimental, and willful interaction with another person in a sexual way: Tous qui nauez singulier don (qui est donne a bien peu), & qui ne pouuez ester continnentz de coeur, faict, & volonte, prenez ce sainct estat & honorable, venez en toute crainte de Dieu, vsez de la saincte institution a son honnoeur & gloire, & a ledification de vostre prochain, & perseuerez en inceluy, fuyantz toutes ces separations que les hommes ont trouue. 102

In Farel, therefore, sex is more than just a physical interaction between human beings; it also presupposes the control of one’s mind, feelings, and will to the point that no sexual aspects are considered in personal relationships. Since such a life is difficult to lead, Farel recommends that all those who cannot live that that should seriously consider the possibility of marriage. When it comes to marriage though, Farel wants to establish from the beginning that he does not refer to an exclusively human reality. Marriage may happen between a man and a woman, but the fact that the two are joined in a bond which presupposes love and sexual intercourse does not mean that marriage should be considered only in human terms. On the contrary, marriage is a divine institution which involves human beings; this is why those who consider getting mar102 Farel, Sommaire, 106–107.

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ried because they cannot master their sexual drives must be fully aware that marriage is a reality in which God has an important part to play. This is why they should know that marriage is not just a state which helps human beings control their sexual desires; marriage is a bond between a man and a woman who both recognize that marriage— including sex between spouses—is honorable and holy. 103 The sanctity of marriage is a key issue for the proper understanding of how married life should be conducted, so Farel treats is accordingly. In speaking about the sanctity of marriage, Farel makes sure that this very special feature of matrimony is explained in connection with the fundamental reality of God. Marriage cannot be perceived as holy and honorable unless God is brought in the picture. Thus, the sanctity of marriage can be fully understood for what it really is only when matrimony is presented from God’s perspective. God created marriage as a holy state which characterizes the most intimate bond between a man and a woman, so in order for it to work effectively the spouses, but also those who want to get married in the future must look at marriage through the eyes of God himself. 104 In other words, those who either enter or consider marriage for their own lives must be aware that when they get married the first thing they do is not to enter a relationship with another human being, but rather to engage in a relationship with the God who created them and saved them from sin. In Farel, God is always the God of creation and salvation, so when marriage is considered and God is presented as the protector of marriage, both 103 This idea can also be found in Calvin who, contrary to what Theodore de Bèze says about him, seems to have understood that marital sex is important in marriage and lived accordingly. See for details Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 202, 207. 104 Farel, Sommaire, 106.

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creation and salvation must be taken into account. Those who are married or who are considering getting married must know that the God with whom they enter into a relationship is the God who created and saved them, so they must fear him. Fear of God is not only the beginning of wisdom, as the Bible says, but it seems that in Farel it is also the beginning of marriage. People should not get married only for sexual satisfaction, or at least this should not be the main reason for marriage. Farel explains that those who accept the marital vows should do it first and foremost for the honor and glory of God, and only then for their own human satisfaction. Only after they understand that marriage is first for God’s glory and honor will they also comprehend that marriage is a means of mutual edification. People who are ready in engage in married life after they dedicate themselves to God and then to one another will eventually realize that marriage presupposes a life-long commitment for which separation is never a good solution even if recommended by more or less highly respected people. Although he does not mention it explicitly, Farel refers here to Catholic clergy whose recommendations and behavior concerning married life and especially divorce he staunchly criticized throughout his treatise. 105 Men and women should find satisfaction in marriage and Farel does not refer only to human sexuality. Thus, sexual desires are not the only ones which should be addressed when a man and a woman join together in the bond of matrimony. Man’s whole existence should find a general sense of satisfaction for a life well lived and a personal existence which is not wasted because of human sinfulness. Personal satisfaction in marriage, which of course goes hand in hand with spousal satisfaction as a married couple, should go as far as each person involved in mar105 Farel, Sommaire, 106.

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ried life can be enabled to see his or her own existence as complete within the bond of married life. To be more precise, women must find a way to be content as women while men must look for personal accomplishment as men. Such an understanding of life to the point of complete personal fulfillment is possible exclusively if and when men and women enjoy the benefits and responsibilities of married life or, in rare cases, when those who avoid marriage and decide to live in celibacy and chastity devise a method whereby their personal satisfaction is connected with God’s being. All God’s children, however, find total satisfaction in God: those who are single and chaste will be completed by their personal relationship with God, while those who decide to enter matrimonial life in order to avoid fornication also find their sense of personal worth in God but through marriage. 106 While personal happiness and contentment in married life is not explicitly depicted as a divine command for humanity, it is nevertheless presupposed in the light of man’s being created and saved by God. Marriage was created to last forever, namely for a lifetime, so the issue of divorce is neither recommended nor a wise option for anybody who has entered the vows of marital communion. It is interesting to notice that while separation in marriage, which most likely leads to divorce, may be permitted in case of adultery, Farel is not very happy to endorse it. He actually barely mentions the possibility of spousal separation when he briefly refers to the only condition which may offer the context for such an unfortunate event. One can easily notice that Farel does not like the issue of divorce because while permitted in the case of adultery, it 106 This can mean, as in Calvin, that the married couple swears their marital vows before God and the church. See Witte, ‘Marriage Contracts, Liturgies, and Properties in Reformation Geneva’, 462–463.

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never guarantees an improvement for the lives of those involved in separation. In other words, divorce may be allowed to happen when one of the spouses commits adultery, but it is not a guarantee that a new and better life will ever start to flourish following the separation of a husband and his wife. 107 In writing about divorce, Farel refers to women as factual causes of divorce, in the sense that women can break the faith or faithfulness and loyalty which God requires from them to be promised to their husbands. While Farel points only to women when he speaks about divorce, this is hardly an accusation against women. On the contrary, if one reads between the lines, Farel may also be pointing to men because if a woman decides to end her marriage, it is very likely that the man was either unwilling or unable to provide his marriage with the best spousal support. 108 Put bluntly, Farel admits that divorce is the direct result of infidelity, but at the same time infidelity is hardly a reason for divorce. When a man and a woman are joined in holy matrimony, he and she promise to each other that they will live in faithfulness to one another. Then this promise is enacted practically in a life of personal interac107 Farel, Sommaire, 106. 108 Late in the sixteenth century, especially after 1580, the Geneva’s city council granted divorce to women whose husbands could not fulfill their marital role sexually, financially, and spiritually. For instance, Marie Pinault was allowed to divorce Honoré Blanchard because he was sexually impotent, financially bankrupt, and a liar (he did not disclose to her the true extent of his wealth or lack thereof). It is very unlikely that Farel would have agreed with such reasons for divorce while he was still alive in the early 1560s, but after his death the issue of divorce remained a rather hot potato in Geneva. See Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors, 103, and Olivier Labarthe, Olivier Fatio, Registres de la Compagnie des pasteurs de Genève (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1974), 190, n. 72.

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tion where the multifaceted aspects of human existence are lived out in full accordance with God’s plan and purpose for marriage. So the initial promise comes first while the actual enactment of the promise in daily life through faithfulness and loyalty is secondary; it is not less important than the promise, but it is chronologically subsequent to the marital promise. If faithfulness and loyalty are broken as a result of adultery, Farel seems to imply that there is no reason in this world to consider that the initial promise should also be broken. The promise may indeed be considered broken but it would be far better if the two, the one who committed adultery and the one who remained faithful to their marriage, would look back at it as still standing. This is why the marriage where one is faithful and the other one unfaithful can still be considered valid. Furthermore, as Farel points out, God himself sees marriage as eternally valid in his eyes once he created, established, and honored it throughout history. For God, therefore, adultery, while permitted as a reason for divorce, is no grounds for spousal separation since the sanctity of marriage can be kept intact based on the fidelity of the one who remained faithful. If the two consent to stay together, their marriage will continue to be characterized by holiness and sanctity before God and their children 109 will enjoy the same status. 110 109 The concern for children was a key issue of Reformed families. See Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors, 103–104. 110 Marriage and divorce were quite an issue in sixteenth-century Switzerland; there are reports of pastors seeking divorce because their wives were fatally ill. Normally, such requests were submitted before the city council which consulted with Farel, Calvin and other reformers. It should be noted here that while Farel and Calvin would almost always vote against divorce, this was nevertheless granted eventually by the city council whose members were a bit more lenient when it came to sexual matters. See Guillaume Farel: 1489–1565. Biogr. nouvelle écrite d’après les documents

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Moreover, the two may not only live together under the same roof but they also are allowed to behave like a genuine couple to the point of sexual intercourse despite the sadness produced as a result of adultery. Farel prefers to see marriage as permanent in man’s life even if unhappy events such as adultery can cause significant harm to married families whose main duty is to provide personal accomplishment and satisfaction to husbands and wives: Car tant que la femme peult estre femme, & aussi le marry, mary: le marriage ne peult estre rompu ne separe, fors que par le seul adultere, quand la femme rompt la foy & loyaulte promise a son mary. Et tel est le sainct mariage, que lune des parties est fidele, elle peult converser auec sa partie qui est infidele, tant que linfidele veult demourer auec le fidele. Et ce ne empesche le bien du marage quil ne soit selon Dieu, & que les enfants ne foyent aussi sainctz & bons, comme si les deux parens estoient fidele. 111

Living with an adulterer is certainly not easy, but Farel nevertheless urges his readers at least to try to live like that because it is possible. It is not possible in ourselves or based on our own resources of love, faithfulness, and honor, but it may turn into a reality if the married couple looks away from the adultery and focuses on Jesus Christ, the Lord. Despite the desacralization of marriage through adulterous relationships, but also through the ill advice provided by clerics as seen before, 112 marriage can still be originaux par un groupe d’historiens, professeurs et pasteurs de Suisse, de France et d’Italie. Ornée d’un portr. en couleurs et de 25 planches hors texte (Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1930; Genève: Slatkine, 1978), 607, n. 3. 111 Farel, Sommaire, 106. 112 It is no wonder that Farel was outraged by what some clerics said about marriage. For instance, Guy Furbiti exhorted the citizens of

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saved because it remains valid in God’s eyes. Thus, in Farel, while marriage may be desacralized by illicit sexual intercourse, the sanctity of marriage remains intact because it was created and instituted by God. 113 Since marriage is the image of salvation, the only one who can mend marriage exactly as he did with the human existence is Jesus Christ. To be more precise, Christ was the one who restored the sanctity of the human existence after he cleansed it from sin; likewise, he is able to restore the sanctity of marriage after he cleanses it from the sin of adultery. 114 In other words, marriage is never doomed according to Farel; there is always hope in the worst and darkest of circumstances to the point that not even the filth of adultery can destroy the happiness and honor which God himself placed in marriage to be kept and, if needed, restored by Jesus Christ in his soteriological capacity as Lord and Savior.

Bern not to give their daughters in marriage to the reformers (or to the adherence of the Reformation), but rather throw them to the dogs. See Paul W. Oechsli, History of Switzerland, 1499–1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2013, first English edition 1922), 142. 113 See also Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors, 100. 114 Farel, Sommaire, 106.

THE IMAGE OF WORSHIP IN JEAN CALVIN WORSHIP FROM THE HEART At the very foundation of the Huguenot Psalter lies the conviction, clearly articulated by Calvin, that man’s foremost duty is to worship before God. The issue of worship in Calvin cannot be missed by serious readers because, as he insists, it is obvious that man must praise God not only by words, but also by songs—which, in the church, turn into hymns. Since he refers to an activity which centers on God, it means that a rather closer relationship is being forged between the worshipping man who bows down before God and God himself who receives man’s worship; consequently, worship must have not only a clear purpose, but also an equally evident benefit. The very purpose of worship, specifically of the Christian worship which aims at praising God as lord and savior of humanity, is to glorify God, while the benefit Calvin seems to have in mind here has to do with the reception of man’s worship by God himself. This is precisely why Calvin underlines the fact that the act of worship is obligatory, it must be performed before God (devant Dieu/apud Deum) and it must focus on the praise which man is bound to give him (oraison/in oratione). Worship, however, while concentrating on giving praise to God, must equally originate in the deepest recesses of

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man’s heart (du profond du coeur/ex alto cordis); 1 otherwise, the benefits of worship are annulled. 2 In other words, there is no reason whatsoever attached to worship—and this is true even when man’s desire to give praise to God lies at its very foundation—if man’s action itself, namely his words and hymns, are not connected with the personal reality of his own spiritual depth, which is expressed by Calvin through the notion of heart (coeur/cor). Unless the heart, which is the very essence of man’s personal spirituality, is activated when the believer is actually performing the act of worship before God by bringing him praises through words and hymns, 3 worship itself becomes an activity which appears to be confined to the mechanical function of the vocal apparatus; to be more precise, the mouth (bouche)—in the Latin edition of Calvin’s Institutio the phrase refers to the action of singing with lips and the throat (labris et gutture)—an attitude which, as Calvin emphatically points out, is being viewed by God as a direct offense since it not only upsets him, but also provokes him to manifest his anger against us (l’irritent et provoquent son ire contre nous). Regardless of whether worship is expressed through words or hymns, what we consider to be worship before God can be in fact deprived of love and reverence if the heart’s deepest feel1

2

3

The heart, which points to man’s innermost feelings, cannot be detached from understanding or reason; man’s heart and intellect must constitute the foundation of true worship. See Olivier Millet, ‘Le Bruit et la Musique dans le Cinquième Livre’, 252–364, in Franco Giacone (éd.), Études rabelaisiennes. Le Cinquiesme Livre, tome XL (Genève: Droz, 2001), 253. Jean Calvin, Institution de la religion chrétienne, livre 3, chapitre 20, tome second, in Guilielmus Baum, Eduardus Cunitz, Eduardus Reuss (éds.), Ioannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, volumen IV (Brunsvic: C. A. Schwetschke et fils éditeurs, 1866), 418. Also check Max Dominicé, La Réforme et nous (Genève: Labor et Fides, 1972), 57.

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ings are utterly lacking, while the lips, mouth, and throat appear to remain the only organs which have the task to transmit as well as manifest man’s worship. 4 When this happens, and Calvin seriously warns us against such a situation, man does nothing but make use of God’s most holy name in an utterly erroneous way, to the point that man abuses God’s own name (c’est abuser de son tressacré Nom/id est ejus sacrosancto nomine abuti) for the sake of his own pitiful purposes. In other words, when worship is being done exclusively with our lips, mouth, and throat without the sincerest use of the deepest sentiments of our hearts, we do nothing but mock God’s majesty and greatness (avoir en moquerie sa majesté/ejus majestatem derisui habere). Here is how Calvin puts it: Pareillement de ce il est tres-manifeste, que le parler et le changer, si on en use en oraison, ne sont rien estimez devant Dieu, et ne profitent de rien envers luy, s’il ne viennent de l’affection et du profond du coeur; mais plustost aucontraire, ils l’irritent et provoquent son ire contre nous, s’ils ne procedent et ne sortent seulement que de la bouche: pource que c’est abuser de son tressacré Nom, et avoir en moquerie sa majesté […]. 5

This is why, in Calvin’s theology, genuine worship must always be built on three fundamental aspects: the word, the act of singing, and the heart. The word and singing are imbued with a value of their own since they were left by God as means of human expression and communication; nevertheless, when used in the specific context of 4

5

The singing of psalms, however, must elevate man’s heart to God. See Christian Grosse, Les rituels de la cène. Le culte eucharistique réformé à Genève, XVIe-XVIIe siècles (Genève: Droz, 2008), 166. Calvin, Institution de la religion chrétienne, livre 3, chapitre 20, tome second, 418.

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worship—which can happen exclusively before God and is therefore based on a close personal relationship with him—the word and singing must be permanently accompanied by the deepest feelings of the heart (moyennant qu’ils suyvent l’affection du coeur/modo animi affectum comitentur). 6 In this context, the idea of the heart refers to man’s soul, while the soul itself points to faith. The heart with its innermost feelings cannot be separated from the active reality of personal faith which, when applied to a whole community, speaks of the steadfastness and resilience of the French Huguenots who all found encouragement in Calvin’s theology. This is why Calvin’s thought inspired the whole Huguenot movement, which emerged as a Protestant community of believers for whom the singing of psalms had a particular role in disseminating the Protestant faith of reformed persuasion throughout the country of France. Thus, the French Protestants made full use of psalm singing on more than just one occasion. For instance, psalms were being sung against Catholic faith and practice or, as it turns out, even to encourage the disruption of Catholic church services as happened in Lyon following the year 1560. 7 Although this bellicose attitude of confrontation seems to have been permanent in the case of French Protestants, the singing of psalms against Catholics was not prevalent in French territories. One rea6

7

Calvin, Institution de la religion chrétienne, livre 3, chapitre 20, tome second, 419. See also Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, mélodies et documents recueills par Pierre Pidoux. Premier volume: Les Mélodies (Bâle: Édition Baerenreiter, 1962), xiii. For more details about the French Protestants in Lyon, see Marianne Carbonnier-Burkard, ‘Calvin dans des recueils de prières «nicodémites»?’, 129–152, in Bernard Cottret, Oliver Millet (éds.), Jean Calvin et la France (Genève: Droz et Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 2009), 139–140.

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son for this appears to be the fact that the French Protestants simply had no time for such activities given that Catholic persecution against them was, if not permanent, at least extremely brutal. Faced with Catholic persecution, the French Protestants resorted to psalm singing whenever they were sentenced and executed as heretics by Catholic political and/or ecclesiastical authorities 8 or even when they set up to fight against Catholics in armed confrontations on various battlefields. The last but certainly not the least important case of psalms being sung has to do with what happened just before executions were carried out. Thus, psalms were sung to encourage Huguenots seconds before they lost their lives in public executions, as happened, for instance, at Montargis in 1569, when pastor Daniel Toussain and a group of French Protestants were surrounded by Catholic armies. 9 Faced with imminent death, Toussain and his companions started singing Psalm 124 as they prepared for their departure from this world, which they all considered true freedom. The same Psalm 124 was used by the Huguenots from the city of Orléans, who were in habit of singing it constantly in order to praise God for the protection he chose to manifest towards them. 10

8

9 10

The most frequent charge against the French Protestants was that they were proselytizing in the language of the people despite that the Jesuits were doing exactly the same, namely they used the language of the people to convince as many believers as they could to join their cause. See Kate van Orden, ‘Children’s Voices: Singing and Literacy in Sixteenth-Century France’, 209–256, in Early Music History 25 (2006): 226. Géralde Nakam, Au landemain de la Saint-Barthélemy. Guerre civile et famine (Paris: Anthropos, 1975), 62. Barbara B. Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 41–64, in Barbara B. Diefendorf and Carla Hesse (eds.), Culture and Identity in Early

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The French Protestants, therefore, used to sing psalms in moments of serious distress, and this is why the Huguenot Psalter may serve as a relevant work for Protestant—and not only Protestant—churches throughout the world. Christian churches have always gone through tough times and persecution is not a reality that has detached itself from the life of the church. The world is much too complex to be described in general terms; this is why, while some churches today enjoy total freedom, others go through unthinkable ordeals with brutal persecution and murderous actions being turned against Christian believers. For both categories of Christians, free and persecuted, the Huguenot Psalter can be a source of spiritual comfort in the face of spiritual warfare. If almost five centuries ago, the French Protestants were able to find solace in times of terrible misfortune, it is nearly unthinkable that the ideas and content of the psalms could have lost their capacity to produce a similar effect in contemporary churches, regardless of whether they are Protestant or not, or whether they are persecuted or not. To those, however, who find themselves in the midst of savage persecution, the Huguenot Psalter can be a blessed spring of refreshing spirituality, comfort, and strength.

THE INNER TEMPLE In Calvin’s theology, worship—regardless of whether it is by words or songs—is tackled within the larger context of church worship. It is not that worship remains confined to what happens in the church as if it were not personal and private; it seems to be a preference of Calvin though to speak about worship with reference to the songs and praises lifted up by believers within the context of the church’s spiritual services. As far as Calvin is concerned, Modern Europe, 1500–1800 (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993), 41.

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God commands all believers to pray in a communal fashion, and this cannot be performed just anywhere. Believers are the people of God, and the people of God must gather for prayer in special places or—as Calvin himself calls them—‘temples’. There are, however, people who staunchly refuse to join the people of God in worship and, in so doing, they cling to the motivation that they would rather worship in their little room so that they fully obey Jesus’ clearly expressed command in the pages of Scripture. Calvin explains: Or comme Dieu ordonne à tout son peuple de faire prieres en commun, aussi il est requis que pour ce faire il y ait des temples assignez, ausquels tous ceux qui refusent de communiquer avec le peuple de Dieu en oraison, ne se peuvent excuser par ceste converture, de dire qu’ils entrent en leur chambre pour obeir au commandement de Dieu. 11

God, however—Calvin assures us—does not want our prayers just for the sake of hearing them uttered by us in our capacity as believers and redeemed people; moreover, God is present wherever two or three are gathered together in accordance with Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18:20, and the presence of God is manifest only if the worship of believers stems from the deepest recesses of our hearts. This is ultimately the very foundation of genuine worship: the essentially spiritual character of the feelings nurtured by all those who come before God to bring him worship. It is clear that, in Calvin’s thought, the individual character of worship does not therefore exclude communal praise, 12 because there is no gathering together unless individuals are willingly brought within the same location 11 12

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 417. John H. Leith, The Church, A Believing Fellowship (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1981), 152.

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with one single goal in mind; in this case, spiritual worship before God. The notion of temple though, which is so evidently associated with the reality of worship, is to be found both in the communal and the individual aspects of worship. 13 Consequently, communal worship takes place when the entire people of God gathers within an external temple as, for instance, the building of a church, in order to pray to God as well as to sing praises to God, while individual worship happens whenever a true believer lifts up prayers or hymns to God within the inner temple of his own self, namely in the depth of the innermost reality of his own heart. Calvin insists that external temples, such as church buildings, do not in themselves possess any sort of mysterious holiness which may somewhat—in a hidden and unknown fashion—turn the believers’ prayers and songs into better praises before God. The sole condition for the confirmation of the veracity of worship is the sincerity of one’s personal feelings; so Calvin’s insistence on personal subjectivity seems to confirm that the essence of true worship is first and foremost individual, as well as deeply personal, before it can be considered equally effective and true when it comes to the whole community as God’s worshipping people. In other words, if personal worship is sincere, true, and genuine—namely if performed in spirit and truth as Scripture itself indicates— then communal worship will surely be the same. 14 The external venue which we choose for prayers and worship is not important as long as our worship, in our capacity as God’s redeemed children, remains within the 13

14

See, for details, Brian A. Gerrish, ‘Preface’, in Elsie Anne McKee (ed.), John Calvin. Writings on Pastoral Piety (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2001), 4. Timothy George, John Calvin and the Church. A Prism of Reform (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 236.

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boundaries of personal sincerity and truth. Likewise, however, in addition to personal worship, the presence of believers at communal worship in a certain place—chosen especially for such a spiritual purpose—is equally compulsory. This is because the material temple, as Calvin designates church buildings, is the physical location where believers gather together for prayers and singing, but the veracity of communal worship in the material temple is always conditioned by the sincerity of personal worship from the innermost spiritual temple of the heart of each individual believer. 15 One can now see clearly why Calvin decided to insist on the fact that God can never dwell in temples built by human hands unless he first lives in the temples which only he himself is able to raise, namely in the temples that are to be found in the depth of the believers’ hearts. In Calvin’s thought, therefore, there is an evident distinction between the work which men do as a result of God’s command—in the case of worship, the action of building material temples exclusively dedicated to worship before God—and the work which God himself performs for the glorification of his own name, namely to place the truth of the Gospel in the profundity of the spiritual temple located deep within the heart of each genuine believer. 16 Calvin’s conviction that God works for the glorification of his own name seems to have inspired the French Protestants who were collectively aware that the Psalms are truly part of God’s word. This is why they were so widely used both in public and private worship in times when religious persecution and the civil war constituted more than just a mere problem for sixteenth-century 15

16

Herman J. Selderhuis, Calvin’s Theology of the Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), Kindle Edition, Chapter 9: ‘God the Holy One’, Section 6: Liturgy of the Old and New Testament. Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 417–418.

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France. 17 These social convulsions so gravely and abruptly disrupted private and communal lives that the French Protestants were barely able to conduct regular church services, let alone enjoy a frequent participation at the Lord’s Supper. Sacraments in general were a problem since they could not be administered on a regular basis given the conflicts which constantly affected the lives of the Huguenots to the point that going to church regularly proved to be a luxury rather than a common feature of their daily lives. Thus, the French Protestants clung to the conviction that God and God alone works for the glorification of his own name, so they turned this spiritual reality into one of the most fundamental aspects of their visible faith through the active use of psalms which shortly became a rich source for church hymns. At the same time, singing the psalms rapidly emerged as a militant endeavor to promote the Protestant faith in the whole of France. 18 The Psalms ultimately transformed the weakness of French Protestants in a source of spiritual strength, since they were convinced that persecution are trials sent by God himself in order to test especially the elect; this conviction that they have to suffer for God as well as proving their faith in times of great distress was outwardly expressed through the singing of psalms. The psalms literally helped the Huguenots through crucial times in their history, especially when they went through the civil war 17 18

See also Herbert Lockyer, Sr., Psalms. A Devotional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 21. In addition to public prayers, baptismal and marriage services, the singing of psalms offered Huguenot churches the chance to move forward during persecution even without benefitting from the competence and constant involvement of ordained ministers. Gregory Hanlon, L’Univers des gens de bien. Culture et comportements des élites urbaines en Agenais-Condomois au XVIIe siècle (Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1989), 212.

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and when they faced the immense loss of human lives during the Night of Saint Bartholomew. 19 The psalms also assisted the French Protestants in finding inner resources for the revitalization of their personal and communal faith, but also in reconciling the horrors of the murders committed by Catholics with the existence of a God who is full of love. 20 Leading a daily life in the midst of distress, war, and persecution was surely not easy, but the French Protestants appear to have delved into the comfort provided by the singing of psalms which carried them through all these life-threatening ordeals. With their personal existence being in constant danger throughout most of their natural lives, the Huguenots turned towards psalm singing in an effort not only to cope with the huge deal of personal loss, but also to place their personal faith firmly in the ground provided by psalms as part of God’s word. This is why the Huguenots managed to build for themselves an excellent sample of practical theology through the extensive use of psalms in their churches where the French Protestant pastors frequently used to quote large portions from the Book of Psalms. 21 It was ex19

20

21

Georgia Cosmos, Huguenot Prophecy and Clandestine Worship in the Eighteenth Century. «The Sacred Theatre of the Cévennes» (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 77, and Barbara B. Diefendorf, ‘Waging Peace. Memory, Identity, and the Edict of Nantes’, 19–50, in Kathleen P. Long (ed.), Religious Differences in France. Past and Present (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006), 34. Philip Benedict, ‘Divided Memories? Historical Calendars, Commemorative Processions and the Recollection of the Wars of Religion during the Ancien Régime’, 381–405, in French History 22.4 (2008): 383. This is why the anti-Huguenot measures taken by Catholic authorities included the restriction of the freedom of worship and the interdiction of psalm singing. See Bertrand van Ruymbeke, From New Babylon to Eden. The Huguenots and Their Migration to Co-

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actly this practical theology which constituted the main instrument in persuading the apostates to return to true— evidently Protestant—faith. The survivors of Saint Bartholomew Night massacres found in the Psalms the very foundation of their personal faith, in an attempt to build their entire lives on the theology and singing of Psalms. 22 The knowledge of this historical information may provide Protestant—and not only Protestant—churches in the twenty-first century with a fresh support in rethinking the foundation of personal and communal faith; in so doing, churches may find it helpful to reconsider their worship in the light of the Psalms. Whether only read or perhaps sung, the Psalms can inspire churches to a different, more vivid, approach to worship based on the conviction that the effectiveness of church worship through the singing of psalms resides in the fact that they are part of God’s word as revealed in Scripture. Since the content and theology of the psalms have proved to be such a huge comfort in times of need for the French Protestants and their endangered lives, there is no reason to believe that things are different almost five centuries later in a world where freedom of religion and conscience is so drastically limited to the Western world, while other regions are still under the burning fire of religious persecution.

THE WORD OF GOD In Calvin’s thought, the theology of worship focuses on the human being in general as a creation of God. It is in this capacity—as a being which was created directly by God himself—that man approaches God in and through worship. The whole reality of man as an individual being

22

lonial South Carolina (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina press, 2006), 13. Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 42.

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must focus on worship precisely because man exists as a created being, and the most important aspect in this respect is to make sure that worship is not detached from the feelings of the heart. The heart is obviously the image of spirituality in Calvin, and in mentioning it in connection with worship, he just wants to make sure that the church’s worship is primarily a spiritual reality, as it should be, and not something merely human like words and songs without anything spiritual attached to them. This is why, Calvin points out, all the parts of the human being, that is all his organs, his entire body—the heart first of all—must worship before God, and in so doing, bring him praise and glorify his name. Calvin stresses here the importance of the tongue which, he explains, was created by God with the specific purpose of preaching and glorifying the name of God through words and songs (annoncer et magnifier son Nom/ad enarrandum praedicandamque Dei laudem condita est). 23 In Calvin’s words: Nous ne disons pas toutesfois que la parolle ou le chant ne soyent bons: ains les prisons tres-bien, moyennant qu’ils suyvent l’affection de coeur et servent à icelle […]. Davantage, d’autant que tous nos membres, chacun en son endroit, doivent glorifier Dieu, il est bon que mesmement la langue, qui est specialement crée de Dieu pour annoncer at magnifier son Nom, soit employée à ce faire, soit en parlant ou en chantant. 24

23

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Bruno Bürki, ‘The Reformed Tradition in Continental Europe: Switzerland, France, and Germany’, 436–462, in Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen Westerfield Tucker (eds.), The Oxford History of Christian Worship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 445. Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 419, and Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xiii-xiv.

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This is, therefore, the very essence of worship: the preaching and glorification of God’s name, which means that the preaching of God’s word or the spreading of the Gospel, coupled with giving praise to God, belong to the genuine worship of the church. One cannot function without the other, so there is no preaching without worship, and there is no worship without preaching; moreover, preaching is worship and worship is preaching. This is why Calvin realized that worship is being performed through words and songs, namely through preaching and singing, so the preaching of God’s word—which is essentially the proclamation of the Gospel—can be done not only through sermons or public discourses, but also through the believers’ individual and communal singing. Calvin, however, does not insist on this aspect although it is vital for theology in general; what he prefers to do is explain how church worship is performed through singing and in so doing he highlights the communal aspect of worship. As far as Calvin is concerned, the gathering of believers must lift up praises to God in public, namely in Christian churches, during the public services of the church, which shows to everybody that all believers follow the same path. In other words, the public worship of the church is important for the corporate testimony of believers in society and in the world, since it proves, as Calvin puts it, that the church worships in the same spirit and the same faith. All Christians must go in the very same direction, and this is demonstrated by the public services of the church which of course include sermons and the singing of psalms. Worship, therefore, shows the entire world that all believers must honor God by proving that they share the same spirit and the same faith (nous honnorons Dieu d’un mesme esprit et d’une mesme foy/ut Deum, quem uno spiritu eademque fide colimus). 25 25

For details about the connection between faith and spirit in Cal-

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Since worship vividly demonstrates the faith and spirit of the church before the whole world, it is clear that worship also has an evangelizing role. In worshipping before God, the church must speak with the same voice, and in so doing, the church utters one single word—most likely a reference to the word of God, or the message of the Gospel—in order to prove its own confession of faith (menifestement la confession de la foy/confessionem fidei accipiant). 26 This specific work of the church though—which is performed through worship, namely through preaching and singing—must be applied practically for the sake of our neighbor, namely for the sake of each human being who hears the church’s confession of faith. Worship, therefore, must preach—through words and songs—the faith of the church for the strengthening/edification of the entire brotherhood and the encouragement of all believers so that they are enabled to lead lives based on their confession of faith (et soit édifié et incité à l’imitation d’icelle [de la confession de la foy]/ad cujus exemplum invitentur et incitentur). 27 Faith and confession of faith, however, cannot exist without the preaching of the word, the Gospel, and this must also be done through singing. It may well be the case that some people could be hardened in their stubbornness to refuse the church’s preaching; if so, preaching will do no good to those who are not willing to listen, but in such

26

27

vin’s theology, see Benjamin C. Milner, Jr., Calvin’s Doctrine of the Church (Leiden: Brill, 1970), 162. See also Randall C. Zachman, The Assurance of Faith. Conscience in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 234. The Psalms and especially the model provided by David helped Calvin build a theology of spiritual edification. See G. Sujin Pak, The Judaizing Calvin. Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 78.

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instances the singing ministry of the church—and the singing of psalms in particular—may prove to be a far better approach when it comes to disseminating the word of God amongst those who staunchly refuse the more traditional preaching of God’s word through sermons. In this sense, the singing of psalms may turn into what can be called a more artistic Gospel since the effect of singing on man’s mind can be more soothing than the direct address of spoken orations. This is why, in Calvin’s thought, the content of the church’s hymns must be the very word of God, because this is the only reality which can make sure that the firmness of faith and the effectiveness of its confession are an active ingredient in the practical life of the church. 28 The belief of the French Huguenots that Psalms are the word of God, which has the power to work out true conversion—in strict historical terms, they referred to switching from Catholicism to Protestantism—is the foundation of the Huguenot Psalter. The word of God transforms man’s life to the deepest profundity of his feelings, so certain means which facilitate this work should be employed both in and outside the church when believers spread the word of God to those who are still unwilling or unable to believe. Calvin was convinced that music has the power to penetrate the heart, and when accompanied by words it goes straight to the depths of the heart. This is why he suggests that secular music should be abandoned to the benefit of the exclusive use of God’s words in ecclesiastical hymns—hence the idea to sing the words of the psalms. Consequently, one can now understand why, in Calvin, the singing of psalms is essential for the evangelization of those who do not possess true faith in their hearts. It seems to be easier literally to transport and 28

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 419, și Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xiii-xiv.

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transpose God’s words in the heart of unbelievers if and when carried to the destination, which is man’s heart, through music. Songs, and music in general, tend to facilitate the transmission and reception of the Gospel, since they stick more easily to man’s memory from where they can start to transform the whole mind, will, and feelings. Since psalms contain God’s words, they can work out true conversion, so psalm singing is, on the one hand, solid proof that God himself places his words in our mouths and, on the other hand, a form of communion or fellowship with God. The singing of psalms is ultimately a way of life; it means living—as a believer—in the very presence of God himself. Psalms, Calvin believed, are being sung on a permanent basis once imprinted in man’s heart and this is yet another proof that they are God’s very word, which is capable of transforming man’s life from unbelief to genuine faith. 29 Thus, the philosophy which lies at the basis of the Huguenot Psalter is precisely the conviction that psalms must be sung by heart—from one’s own memory—and with one’s whole heart because they are the word of God. The ability of psalms—in their capacity as the word of God—fundamentally to change man’s life was practically demonstrated by the decision of some people to leave Catholicism in favor of Protestantism; for instance, Nicholas Pithou from Troyes who, while still being extremely ill, heard Psalm 13 in his mind. 30 Pithou appears to have con29

30

For details about the authority of God’s word in Calvin’s theology, see Charles Partee, The Theology of John Calvin (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 57. Conversion is essential for the French Huguenots especially because it had direct repercussions over one’s church membership. Hence the intransigence of the French Protestants for those who joined or rejoined Catholicism who seemingly demonstrated that they had never gone through the reality of personal conversion.

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fessed that he had been healed the very same day; he then decided to take his wife and travel to Geneva where they both began to study Reformed theology in minute detail. Pithou and his wife eventually returned to Troyes, where he assumed leadership of the local Reformed congregation. 31 This is merely one case which proves the extremely powerful influence of the word of God, as revealed in psalms, over the lives of those who were willing not only to listen to it, but also dramatically to change their lives and live accordingly while actively getting involved in the life of the church. Something which was more than just a mind trick appears to have convinced the French Protestants of the validity, efficiency, and veracity of the psalms as God’s word, especially when they were sung in various ecclesiastical or non-ecclesiastical contexts. If, during the sixteenth century, French Reformed churches realized that the singing of psalms could be effective in Christian mission and evangelization, there is absolutely no reason why contemporary churches should shun such a conviction. In fact, contemporary churches of different confessional persuasion should at least make the mental, if not the practical exercise to consider the possibility of including the psalms in their worship either by singing them or merely by reciting them. The preaching and dissemination of God’s word in the context of liberal-radical secularism of contemporary society can be facilitated by the inclusion of a Huguenotlike psalter in the actual worship of every church which is at least willing to try it. History proves that it can be an extremely beneficial addition to ecclesiastical life and practice, since such a psalter can be at least as effective as the

31

Philip Benedict, Rouen during the Wars of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, reprinted in 2003), 141. Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 44–45.

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Huguenot Psalter some half a millennium ago when it was plainly demonstrated that it can function as a valid device for the preaching of God’s word. The world may have changed dramatically, but man’s spiritual needs seem to have remained the same—all the more reason for returning to the singing of psalms in our desperately postChristian churches.

REASON AND FEELINGS For Calvin, singing in church is not just an issue which has to be demonstrated theologically, but also an inheritance that the church has always enjoyed since its beginnings. Without insisting too much on this aspect which, as Calvin himself says, is mentioned only in passing (j’en diray en passant ce mot/ut id quoque obiter dicam), he nevertheless points out that church hymns and church singing are very old realities of believers’ lives (elle est fort ancienne/vetustissimum esse constat) which overlap with apostolic times. One can easily conclude therefore that the church has always been characterized by a singing kind of worship; singing appears thus to have been a constitutive part of the life of the church ever since it first emerged in history. There has never been a time when singing was excluded from the practice of the church, so when one speaks of the church he or she automatically speaks of church singing as well. Going back in history as early as apostolic times is not only a historical exercise for Calvin; on the contrary, he seems to be looking for clues which not only validate, but also sustain singing and worship through hymns in the church of his own time. Thus Calvin seems convinced that the church of the apostles was busy with hymn singing— unfortunately though Calvin offers no references to the actual content of apostolic hymns—because the apostles themselves appear to have promoted this way of worship

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before God (les Apostres mesmes en ont usé/Apostolis quoque in usu fuisse). 32 In this respect, Calvin gives the example of the apostle Paul who writes in 1 Corinthians 14:15 that he ‘will sing with [his] spirit, but [he] will also sing with [his] understanding’ (canam spiritu, canam et mente). 33 Another text which is mentioned by Calvin is Colossians 3:16, where the same apostle Paul writes that believers should ‘teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in [their] hearts’. The phrase which was rendered in English as ‘with gratitude in [their] hearts’ appears in Calvin as ‘with grace in [their] hearts’, namely with benevolence, with an attitude of respect and acceptance for the spiritual benefit of the entire congregation, in which believers mutually strengthen each other in faith. Here is how Calvin explains it: Quant à la façon de chanter aux Eglises, j’en diray en passant ce mot, que not seulement elle est fort ancienne, mais que les Apostres mesmes en ont usé, comme on peut dedure de ces parolles de sainct Paul: je chanteray de bouche, et je chanteray d’intelligence [1 Corinthians 14:15]. Item aux Colossiens, vous enseignans ext exhortans l’un l’autre entre vous par 32

33

The proof that there is a connection between apostolic theology and true church worship is based on Calvin’s conviction that the Apostles’ Creed needs to be recited in the church, which his church in Geneva did on a regular basis. See William Dyrness, A Primer on Christian Worship. Where We’ve Been, Where We Go, Where We Can Go (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 35–36. The French translation of Calvin’s Institutio mentions the text of 1 Corinthians 14:15 in the following version: ‘je chanteray de bouch, et je chanteray d’intelligence’, which actually means that ‘I shall sing with my mouth, but I shall also sing with my intelligence/mind/reason’.

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hymnes, pseaumes et cantiques spirituels, chantans en vos coeurs au Seigneur avec grace [Colossians 3:16]. Car au premier passage il monstre qu’on doit chanter de coeur et de langue: au second il loue les chansons spirituelles, par lesquelles les fideles s’edifient entre eux. 34

The two biblical texts selected by Calvin are clear when it comes to the actual content of the hymns which are to be sung in churches; thus, the hymns can include psalms or other texts that are not explicitly linked with scriptural texts. The effectiveness of church singing, however, is given by the believer’s gratitude, benevolence, and even grace, an attitude which must accompany each hymn that is being sung in the church. 35 This theological conviction so vividly expressed by Calvin through the citation of the two biblical texts reflects what can be called a holistic anthropology which exposes the human being in its totality before God; man as a whole being with mind and heart, with reason and feelings, must express his gratitude to God through the singing of hymns; such an attitude, Calvin seems to imply, is a state of spiritual normality and rectitude which has to characterize the personal relationship between each believer and God. Church singing, therefore, is not merely a manifestation of the church as a congregation or as a community of 34 35

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 419. See also Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xiv. On the other hand, grace should not be an attitude which is exclusively displayed by believers during church worship; on the contrary, grace comes to believers straight from God himself when worship is based on God’s word from Scripture. See, for details, Julius J. Kim, ‘At Work and Worship in the Theater of God: Calvin the Man and Why I Care’, 31–52, in John Piper and David Mathis (eds.), With Calvin in the Theater of God. The Glory of Christ and Everyday Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 49.

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believers which is being carried out regularly whenever the church gathers together before God for worship, but also a reality of the individual believer’s personal and spiritual life. Thus, each believer has the duty to present himself before God and in so doing he must praise God not only through words, but also through singing, which is nothing but the normal, natural result of a healthy relationship with God. Singing must be performed in and with the spirit, but also with the mind, with the believer’s reason, because the rectitude as well as the efficiency of the believer’s personal relationship with God is based on the former’s total participation in it. 36 God’s spirit and the believer’s reason complement each other mutually with the specific purpose of avoiding extreme manifestations such as the case when singing without the spirit turns in a merely artistic act or when singing without reason or mind most likely becomes something which is anything but artistic. This is why, in Calvin, the spirit never works without reason and neither does reason without the spirit since this cooperation guarantees the spiritual character of church singing. 37 It is very likely that putting together the spirit and reason in church singing is not only a spiritual command for Calvin; one can only think about the practical situation of Calvin’s church in Geneva where the reformer could have seen what happens when either the spirit or reason—or perhaps even both—are excluded from worship, a situation he seems to have been determined to avoid at all costs. In all things balance is a must and Calvin appears to have been acutely 36

37

This conviction is also characteristic of Calvin’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. See John J. Davis, Worship and the Reality of God. An Evangelical Theology of Real Presence (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 128. Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 419, and Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xiv.

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aware of the permanent need to have reason and feelings brought together in a unity which is governed exclusively by the spirit of God and the spirituality provided by God’s very words taken from the Book of Psalms. The balance between reason and spirit guaranteed the permanence of psalm singing in France during tough times in which the social, political, and religious situation was not exactly favorable to Protestants. What is truly interesting in connection with psalm singing in sixteenthcentury France has to do with the fact that Catholics too were very keen to sing psalms, sometimes even the psalms which had been translated into French by the Protestants Clement Marot 38 and Theodore de Bèze. 39 Consequently, the singing of psalms had become a genuine church custom which was very much on vogue in the first half of the sixteenth-century and proved impossible to stop despite the interdiction of psalms and psalm singing in the French language issued by the theology doctors from the University of Sorbonne in 1543. 40 Quite obviously, their decision was ignored by Protestants and Catholics alike, but things began to get worse especially after the year 1550, when the singing of psalms was associated with Protestant worship once the Genevan Psalter as well as the psalms translated in French by de Bèze were published and became available to the 38

39

40

The influence of Marot’s texts was simply immense in France. For details, see Dick Wursten, ‘Did Clément Marot Really Offer His Trente Psaulmes to the Emperor Charles V in January 1540?’, 240– 250, in Renaissance Studies 22.2 (2008): 247. See also Jeanice Brooks, ‘France, ii: 1560–1600’, 171–181, in James Haar (ed.), European Music, 1520–1640 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), 177. Peter J. Arnade, Beggars, Iconoclasts, and Civil Patriots. The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008), 69.

100 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES general public. 41 The Genevan Psalter contains a wide range of extremely militant theological texts based on Calvin’s theology and various Reformed confessions of faith, which—quite understandably—triggered solid reactions and criticism in the Catholic camp. In 1558, for instance, conflicts erupted in the streets of Paris between psalm singers, evidently the Protestants, and groups of equally militant Catholics; this unprecedented situation, which appears to have been rather serious, forced King Henri II to forbid psalm singing in public. 42 The French Protestants refused to obey the royal decree, so psalm singing was abandoned neither in public, nor in private worship. On the contrary, the French Protestants began to organize religious services outside the cities and they would all head to those special venues while singing psalms. What is clear, however, is that regardless of whether it was a form of religious protest or just a manifestation of genuine faith (or both), the singing of psalms grew stronger and the Protestants ever more determined to continue to sing psalms despite the political decisions which unsuccessfully attempted to sever this practice from church worship. As a result, in the first decade of the second half of the sixteenth century, the singing of psalms became essential for the identity of Huguenot churches since most of them decided to choose for themselves a favorite psalm which would be considered representative for the whole local community of believers. The popularity of psalm singing among the French Protestants was also the result of the humanist education which both

41

42

See, for details, Hughes Oliphant Old, Worship. Reformed according to Scripture, revised and expanded edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 45. Paul Schmitt, La Réforme catholique. Le combat de Maldonat, 1534– 1583 (Paris: Beauchesne Éditeur, 1985), 228.

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Marot and de Bèze enjoyed as students, 43 because they both knew how to use simple phrases, parallelisms, and elements of textual as well as melodic symmetry, metaphors and the rich imagery of biblical psalms. 44 Marot and de Bèze remained faithful to the original text of the Bible, so the Huguenot Psalter has a powerful poetic message, a very simple lyrical line, a powerful didactic/teaching message, juxtaposed as well as antithetic images which were meant to facilitate the understanding and memorization of the text. 45 At the same time, each syllable corresponds to a musical key with the evident purpose of singing the words in a manner which is both easy to understand and to assimilate by ordinary believers singing in the pew. The psalter is monodic, not polyphonic, 46 which is just another aspect which facilitated the memorization and singing of psalms, especially given the fact that each psalm had its own melody. 47

43

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45

46

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Michael Jinkins, ‘Theodore Beza: Continuity and Regression in the Reformed Tradition’, 131–154, in Evangelical Quarterly 64.2 (1992): 137. For details about the humanistic education and devices used by Marot and de Bèze, as well as about their interest in poetry, see Robert D. Linder, ‘Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation’, 167–181, in Church History 44.2 (1975): 179. The memorization of psalms is a basic feature of the Huguenots’ Protestant identity. Paulette Lebranc, Les paraphrases françaises des psaumes a la fin de la période baroque, 1610–1660 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de Frances, 1960), 157. Calvin strongly opposed polyphonic singing, although polyphony eventually became a characteristic of the music of the Huguenot Psalter. See, for further details, Ermanno Genre, Le culte chrétien. Une perspective protestante (Genève: Labor et Fides, 2008, originally published in 2004), 76. See also Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 44–45.

102 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES All these characteristics, so specific to the Huguenot Psalter, can be appropriated by today’s Protestant and non-Protestant churches despite the almost five centuries which separate us from what happened when the psalter was first published. The contemporary relevance of the Huguenot Psalter not only resides in its capacity to transmit—through its texts and content—the very word of God, but also in its capacity as a musical work, which was conceived to facilitate the transmission of God’s message in a way that is both simple and easy to memorize. This is exactly why contemporary churches can use the Huguenot Psalter for the drafting and publication of their own versions of the psalter if they are truly willing to improve their missionary arsenal and evangelizing efforts. They are both indispensable to each Christian community, especially because the mission and evangelization of the church, carried out in multiple ways which include singing, are always being performed before God, which compels all believers to behave with sincerity, earnestness, and moderation.

EARNESTNESS AND MODERATION Singing in church, Calvin writes, is not to be performed in just any way, which means that it should not be taken lightly. First, the believer who comes before God in worship, and in so doing singing praises to God, must be fully aware that he stands before God and his angels (devant Dieu et devant ses Anges/Dei et Angelorum), an aspect which underlines again the importance of the close connection between personal and communal spirituality on the one hand, and the thoroughly spiritual—yet equally real in ontological terms—existence of a realm that seems to have been designed for God and his angels. 48 The awareness, at 48

See also William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin. A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 225.

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its true value, of this liaison between man’s spirituality and God’s spirituality should transform church singing into an extremely important activity for each of the believers who engages in presenting him before God in worship through the singing of hymns. What really counts for Calvin is man’s inner attitude towards God; it does not really matter what kind of worship, through prayer or singing, actually is presented to God, but what is truly important has to do with the fact that the believer must be fully aware that he stands before God and that when he sings praises to him that is not less important than other forms of worship such as prayer, for instance. This is why Calvin makes it clear that church singing must be characterized by earnestness (gravité/gravitatem), which is the direct result of the believer’s full awareness of the personal relationship between himself and God. 49 Whenever the believer comes before God in worship, either through words of prayer or through the singing of hymns, he is literally standing before God, so the connection between the believer’s personal material existence and the spiritual existence of God is as real as it gets. The earnestness of worship, Calvin writes, is like an adornment (ornament)—not something which only looks good at the surface, but something which is good on the inside and is really capable of making worship a truly beautiful spiritual reality—that confers elegance and authority to the believer’s efforts to lift up praises to God (pour donner plus de grâce et dignité aux luanges de Dieu/cum dignitatem et gratiam sacris actionibus conciliat). 50 49 50

Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Worship. Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 48. Check John Witte, Jr., ‘Moderate Religious Liberty in the Theology of John Calvin’, 83–122, in Noel B. Reynolds, W. Cole Durham, Jr. (eds.), Religious Liberty in Western Thought (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003, originally published in 1996), 113.

104 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES Thus, all activities which happen in churches, spiritual singing included, may well combine with realities which characterize various aspects of the secular world such as elegance and authority, provided that they are accompanied by earnestness. Calvin is equally eager to explain that singing in churches is not exclusively a means to express the believers’ praises before God, but also a way to improve the quality of prayer. 51 Thus, Calvin writes, church singing encourages the believers’ hearts by preparing them for prayer (pour inciter les coeurs/ad excitandos in verum precandi). In fact, the prayer which is lifted up to God following the singing of hymns can be characterized by obvious enthusiasm which is supposed to grow stronger and more intense within the souls of believers (plus grande ardeur/ardoremque animos plurimum valet). Calvin writes: Et certes si lechant est accommodé à telle gravité qu’il convient avoir devant Dieu et devant ses anges, c’est un ornement pour donner plus de grace et dignité au louanges de Dieu, et est un bon moyen pour inciter les coeurs, et les enflamber à plus grande ardeur de prier […]. 52

At this point, however, Calvin speaks about the danger of developing an attitude which can be detrimental to the authenticity of church singing, namely too strong a preoccupation for musical aesthetics to the detriment of its spiritual meaning. 53 In other words, believers can fall prey to 51

52 53

For details about Calvin’s view of the relationship between worship, singing, and prayer, see Elsie A. McKee, ‘Reformed Worship in the Sixteenth Century’, 3–31, in Lukas Vischer (ed.), Christian Worship in Reformed Churches Past and Present (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 19ff. Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 420. Carlos M. N. Eire, War against the Idols. The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, originally published in 1986), 201.

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the idea that church singing should be first beautiful and then spiritual, rather than the other way around, so when it comes to singing in church beauty must never come before spirituality although the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. This is why, Calvin writes, believers must be extremely careful lest they should permit their ears to pay more attention to the harmony of music rather than to what it attempts to convey, while their souls will—quite obviously—miss the spiritual meaning of the hymns’ words (il faut tousjours donner garde que les aureilles ne soyent plus attentives à l’armonie du chant, que les esprits au sens spirituel des parolles/cavendum temen diligenter ne ad modulationem intentiores sint aures quam animi ad spiritualem verborum sensum). 54 Consequently, church singing must be characterized by balance or moderation (modération/moderatione), 55 which is able to confer holiness and spiritual health (une façon tressaincte et utile/sanctissimum sit ac saluberimum institutum) to the worship that is being brought before God by all earnest believers. In Calvin’s theology, church singing must never be exclusively aesthetic and artistic; in other words, it must not be promoted only for the pleasure of man’s ears (au plaisir des aureilles seulement/ad suavitatem duntaxat auriumque oblectationem), 56 because this kind of singing does not point to the greatness of the church (ne conviennent nullement à la majesté de l’Eglise); on the contrary, the only

54

55 56

In other words, the text always gets priority over music. See also Daniel Trocmé-Latter, ‘The Psalms as a Mark of Protestantism. The Introduction of Liturgical Psalm-Singing in Geneva’, 145– 163, in Plainsong and Medieval Music 20.2 (2011): 7. See also Guenther H. Haas, The Concept of Equity in Calvin’s Ethics (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1997), 89–90. Yvonne Rokseth, ‘Les premiers chants de l’église calviniste’, 7–20, in Revue de musicologie 36 (1954): 7.

106 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES achievement it can produce is utterly to displease God (ne se peut faire qu’ils ne desplaisent grandement à Dieu). 57 Calvin’s preoccupation for a church worship that is pleasant to God and therefore accepted in the eyes of God reflects itself in the Huguenot Psalter, which is often used to invoke God’s protection. Thus, returning to Nicholas Pithou, the minister of the Reformed Church in Troyes, it is being said that he had heard Psalm 13 in de Bèze’s translation—although other translations were available back then, such as that performed by Louis Budé, a reputed Protestant scholar highly versed in Hebrew—a text which speaks about the deliverance of the believer from the hands of his enemies who can be stopped only by God. In about the same time frame, more exactly in 1557, Calvin himself was urging the Reformed church in Paris to find shelter under God’s wings; the same message was delivered ten years later, in 1567, by pastor Pierre Merlin to the same Reformed church in Paris, which was now being told to stay under God’s protecting wings. 58 In the Huguenot Psalter, the idea of God’s protection is to be found in the psalms’ general meaning, which mainly refers to three key aspects: first, the original context of the Old Testament presenting David’s suffering as well as his victory against his enemies; second, the subsequent context of the New Testament describing the suffering and victory of Christ over death and sin, and third, there is what can be called a tertiary context, also to be found in the New Testament, reminding believers about the suffering and victory of the church. The Huguenot Psalter therefore appears to be built on two fundamental concepts, 57 58

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 420, și Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xiv. More details about Pierre Merlin can be found in Sara K. Barker, Protestantism, Poetry, and Protest. The Vernacular Writings of Antoine de Chandieu, c. 1534–1591 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 40, n. 107.

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namely suffering and victory, which emerge predominantly from the original and the tertiary contexts, while the secondary context that is essentially Christological is somewhat meant to stay in the background. Theologically speaking though Christology is essential for the Huguenot Psalter because, although believers are meant to go through terrible suffering as members of the church, they must identify themselves not only with Christ’s suffering, but also with this victory over sin and death. 59 Thus, God’s protection and victory are being offered to the church in general and to believers in particular by God the Father, who is so obviously present in the philological and theological formulations of the psalms. It is in him, namely in God the Father, that Christ, the son of God, can be seen based on some sort of retrospective hermeneutics which adds the initial message of the psalms to the soteriological perspective of the New Testament and to the general teaching of Christ, both key aspects for the proper understanding of the message delivered by the Huguenot Psalter as part of the worship of the French Protestant church. 60 In Calvin’s thought therefore the message of the Old Testament cannot be detached from the teachings of the New Testament and in this respect, when it comes to the meaning of the psalms, it is the New Testament, which speaks about Christ and his church that seems capable of deciphering the true message of the psalms. The psalms must be read in the light of the New Testament, otherwise their core message is missed and they are no longer able 59

60

Michael A. Screech, Clément Marot: a Renaissance Poet Discovers the Gospel. Lutheranism, Fabrism, and Calvinism in the Royal Courts of France and of Navarre and in the Ducal Court of Ferrara (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 150–151. Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 45–46.

108 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES to convey what God wants his people to hear. This is an indication that the message of suffering and victory, a pattern which is present both in the Old and the New Testament, is utterly and clearly explained only in the New Testament so that the church is taught that suffering and victory are inextricably linked with one another as part of God’s sovereign plan of salvation. It was this message that inspired the Huguenot Psalter, which in turn proved to be such a great spiritual relief for the cruelly persecuted church of the French Protestants. Contemporary churches, Protestant or not, should not refrain from appropriating the main theological principles of the Huguenot Psalter, especially if one takes into account the fact that contemporary history, in perfect line with the past, has not managed to detach itself from gruesome acts of savage persecution. Despite persecution, however, the churches have always managed to go through history to the point that they reached our times which, although not necessarily less cruel than previous centuries, can provide the church with a wider perspective on its own history, a history during which suffering and victory have always gone hand in hand. Whether persecuted or not, contemporary churches must never lose sight of the blend between suffering and victory as part of Christianity’s core doctrines. In this respect, the Huguenot Psalter offers us a sample of practical theology which is able to revitalize the worship of contemporary churches, be they Protestant or not. Consequently, the Huguenot Psalter can contribute, in a decisive manner, to the edification of the faith of today’s believers based on the example provided by the writing, composition, publication, and dissemination of a contemporary psalter—devised for specific churches in equally specific contexts and intended to keep the Christian faith as a stronghold of today’s Protestant or non-Protestant believers. If anything, the Huguenot Psalter is still able to teach contemporary churches at least two lessons: persecuted churches should know that suffering is always con-

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nected with victory as firm promises provided by God, while churches which still enjoy freedom from persecution should understand that, one way or another, suffering and victory are permanently attached to the life of the church whose believers must unceasingly conduct themselves with earnestness and moderation for the sake of everybody’s inner edification.

INNER EDIFICATION The public worship of the church, Calvin informs us, is being conducted by the members of the church before God himself, and it is in this respect that it proves to be so important not only for God, but also for believers. To be sure, worship is important to God because he is the recipient of the believers’ praises and thus actively involved in the church’s worship since he accepts those praises, and then it is important for believers, who must be deeply aware of both its content and significance. One can easily detect here a powerful as well as a determined reaction against Catholic worship that during the time of the Reformation was still being performed in the Latin language—which, while never understood by the simple people in the pew, was sometimes even beyond the reach of the parish priest himself 61—so the congregation was permanently being left without the faintest idea about what happened during the church service. No wonder that after centuries of church worship which was totally unintelligible to most worshippers, Calvin’s reaction erupts bluntly in pointing out that both content and significance are utterly important for the people who come before God. Worship is not something people do with hearts full of spirituality while their heads are devoid of 61

See, for instance, Anthony Grafton, Worlds Made by Words. Scholarship and Community in the Modern West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 155.

110 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES any theoretical and practical significance which can be attached to the worship itself; coming before God in the spirit without the active involvement of the mind makes no sense to Calvin who severely rejects such practices in churches. 62 This is why he insists on the necessity of having a worship service that makes sense to people: its content as well as its significance must be clear to every participant in the act of worship. In order for all believers to be able to understand the content and significance of public worship, and especially of that which is being conducted through singing, the believers’ praises brought before God must be presented in the language of the people. This way, Calvin explains—and this is again a reaction against the practices of the then Catholicism—the Greek language is not to be used by Romans, while the Latin language is not relevant to Greeks; even more importantly, however, what Calvin wants to convey without any equivocation is the fact that the Latin language must no longer be used in worship by French or English people which was unfortunately the case in late medieval and early modern Catholicism throughout Europe. Coming before God in an attitude of submissive reverence while one’s mind is left wandering away from the actual act of worship because of the language barrier is most unfortunate and, in Calvin, seems to be viewed as some sort of offense slammed in God’s face. One must never come before God with anything less than a full awareness of God’s greatness as well as of man’s unworthiness; man, however, must know why and how he should be standing before God, but when worship is being

62

The same attitude should be displayed regarding the preaching of God’s Word. See Dyrness, A Primer on Christian Worship, 38.

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conducted in Latin among French believers that simply does not happen. 63 This is why, Calvin stresses, the whole church must worship before God in the language of the people wherein the church exists so that there is no believer whatsoever who is left without a full understanding and awareness of what is happening during worship. The entire congregation of believers must be capable of understanding the content and significance of the prayers and hymns; otherwise, the words of the prayers and the melodies of the hymns become mere sounds which cannot be comprehended by believers and produce no spiritual benefit in the lives of those attempting to come before God in worship. Calvin is as clear as one can be when he writes that the prayers and hymns of the church must be brought before God for the edification of the whole body of believers (à l’édification de toute l’Eglise/in totius ecclesiae aedificationem fieri convenit). 64 This is why Calvin points out that all believers who come before God through prayer and singing must be aware of the possibility that there may be some people among them who have no clue about what is happening during the worship service. These individuals must be dealt with carefully, sensibly, and with due consideration so that they are helped in a competent way to understand what worship entails and how it takes place during the spiritual service. Those who do not know what happens during the church’s worship must be treated with love

63

64

See also J. Matthew Pinson, ‘Introduction’, 1–17, in J. Matthew Pinson (ed.), Perspectives on Christian Worship. Five Views (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 2009), 9. John H. Leith, An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1977, reprinted in 1981), 177.

112 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES (charité/caritatis) 65 and civility (humanité/humanitatis), two main features which should demonstrate the simplicity of worship. 66 When Calvin speaks about the simplicity of worship he does not mean an oversimplification which is based on artlessness; on the contrary, the Huguenot Psalter, which is so greatly indebted to his theology, contains versifications of true literary beauty and linguistic skill, while the music chosen for each psalm is, despite its evident simplicity, a competent display of artistic talent. Calvin’s theology does not advocate crudeness in worship and he certainly does not want to promote an uncultured approach to church singing. What he wants though is to make sure that people understand what is happening during the church’s worship through either prayer or singing because this happens before God and therefore it is as serious as it can be, but even more important, it has to produce a long-lasting effect in the mind and soul of each believer through the personal edification of the whole congregation. 67 Coming to church without understanding what happens during worship is the perfect recipe for spiritual disaster: people have no idea about the content and the sig65

66

67

For more details about the connection between love and worship in Calvin’s theology, see Elsie A. McKee, ‘The Character and Significance of John Calvin’s Teaching on Social and Economic Issues’, 3–24, in Edward Dommen and James D. Bratt (eds.), John Calvin Rediscovered. The Impact of His Social and Economic Thought (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 6. Simplicity must reflect the fundamentally spiritual character of worship, which is directly connected with the believer’s personal relationship with Christ. See also Julie Canlis, Calvin’s Ladder. A Spiritual Theology of Ascent and Ascension (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 130. See also William S. Haldeman, Towards Liturgies that Reconcile. Race and Ritual among African-American and European-American Protestants (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 57.

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nificance of worship and then they leave the service without having been strengthened in their faith. No comprehension results in no edification, and Calvin is not willing to have that in his church; thus, the strongly recommends that services be conducted in the language of the people, be characterized by love and care, and thus be a helpful means for the spiritual edification of each believer. In order to explain what he means by edification, Calvin resorts to the text of 1 Corinthians 14:16, which reminds us that a person who comes to church right in the middle of the worship service should be able to say ‘Amen’ with all believers despite that he or she understands nothing of what is going on there. If, however, that person is indeed capable of saying ‘Amen’ with the rest of the church it means that he or she was helped by the very worship itself to comprehend some of the content and significance of the prayers and hymns that were raised before God by the congregation. Here is how Calvin explains his view of edification in public worship: Dont aussie il appert que les oraison publiques ne se doyvent faire n’en langage Grec entre les Latins, n’en Latin entre François ou Anglois (comme la coustume a esté par tout ey devant) mais en langage commun du pays, que se puisse entendre de toute l’assemblée, puis qu’elle doyvent estre faites à l’edification de toute l’Eglise, à laquelle ne revient aucun fruit d’un bruit non entendu. Encore ceux qui n’avoyent aucun esgard ny à charité ny à humanité se devoyent pour les moins esmouvoir un petit de l’autorité de sainct Paul, duquel les parolles sont assez evidentes. Si tu rens graces de son non entendu, celuy qui tient le lieu d’un ignorant comment dira-il Amen à ta benediction, veu qu’il

114 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES n’entend point ce que tu dis? Car tu rens bien graces: mais un autre n’en est point edifié. 68

The worship of the church has a purpose, and this purpose has to do with the fact that the message of God should be presented to everybody in a way which is comprehensible, easy to understand, and simply makes sense even to those who are not acquainted with what normally happens during a worship service. Worship should therefore edify each person who comes to church, regardless of whether it is an ordinary believer or an unbeliever who happens to be there during the worship service. The worship of the church though does not achieve this specific purpose if only believers understand what is being said or sung in the church. As far as Calvin is concerned, such a situation cannot be tolerated; more, it cannot be permitted actually to happen during the church’s worship. All those who are present in the church during the worship service must be capable of understanding what worship entails when the church gathers to praise God publicly through sermons, prayers, and spiritual hymns. In Calvin’s theology, church singing must positively influence the spirituality of each believer; the tongue, therefore, must not be allowed to sing without the heart, because such worship is not pleasing to God (toutesfois il nous faut tousjours pense qu’il ne se peut faire que la langue sans la coeur, soit en eraison perticulière ou publique, ne soit fort déplaisante à Dieu/sic tamen omnino sentiendum: nulla ratione fieri posse, nec in publica oratione/ne in privata, quin lingua sine animo summopere Deo displiceat). 69

68 69

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 420–421. In this respect, Calvin makes a veiled reference to Catholic worship which is, in his opinion, ‘heartless’. For details, see Mary Trull, ‘«Theise dearest offrings of my heart»: The Sacrifice of Praise in Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke’s Psalmes’,

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In other words, Calvin warns the church against a danger which appears to be real and unfortunately happens much too often if the reformer is able to depict it so clearly. Private or public worship can easily degenerate in a mere image of what true worship is supposed to be whenever believers pray or sing without deeply and earnestly involving their hearts in addition to uttering more or less spiritually crafted words of praise before God. Worship ceases to meet its divinely designated purpose, Calvin seems to infer, when the believer simply forgets that he is standing before God himself when he or she engages in prayer or hymn singing; it is as if one person stood before another one in a conversation which lacks a true personal involvement. No mutual respect can be said to be manifested between the two persons and their exchange of words is no longer a dialogue. Likewise, Calvin realizes that the personal relationship between the believer and God is somewhat damaged by the former’s incapacity to stay focused on God with his or her mind, feelings, and will. For these three Calvin only has one word: the heart, but it does point to man’s entire person and his deep spiritual desire to come closer and closer to God, without any personal ambitions and even without uttering any words whatsoever: Davantage, que l’ardeur et vehemence du vouloir doit estre si grande, qu’elle outrepasse tout ce que peut exprimer la langue. Finalement, qu’en l’oraison particuliere la langue mesme n’est point necessaire, sinon d’autant que l’entende-ment n’est point sufisant à s’esmouvoir soymesme: ou bien que par esmotion vehemente il pusse la langue, et la contraind de se mettre en oeuvre. Car combien qu’aucunesfois les meilleures oraisons se facent sans parler, neantemoins 37–58, in Micheline White (ed.), English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500–1625 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 41.

116 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES souvent il advient que l’affection du coeur est si ardente, qu’elle pousse et la langue et les autres membres sans aucune affectation ambitieuse. 70

When the believer’s heart is being poured out in worship before God, then worship becomes intelligible even if no words are spoken—if not entirely rationally, at least spiritually—so unbelievers who are not regularly acquainted with the dealings of the church will eventually be able to understand its worship. Words are important and songs are important, but nothing is more important than the sincerity of the heart, which is the very essence of true worship. Words and songs must be accompanied by the burning feelings of the heart, otherwise neither prayers, nor spiritual hymns are effective in building true worship. Surely in Calvin, the heart is the origin of prayers and hymns if worship is to be genuine and true. The heart of each believer must be sincere before God so that before any words are uttered in either prayers or hymns, the worship of the church—both individual and collective— has already attained the status of genuine veracity. Thus, in Calvin, the necessity of having a church worship which can be understood by everybody must be manifest not only in the church’s communal gathering in public, but also in the believer’s standing before God in private. In other words, worship through prayer and singing must be understood both by the believer who prays and sings hymns on his own and by the gathering of all believers who worship before God in public during the services of the church. 71 Calvin though makes it clear that private worship is the foundation as well as the motivation of the church’s 70 71

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 421–422. See also Olivier Millet, ‘Influence and Reception’, translation by Randi H. Lundell, 397–428, in Herman J. Selderhuis (ed.), The Calvin Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 413.

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public worship. If believers do not pray and sing praises to God by themselves, on their own, in the privacy of their individual standing before God and as part of the practical manifestation of their personal relationship with God in such a way that each believer is deeply and totally aware of his or her innermost feelings of the heart, then their tongues will not really be able to be set in motion during the church’s public worship services. The love of the heart, Calvin believes, is the only spiritual reality which can provoke the tongue, as well as the whole body, to be involved in a true and genuine public worship that is not only in full accordance with Scripture, but also pleasing to God. 72 It is the heart therefore, which in Calvin points to man’s entire psychic constitution as reason, sentiments, and will that is capable of providing edification for individual believers as well as for the whole congregation. There is, however, a standard which worship must reach according to Calvin: everything pertaining to true worship must begin with and within the individual believer before it manifests itself in its divine plenitude in the public gathering of the congregation. Calvin seems to be convinced that there can be no spiritual edification for believers (and, if so, nothing happens during the worship of the church) unless the individual believer is edified first and then the church is collectively strengthened in its public confession of faith. If giving praise to God is the fundamental objective of worship with reference to God, when it comes to what happens with man during and through worship, then there is, according to Calvin, an equally basic purpose for church worship, namely that the believer should be edified spiritually, his faith made stronger, and his confession more effective and visible in and out72

Calvin, Institution, livre 3, chapitre 20, 420–422, și Le psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, premier volume, xv–xvi.

118 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES side the church. At the end of the day, however, what matters to Calvin is that the church’s worship be genuine and pleasing to God, before whom all true believers come with prayers and spiritual songs. 73 Such a worship, which is genuine and pleasing to God—as Calvin himself describes it—plainly demonstrates that there should be a very tight liaison between the church and God, and this connection is made manifest especially through the person and work of Christ. There is no other way in which believers can come before God in true worship; it is only through Christ that such a connection becomes possible as well as real when the church, as local community of believers, comes before God by lifting up prayers and hymns before his throne. Christ is the exclusive means whereby the believers’ standing before God can be achieved through worship; and it is important to notice here that it is through worship—regardless of whether worship means prayer or the singing of hymns— that the church is enabled to come before God through Christ. When it comes to Christ though, Calvin is rather precise in defining what it actually entails for the church. Christ is surely not a mere formula or perhaps a concept which helps believers comprehend the content and significance of worship; on the contrary, Christ is made available to the church as a divine person by means of his personhood and achievements. Christ as person, as well as Christ as active player in the drama of man’s salvation are the two main realities whereby Christ is presented to the church. At this point, Calvin insists on the work of Christ, which is made known to the church in his sufferings, and 73

For more details about the genuine character of worship in Calvin, see Carlos M. N. Eire, ‘«True Piety Begets True Confession». Calvin’s Attack on Idolatry’, 247–280, in Timothy George (ed.), John Calvin and the Church. A Prism of Reform (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 251.

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which must be appropriated by the church. In fact, as Calvin points out, the work of Christ—which consists of the sufferings that Christ endured for the salvation of humanity—must be accepted by the church to the point that each believer is enabled to appropriate them for himself or herself. Believers must take upon themselves the work of Christ; they must all put on the suffering of Christ as if it were theirs. This is not primarily a communal undertaking; on the contrary, it is an individual decision which each believer must take and it is only when all believers clothe themselves in the suffering of Christ that one can speak about it as a communitarian endeavor. 74 As far as the French Protestants were concerned, the sufferings of Christ took the shape of the various forms of persecution initiated against them by Catholics. The French Protestants quickly realized that they were religiously engaged in a spiritual war which translated—in political and social terms—as a civil war. Regardless of whether it was civil or religious, the war in which the French Protestants were engaged with or without their consent proved to be anything but lenient; on the contrary, it was brutal, cruel, and deadly, so they were forced to find means whereby they were not only enabled to fight back, but also—and primarily—to resist the devastating blows which decimated so many Huguenots as well as to help them cope, both spiritually and emotionally, when faced with the cold-blooded attacks of the Catholics that so often resulted in far too many deaths. The main solution found by the French Protestants going through the devastation produced by war and persecution was the singing of psalms, so the Huguenot Psalter rapidly turned in a means not only to fight against persecution, but also spiritually 74

More information about the suffering of Christ in Calvin can be found in Stephen Edmonson, Calvin’s Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 106ff.

120 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES and resolutely accept it as part of God’s plan for them. Consequently, the psalter was used as prayer by the persecuted Huguenot church, and in so doing, the French Protestants focused on the individual as well as the collective suffering of believers who had to go through events which, in far too many cases, ended in death. 75 At the same time, the psalter was used to express the Huguenots’ conviction that nobody and nothing is able to destroy their church despite the fact that, in certain moments throughout history, believers may well lose their lives for the faith they so boldly profess through their confession and public behavior. The psalter also underlined the fact that each believer faithfully considers himself or herself a true disciple of Christ. The French Protestants were utterly convinced that Christ was their master and it is in this capacity that he teaches them how to walk in faith, how to worship in faith, how to resist persecution in faith, how to cling to hope in faith, and even how to die in faith. This is why the Huguenots felt compelled by Christ to take up his cross and follow him not only in life, but also in death. The psalter was the reality which strengthened this conviction to the point that both individually and collectively the French Protestants were enabled to accept death not only as means to test their faith, but also a gift of God for their faithfulness. By using the psalter and firmly grounding their faith in Calvin’s theology, which lay at its religious foundation, the Huguenots were able to find a balance between God’s majesty—which, in his sovereignty and providence, could allow the persecution of the church even to the point of death—and his

75

Gottfried Hammann, ‘Sainteté et martyre: de la religion à la politique’, 27–68, in Pierre Centlivres (éd.), Saints, sainteté, et martyre. La fabrication de l’exemplarité (Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2001), 50.

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healing love, which was able to keep the faithful close to Christ despite the sufferings caused by persecution. 76 The idea as well as the reality of God’s love was of paramount importance for the French Protestants who associated it—and this may appear odd given the fact that they endured physical suffering and even death precisely because of God’s love—with the idea of life. Thus, for the Huguenots, God’s love was considered life-giving, but the capacity as God’s love to give life despite persecution and death was explained by them through its connection with Christ. The love of God thus can give life through Christ, but only when and if believers decide to obey God’s law. Persecution was extremely severe against the Huguenots, but—aided by the content and theology of the psalter— they were able to see obedience to God’s law not only as an obligation, but also as one of the greatest pleasures of life, and they frequently expressed this deep-seated conviction of theirs by faithfully singing Psalm 119. The Night of Saint Bartholomew was to test—severely so—this theological conviction of the French Protestants who, in spite of all those dreadful events, had the power to view the Huguenot Psalter as a spiritual instrument which helped them get over the horrendous tragedy caused by the massacre of August 24, 1572. 77 One of the Huguenots’ most basic convictions was that true worship can only be performed through the actual singing of the word of God—and it goes almost without saying that the Psalms appear to be ideal in this respect—which forced some of the Huguenots who had de76 77

See also Cristelle Cazaux, La musique à la cour de François Ier (Paris: École Nationale des Chartes, 2002), 155. For details about the massacre unleashed against the French Protestants by the French Catholics, see Denis Crouzet, La nuit de la Saint-Barthélemy. Un rêve perdu de la Renaissance (Paris: Éditions Fayard, 1994), especially Book I, Chapter 3.

122 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES nied their Protestant faith following the events of the Night of Saint Bartholomew because they saw them as God’s punishment for their unbelief and the fact that they had left the Catholic Church seriously to reconsider their faith and in so doing, to return to the flanks of the Reformed Church. On the other hand though, the Protestants who had considered the Night of Saint Bartholomew a solid proof of God’s providence began to highlight—also based on the singing of Psalms—God’s infinite and unparalleled goodness and love. 78 From a purely historical point of view, the French Protestants did not ultimately see the Night of Saint Bartholomew as an event which had been triggered by causes that were external to the church, but as a just decision taken by God himself for the due punishment of their sins. 79 Thus, the Night of Saint Bartholomew was associated with the concept of persecution because even the elect are left with sins in their lives, so God must duly punish each sin. This is a clear indication that the French Protestants professed a faith which was based on a pessimistic anthropology promoting sin as a permanent reality of man’s nature even following conversion. Life in Christ is a constant fight against sin, which causes believers to commit spiritual trespasses whether they are aware of them or not. What really counts, however, is the fact that God must punish sin in all its forms and manifestations, regardless of whether it is part of a pagan’s life or part of a believer’s 78 79

Hugues Daussy, Les Huguenots et le Roi. Le combat politique de Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, 1572–1600 (Genève: Droz, 2002), 84. Despite such a conviction and following the massacres, the French Protestants put an end to their attempts to sever the connection between the King and his councilors, whom they considered ‘evil’. See Robert Kingdon, ‘The Political Resistence of the Calvinists in France and the Low Countries’, 220–233, în Church History. Studies in Christianity and Culture 27.3 (1958): 227.

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life. For the French Protestants, sin was a serious offense against God and it did not really matter that it was committed by believers or unbelievers. Due to his righteousness, God is under the obligation to punish sin and it is indeed right that sin should be punished even when committed by God’s most faithful believers. This particular conviction was instilled in the minds of the Huguenots by Calvin’s theology of God’s sovereignty, so the French Protestants found it easier to accept persecution and even death when they saw them as God’s rightful punishment of their venial sins. Singing the psalms, which speak about human nature in rather pessimistic terms, only added to this religious feeling and cemented the Huguenots’ conviction that God was right in punishing them for the sins they had committed before him. 80 This is why Jean de l’Espine wrote in his Traité consolatoire 81 that the Night of Saint Bartholomew was a fatherly punishment administered by God as well as a necessary measure to discipline the Reformed Church of France. 82 De l’Espine therefore manages—quite successfully one may say—to present the idea, as well as the reality of persecution, in positive terms to the French Protestants who, thanks to the Huguenot Psalter, demonstrated a remarkable capacity to appropriate God’s love for their own lives despite the permanent danger and the constant threat of suffering through savage persecution. While the French Protestants had a very pessimistic or low 80 81

82

See also Geoffrey Treasure, The Making of Modern Europe, 1658– 1780 (London: Methuen & Co., 1985), 117. Jean de l’Espine, Traitte consolatoire et fort vtile, contre tovtes afflictions qui aduienent ordinairement aux fideles Chrestiens. Composé nouuellement par I. De Spina, Ministre de la Parole de Dieu: et adressé à vn grand Seigneur de France (A Lyon, M.D.LXXXIIII/1584). Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 47–49.

124 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES perspective on human nature that convinced them to believe that even God’s elect are dramatically affected by sin and therefore rightfully punished by God through severe persecution, they also entertained an equally optimistic or high view of God, whom they saw as displaying his everlasting love in a way which surpasses human understanding. For instance, the Huguenots were deeply convinced that the idea of punishment—evidently God’s punishment against their sins—cannot be detached from the notion of God’s love; moreover, the two ideas were images of reality, in the sense that God’s punishment always went hand in hand with God’s love in the actuality of their lives. God’s punishment is never applied without due consideration of the gravity of sin and is never severed from the full manifestation of his unceasing love. Thus, the French Protestants grew to believe that God’s punishment should be correctly, or biblically viewed as a visible manifestation of God’s love. If this is true, then it means that God never punishes us beyond our power or our capacity to endure that particular punishment. In other words, God rightfully punishes us in full accordance with the gravity of sin, but at the same time, he mercifully strikes us in his divine justice by giving us a measure of punishment which we can put up with. This explains why the singing of psalms is an obvious demonstration of the Huguenots’ faith in the redeeming power of God as well as in his love which saves us from sin, suffering, and persecution. 83 Their profound

83

It may be of interest to know that the Huguenot Psalter also influenced the worship of Dutch Reformed churches which also went through times of brutal persecution. See also E. K. Grootes and M. A. Schenkeveld-Van der Dussen, ‘The Dutch Revolt and the Golden Age, 1560–1700’, 153–292, in Theo Hermans (ed.), A Literary History of the Low Countries (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2009), 172–173. Also check Howard Slenk, ‘Christophe Plantin

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trust in God’s power to forgive sins inspired the French Protestants to use, on a rather large scale, the singing of psalms in order to bring back in their churches as many as they could from those who had denied the Reformed faith before, during, or after the Night of Saint Bartholomew. 84 Such attempts prove that the Huguenots held their psalter very dear for the core of their faith, since it was only God’s word—which was richly present in their psalter—that had the power to reverse the reason, feelings, and will of the lapsed to the point that they eventually accepted to return to the Reformed faith. Being fully aware that coming back to a church which is not only severely persecuted, but also under the actual threat of imminent death may indeed prove extremely difficult, the Huguenots decided to use the singing of psalms in their attempts to hook the lapsed into rejoining their ranks because, in their minds, God’s power and love go hand in hand in redemption. Part of God’s redemption was the reality of persecution, so it was not only the faithful who need to know that God has the power to bring the lapsed back to the Reformed faith despite persecution; it was also the lapsed themselves who needed to be convinced that such a power is not merely theoretical, but it manifests itself in a practical way. Thus, following the dramatic events which led to the death of so many French Protestants in 1572, the French Reformed Church launched a series of attempts aimed at convincing the lapsed to go back to their initial true faith. 85

84 85

and the Genevan Psalter’, 226–248, in Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 20.4 (1967): 226. Long, Religious Differences in France, 34. A useful study about relapse in sixteenth-century France with reference to Huguenots and Catholics is Keith P. Luria, Sacred Boundaries. Religious Coexistence and Conflict in Early Modern France

126 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES For instance, in 1573 an anonymous theological treatise was published under the rather long title Instruction de devoir de perseverance en la persecution à ceux qui sont tombez. Pour respondre aux scandales qu’on se propose et confirmation qu’il n’est permis de dissimuler la profession de l’Evangile et communiquer au superstitions de la papauté, whose purpose is beyond equivocation: to offer theological instruction to those who had denied the Reformed faith. It has to be underlined here that the theology which was being presented in this particular treatise was also used to lay the foundation of the Huguenot Psalter, so the French Protestants nurtured high hopes for the lapsed who were seen as being capable of returning to the true faith since the same theology and songs proved more than able to keep the faithful on the right path despite suffering, persecution, and death. Thus, one could read in the treatise that each Christian must take the cross of Christ while being firmly convinced that all those who lead godly lives will eventually be persecuted, as we can read in the text of 2 Timothy 3:12. The theological argument was consolidated by using two psalms which were used to persuade believers that the faithful always go through suffering although God is able to deliver them from all tribulations as written in the testimony of Psalm 34:19. The other text is Psalm 119:67, which was inserted in the argument to explain that the elect need persecution if they want to remain firmly established on and deeply rooted in the path of the Gospel. 86 In other words, persecution is needed in order for the elect to stay on the road which leads to salvation, so

86

(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005), 297–298. See Susanne Lachenicht, ‘Huguenot Immigrants and the Formation of National Identities, 1548–1787’, 309–331, in The Historical Journal 50.2 (2007): 312.

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one can see again how the idea of persecution is seen as a vital part of God’s plan for the application of salvation in the lives of his faithful elect. Consequently, God must correct us because of sin, namely because of the old depravity which causes man stubbornly to stay on the path of sinfulness. If the faithful believer wants to remain alive and not die with the evil of the world, then he must accept God’s punishment which oftentimes takes the shape of persecution. 87 Sin is both natural and unavoidable, but it must never be seen as a reason to plunge into despair because God is the one who tests our faith so that we are enabled to claim a powerful victory over sin. Thus, God’s love is stronger than sin because it is God himself who provides us with hope for the future as well as with power to defeat fear, including that which is caused by the looming threat of persecution. 88 It is vital to notice here that the theology of the French Protestants, so avidly expressed in the singing of psalms, is rooted in their belief that the elect have nothing to lose when they place their whole trust in God; regardless of whether they go through persecution and death or they are given the gift of freedom, they must remain equally faithful to God, his word, and his salvation as powerfully demonstrated by the singing of God’s word encapsulated in the ever so beautiful melodies of the Huguenot Psalter. Persecution generated numerous theological attempts to justify it as means whereby God decided to correct the errors committed by believers; one such attempt was drafted by Daniel Toussain who, in his L’exercise 87

88

Compare Gerald Cerny (ed.), Theology, Politics, and Letters at the Crossroads of European Civilization. Jacques Basnage and the Baylean Huguenot Refugees in the Dutch Republic (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987), 83. Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 50.

128 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES de l’âme fidèle, published in 1573, 89 uses a rather large range of psalms to prove that God never abandons those whom he called to benefit from his inheritance in Christ despite all persecution that come upon them. One of the psalms which were quoted by Toussain is Psalm 89:32–33, which text was used to encourage the heavily tried Protestant church of Orléans. 90 Toussain explains that the covenant between God and believers is based on Christ, his son, not on our natural abilities to obey it. He therefore builds on traditional Reformed anthropology, which is predominantly pessimistic in nature, and in so doing he explains that God was the one who chose us, loved us, and blessed us based on the beautiful and secure promise he had made to David. Thus, Toussain writes, God promised that he would never take his love and goodness away from believers, so the cruelty of persecution is nothing but a demonstration that God is testing us in order to keep us as close to him as possible. In Reformed theology therefore persecution is firmly connected with God’s love and, although this may seem rather odd and unnatural, God’s love is plainly manifested in and through the savagery of persecution. Whoever wants to be close to God will have to go through persecution sooner or later. It was sooner rather than later 89

90

Toussain’s theological treatise was a real bestseller on the then printing market. See Ian Maclean, Learning and the Market Place. Essays in the History of the Early Modern Book (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 178. The Reformed church of Orléans benefited from excellent theological training especially after 1561, when the Huguenots took over the city and started organizing public lectures during which they taught Greek and Hebrew. See Karin Maag, ‘The Huguenot Academies: Preparing for an Uncertain Future’, 139–156, in Raymond A. Mentzer and Andrew Spicer (eds.), Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559–1685 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, reprinted in 2003), 141–142.

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for the French Protestants, who seem to have been ready not only to endure persecution, but also to give their lives for God precisely because they were deeply convinced that persecution, and especially death as a result of persecution, was the way through which God brought us closer to him and eventually into his very presence. Another work which has the same purpose, namely to encourage the French Protestant churches after the Night of Saint Bartholomew as well as persuade the apostates to return to the church, is Traicté de l’apostasie, published in 1583 by Jean de l’Espine. This particular treatise contains numerous references to Psalms and frequently quotes from the Huguenot Psalter, especially the version which contains the translation performed by Marot and de Bèze. 91 It seems that de l’Espine used the Marot/de Bèze translation in order to strike the sensitive chord of those who had left the church as a result of persecution. The treatise is an attempt to renew the faith not only of those who had faithfully remained in the Reformed church, but also of those who had decided to deny their Protestant faith. Thus, as de l’Espine points out, the renewal of faith is not only possible, but also necessary, an aspect which becomes visible among the elect who will surely remember the fellowship they had and the hymns they sang whey they gathered for worship—a reference which is anything but veiled to the content the Huguenot Psalter. De l’Espine does not insist on God’s punishment which can strike the lapsed; on the contrary, he makes constant as well as numerous references to God’s love which can bring endless joy among the children of God. Because of this fact, de l’Espine insists, God’s elect must renew their faith on a regular basis, while the apostates are also called to a re-

91

Jean de l’Espine, Traicte de l’Apostasie fact par M. I. D. L., Ministre de la parole de Dieu en l’Eglise d’Angers (1583), 4–6.

130 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES newed faith if they truly consider themselves as part of God’s elect. 92 Since persecution is no longer a present reality for the Protestant and non-Protestant churches of the twentieth century—at least in the Western world—or perhaps precisely because persecution severely afflicts Protestant and non-Protestant churches in vast regions of the nonWestern world such as the so-called Global South (Africa, South American, and South/South-East Asia), the use of a psalter which is inspired by the Huguenot Psalter may well prove its efficiency for the church’s missionary efforts, especially when it carries out its evangelizing work in regions where persecution is either real or an immediate threat. Even when persecution is absent, the church must review its teachings based on Scripture, and if Scripture— through the voice of the Psalms—mentions the idea of persecution, then the church must take this possibility into full account. The Huguenot Psalter therefore can be an effective tool which can be used by twenty first-century Protestant and non-Protestant churches not only to revitalize their worship through the singing of psalms, but also to renew the dogmatic foundation of their teachings especially if the Huguenot Psalter is turned into a specific, locally oriented psalter that goes hand in hand with the general teaching of Scripture. A specific psalter, sensitive to local or regional ecclesiastical traditions, which is deeply rooted in the Huguenot Psalter can provide churches with a new approach to ecclesiastical music, but also with fresh theological insights based on the profoundly spiritual character of God’s word found in the Psalms; even more so, such a psalter can offer today’s churches a rich, and rather colorful blend between theology and music in a way which is both traditionally old (if one considers the con92

Diefendorf, ‘The Huguenot Psalter and the Faith of French Protestants in the Sixteenth Century’, 51–52.

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tent and music of the Huguenot Psalter) and spiritually new (if the content of the Huguenot Psalter is adapted, translated, or adjusted to the local realities and needs of the various churches from different geographical regions).

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN JOHN BRADFORD GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST AS GOD The idea of image in John Bradford is first associated with the ‘substance of God’, as he puts it, and it refers primarily to God the Father. In this particular context, however, the image is a reference to Jesus Christ and it is about him that Bradford says that he is the image of the substance of God. Thus, the notion of image in this text points to the ontological identity between Jesus Christ and God the Father, since Bradford underlines the former’s eternity, coequality, and consubstantiality with the latter; there is, therefore, an evident relationship between God and Christ based on the idea of God’s image. At the same time, it should be underlined here that Bradford’s idea of image appears to be Trinitarian in nature mainly because these three ontological features associated with Jesus Christ are shared by him not only with God the Father, but also with God the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son who can be said to be eternal, coequal, and consubstantial in all respects to the point of their total substantial identity. Other features though are highlighted in this text and, in so doing, Bradford intends to picture a holistic portrait of God which is dogmatically encapsulated in the notion of image. In connecting Jesus with God the Father and the Spirit, therefore, Bradford shows that the idea of image also includes other fun-

133

134 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES damental characteristics of God, such as the capacity to create, rule, and govern. 1 Evidently, they are all indicative of God’s sovereignty over the whole universe as his creation and—at the same time—selected to point to Christ’s absolute lordship and kingship over the same creation. ‘King of kings and lord of lords’ is the very phrase which captures this magnificent portrait of Christ in his divine capacity. In other words, Bradford wants to provide his readers with a perfect Christ, who has no flaw whatsoever. This is why he shows that other crucially important features can be attached to his person in a perfect way: ‘dignity, authority, wisdom, power, magnificence, holiness, tender love, mercy, glory, and all that can be wished’ are words which describe characteristics of Christ and none of them can be said to be lacking in Christ’s person. The image of God in Christ incorporates all these features and many others; for instance, Bradford enumerates a whole list which speaks about how Christ can be said to relate to humanity. Consequently, in his relationship to human beings, Christ is ‘Messiah, […] Brother, Savior, Mediator, Advocate, Intercessor, Husband, and Priest’. These characteristics which explain Bradford’s idea of God’s image as reflected in Christ are primarily meant to point to his divinity, and this is why he exhorts his readers to pay full attention to the fact that they must trigger in them a whole bunch of attitudes pointing to man’s reverence towards Christ as God. To be sure, man must exhibit esteem and love towards Christ; he must, therefore, embrace Christ with all his long queue of qualities which describe the idea of God’s image in his divine person. At the same time, how1

For details about God and his capacity to create in John Bradford’s theology, see Corneliu C. Simuţ, The Doctrine of Salvation in the Sermons of Richard Hooker (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 92.

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ever, these qualities are also meant to point to man’s constitution as a created being: not only Christ has dignity, authority, wisdom, power, glory, goodness, and mercy; we have them as well. He has all these qualities ‘like us’, Bradford explains, and although he has them in an absolute way while we have them in a less perfect way, the idea of God’s image includes them both with reference to Christ as God and to us as his creation. 2 Here is the full passage containing Bradford’s description of Christ: Now then, how can the thing which we be aboutward to celebrate but be esteemed of every one highly, in that the Author of it doth want no dignity, no authority, no wisdom, no power, no magnificence, no tender love and kindness, but hath all dignity, authority, wisdom, power, magnificence, holiness, tender love, mercy, glory, and all that can be wished, absolutely? He is God eternal, co-equal and consubstantial with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, ‘the image of the substance of God’, the Wisdom of the Father, ‘the brightness of his glory’, by whom all things were made, are ruled, and governed. He is the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords. He is the Messiah of the world, our most dear and loving brother, savior, mediator, advocate, intercessor, husband, and priest: so that the thing which cometh from him cannot but be esteemed, loved, and embraced. If dignity like us, if authority like us, if wisdom like us, if power like us, if goodness and mercy like us; yea, if any thing that can be wished 2

John Bradford, ‘A Sermon of the Lord’s Supper’, in 82–111, in Aubrey Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, M. A., Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and Prebendary of St. Paul’s, Martyr, 1555, Containing Sermons, Meditations, Examinations, &c., Volume 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1848), 83–84. All of Bradford’s works quoted in this study are taken from Townsend’s edition.

136 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES like us, then cannot this which our Lord did institute but like us; and that so much the more, by how much it is one of the last things which he did institute and command. 3

Bradford of course refers to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper which he sees as a spiritual way to picture the image of Christ in our minds and souls. When the image of Christ is clear, then the image of God is also revealed to believers, so it is in this sense that the image of Christ presents us with some sort of a more concrete image of God. While God is physically and therefore visually inaccessible to believers, the image of Christ is both physical and visible in the sense that, given his humanity, he was present among people and seen by numerous individuals with whom he interacted. This is why the image of Christ provides us with aspects which can be easily grasped and comprehended by our natural and physical constitution; and, in so doing, the image of Christ makes the image of God a little less hidden and a bit clearer to those in search of it. In other words, whoever wants to see God must have a look at Christ first, because this is not only the exclusive way whereby God can be seen, but also the only path which leads to God. Christ brings God to people not only because he is God himself, but also because God wanted to be revealed and then actually revealed himself in Christ for the sake of humanity, as Bradford clearly shows next. Bradford resorts again to the idea of God’s image in conjunction with Jesus Christ, but this time in order to reveal the reality of love. The love he has in mind is Christ’s and, by extension, God’s, so one can argue that Bradford’s idea of God’s image exposes the notion of divine love. God’s love, however, cannot be seen properly unless understood as a manifestation of God’s image, 3

Bradford, ‘A Sermon on the Lord’s Supper’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 83–84.

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which is visible through the fact that Christ is ‘the image of God’s substance’. It is in this capacity, which underlines his divinity, that Christ emerges as the ‘brightness of his [God’s] glory’ because he can be ontologically localized in ‘his [God’s] own bosom’. In addition to being a way through which Bradford points to Christ’s ontological equality and consubstantiality with God’s being, the phrase which depicts Christ’s being in close association with God’s ‘bosom’ also works as a description for God’s image. The reality which confers meaning and content to God’s image is God’s bosom; the latter though is both the locus of Christ’s being and the source of God’s love manifested in Christ. Thus, since God’s bosom contains God’s love and explains God’s image, it can be argued that God’s image equals God’s love. Bradford, however, makes it clear that in order for God’s image to disclose its true meaning, the idea of divine love needs a little more explaining. The love of God, therefore, is essentially oriented towards humanity and it is through humanity as its most fundamental reference-point that it appears in a more revelatory light. Consequently, God’s image reflects God’s love, which manifests itself towards creation and especially towards human beings. In its capacity to exist as God’s love, God’s image is closely associated with the notion of mercy. Love and mercy though go hand in hand in drafting a picture of God’s image who works within the reality of man’s sinful being despite his total inability to put his will to work for the sole purpose of fighting sin. 4 Since man cannot fight sin, it is only God who has this capacity, so it is only God who can effectively wage war on human iniquities. Bradford explains that God gave his 4

Man may not be able to fight sin on his own, but he does feel aversion towards sin under the pressure of God’s work in Christ. See also J. R. Broome, The Marian Martyrs (London: The Friendly Companion, 1969), 24.

138 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES Son—and in so doing God’s image confirmed again that at the very core of its reality one can easily see love and mercy—for humanity, so God’s image is an active concept since divine love and mercy, which are both constitutive of God’s image, were put to work in such a way that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was given for the sake of humanity. Bradford shows that God’s image also speaks of a limitation which God seems to have imposed on himself because the divinity of Jesus Christ turned into an evident humanity; to be more precise, the reality of Jesus Christ’s immortality turned into an equally valid reality, namely that of Jesus Christ’s mortality. God’s image presupposes an exchange of attributes between God and man: in Christ, God became mortal, while humanity became immortal. Likewise, God’s utmost richness became poverty through a similar exchange that allowed humanity to trade its fundamental poverty for God’s richness. God’s image, therefore, resides in the reality of God’s active love and mercy, coupled with God’s desire to turn man’s sinful condition into a far better situation characterized by ‘righteousness, innocence, and immortality’. 5 In this respect, Bradford suggests, God’s image revealed in Christ has three main features: first, it portrays Christ as a ‘slain sacrifice’ for humanity; second, it offers satisfaction of God’s own justice, and third, it transforms man’s limited reality into a new reality, very similar to that of God’s being. This is why, in Bradford, God’s image can be properly described in terms of God’s love, the active ingredient which fundamentally transforms man’s existence from sin to righteousness, hell to heaven, misery to happiness, justice to mercy, and glory to grace. At the end of the day, in Bradford, God’s image is not only a reference to God’s love and mercy—so poignantly evident in 5

Bradford, ‘A Sermon on the Lord’s Supper’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 103–104.

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Christ’s transformative ministry—but also a token of God’s truth which was confirmed through the fact that God has kept his promises throughout history from Adam and Abraham to Jesus Christ himself. 6 This is how Bradford explains the image of Christ, his redeeming work, and its corresponding benefits within the context of the Lord’s Supper and based on the idea of God’s love practically expressed through his mercy: Again, in hearing that this which we take and eat is Christ’s ‘body broken for our sins’ and his ‘blood shed for our iniquities’, we are occasioned to call to mind the infinite greatness of God’s mercy and truth, and of Christ’s love towards us. For what a mercy is this, that God would for man, being lost through his own willful sins, be content, yea, desirous to give his own only Son, ‘the image of his substance, the brightness of his glory’, ‘being in his own bosom’ to be made man for us, that we men by him might be, as it were, made gods! What a mercy is this, that God the Father so should tender us, that he would make this his Son, being co-equal with him in Divinity, a mortal man for us, that we might be made immortal by him! What a kindness is this, that the Almighty Lord should send to us his enemies his dear darling to be made poor, that we by him might be made rich! What bowels of compassion is this, that the omnipotent Creator of heaven and earth would deliver his own only beloved Son for us creatures, to be not only flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, that we might by him through the Holy Ghost be made one with him and so with the Father, by taking of him the merits of his flesh, that is righteousness, holiness, innocence, and immortality; but also to be a slain sacrifice for our sins, to satisfy his jus6

Bradford, ‘A Sermon on the Lord’s Supper’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 103–104.

140 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES tice, to convert or turn death into life, our sin into righteousness, hell into heaven, misery into felicity for us! 7

In Bradford, God not only makes an exchange between his immortal being and our mortal bodies for the sake of our salvation, but he also accommodates himself to the level of our humanity so that his redemptive plan—which is based on his love—is made more accessible to our capacity as comprehension: What a mercy is this, that God would raise up this his Son Christ, not only to justify and regenerate us, but also in his person to demonstrate unto us our state which we shall have! For in his coming ‘we shall be like unto him’. O, wonderful mercy of God, which would assume that his Christ, even in human body, ‘into the heavens’, to take and keep there possession for us, to ‘lead our captivity captive’, to appear before him always praying for us, to make the throne of justice a throne of mercy, the seat of glory a seat of grace! So that with boldness we may come and appear before God, to ask and ‘find grace in time convenient’. Again what a verity and constant truth in God is this, that he would, according to his promise made first unto Adam and so to Abraham and others, in this time accomplish it by sending his Son so graciously! Who would doubt hereafter of any thing that he hath promised? And as for Christ’s love, O, whose heart can be able to think of it any thing as it deserveth? He being God would become man, he being rich would become poor, he being Lord of all the world would become a slave to us all, he being immortal would become mortal, miserable, and taste of all God’s curses, yea, even of hell itself 7

Bradford, ‘A Sermon on the Lord’s Supper’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 103–104.

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for us! His blood was nothing too dear, his life he nothing considered, to bring us from death to life. But this his love needeth more hearty weighing than many words speaking, and therefore I omit and leave it to your consideration. 8

The Lord’s Supper provides Bradford with the perfect context to explain the exchange between God and man so that the latter’s salvation is accomplished through Christ. God is made accessible in Christ, Bradford explains, and that is visible in the elements of the Lord’s Supper. We can take the bread and the wine, which both speak about Christ and since Christ is God, they also speak about God. The Bread and the wine also point to the fact that God gave himself to us in and through Christ, so that we are enabled to grasp him, very much as we can take the bread and the wine. Then, in and through Christ, God becomes ours, and the imagery of the Lord’s Supper is also extremely helpful here: we can eat the bread and drink the wine, so we can appropriate God for ourselves, we can take God and make him ours. His being becomes part of our being in the same way that the bread and wine become part of our body. This is how the concrete image of Christ is able to provide us with an equally concrete image of God through the visible imagery of the Lord’s Supper, where the bread and wine—both pointing to Christ and thus also to God—are not only within our grasp to be taken in our hands, but also to be incorporated in our own bodies. The immortality of God is therefore made available to as well as part of the mortality of the human being.

8

Bradford, ‘A Sermon on the Lord’s Supper’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 104.

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GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST AS SAVIOR Bradford resumes again the idea of God’s image reflected in the person of Christ, who shares the substance of God the Father; in this respect thus Christ is the ‘image of the substance’ of the Father, which prompts Bradford to refocus on the consubstantiality, coequality, and co-eternity of Christ with God the Father. This is why he shows that these features of Christ, which—at the end of the day— emphasize his divinity, sketch an image of God whose main ingredient seems to be love. The powerful relationship between Christ and God the Father is explained by using terms such as ‘God’ and ‘light’. Christ is ‘God of God’ and ‘Light of Light’, a juxtaposition which cannot but point to the fact that Christ and God the Father do share the same substance because they are kept together, in the same substance, by what God has in Christ, namely his image characterized by love. It is important to understand that, in Bradford, the idea of love is not restricted to the image of God reflected in Christ. On the contrary, the image of God extends beyond the person of Christ into the actuality of all human beings, so God’s love is there for every man and woman precisely because God’s image is to be found in all. God loves humanity because all people have the image of God within themselves despite the reality of sin which Bradford is careful to highlight this time as well. Christ, therefore, the bearer of God’s image and love, is the one who mediates between God and humanity, who also bears God’s image, because of the reality of sin which had cast men and women from the ‘fellowship of God into the society of Satan and all evil’. In his capacity as supreme bearer of God’s image, Christ is not only the mediator between God and man; he is also the one who works man’s redemption from sin and evil. In other words, Christ is the savior of humanity. This is possible due to the image of God in man since, in addition to being divine, Christ was also human and it was in this capacity that he bore God’s image for the benefit of those who shared in God’s image with him. Because he was man too

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Christ was able to function as Messiah and, as Bradford puts it, ‘the heir of all’; Christ, to be more precise, had the power to solve the problem of sin by purging it ‘by (his) own self’ for two reasons: first, because he was divine he actually had the power to accomplish man’s salvation from sin due to his own being, and second, because he was human he was capable of being the Messiah and the Savior in his own being. The image of God which Christ shared with humanity allowed him to purge sins because of and within himself, which is the guarantee of man’s salvation and the very essence of the Gospel’s promise. 9 Thus, the image of God not only allows Christ to save humanity, but also helps people be saved by Christ so that they all—Christ and saved human beings—share the perfection of God’s image in a redeemed nature characterized by ‘majesty, glory, and power infinite’. These features are not yet part of man’s earthly existence but they are promised to him and will be part of his celestial existence when he and Christ are ‘at the right hand of thy Father’, where Christ constantly intercedes on behalf of all men. Christ’s work, however, cannot be fully and properly understood without an equally important knowledge of the things he had to go through in order to achieve the purgation of sins which he did as Redeemer and Savior. This is why, in his capacity as bearer of God’s image, man has the duty—according to Bradford—to try to understand Christ’s ‘passions and sufferings for mankind’. Such an understanding of Christ’s ordeal, which ended in the full realization of man’s salvation, is impossible without the image that God himself put in all human beings. Man though has God’s image and, through the work of the Ho9

Man’s salvation is possible because Christ is our Lord and our God. See also Esther B. Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights. Contested Doctrinal and Moral Issue (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007), 53.

144 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ly Spirit, he can be assisted in understanding what Christ did in order for man to benefit from the forgiveness of sins. Thus, God’s image in man goes hand in hand with faith, but also with other virtues, such as the ‘mortification of […] affections’, comfort in time of need, and patience in suffering. 10 The image of God in man, therefore, is the vehicle through which man has the capacity to grasp the full meaning of his salvation from sin, achieved by Christ through his gruesome ordeal. 11 In Bradford’s words: O, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of our everliving and almighty God, by whom all things were made and be ruled and governed, though ‘the lively image of the substance’ of the Father, the eternal wisdom of God, ‘the brightness of his glory’, ‘God of God, Light of Light’, co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial with the Father; though of the love thou hadst to mankind, that, when he was fallen from the fellowship of God into the society of Satan and all evil, didst vouchsafe for our redemption to become a mediator between God and man, taking to the Godhead our nature as concerning the substance of it, and so becamest man also, ‘the heir of all’, and most merciful Messiah, which by the power of thy Godhead and merits of thy manhood hast made purgation of our sins, even by thine own self, whilst thou wast here on earth, being now set on the right hand of thy Father even concerning our 10

11

According to Bradford, suffering should not hinder Christians from exercising their spiritual duties. This is why he supervised worship and the Lord’s Supper while in prison, but also preached to those who were willing to listen. See Ruth Ahnert, ‘The Prison in Early Modern Drama’, 34–47, in Literature Compass 9.1 (2012): 42. John Bradford, ‘A Godly Meditation upon the Passion of Our Savior Jesus Christ’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 196–197.

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nature, for our behalf, in majesty, glory, and power infinite; I beseech and humbly pray thy mercy to grant me at this present to rehearse some of thy passions and sufferings for mankind, and so for me, the last night thou wast here tofore thy death, that thy good Spirit might thereby be effectual to work in me as well faith for the forgiveness of my sins by them, as mortification of mine affections, comfort in my crosses, and patience in afflictions. 12

Bradford is aware that salvation also implies suffering, but suffering is not presented in terms of adversity, but rather as something which comes naturally to the believers who want to perfect their salvation. There is in Bradford a dramatic reassessment of man’s image in the light of God’s image and especially based on the image of Christ; it is natural as well as right for the believer to suffer for Christ because Christ himself suffered for the believer. Christ came from heaven to suffer hell, so if he was able to do that for the believer, then the believer should not find it difficult to associate himself with the sufferings of Christ. Suffering, therefore, provides the believer with a more accurate perspective on Christ; to be sure, suffering does not cause salvation, so it is not suffering which saves man from sin, but suffering is the natural result of salvation and even a way to demonstrate salvation practically. Bradford demonstrates that the relationship between man and Christ can only be extremely personal; man has no choice but to come closer and closer to God in Christ to the point that he suffers the same ordeal which Christ went through. Suffering, in the end, shows that the believer’s salvation is genuine and that God’s image was made perfect in his life. 12

Bradford, ‘A Godly Meditation upon the Passion of Our Savior Jesus Christ’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 196.

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MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST FOR ETERNAL LIFE The notion of image is also used by Bradford to talk about man’s existence as redeemed sinner and since man’s redemption was realized by Christ, it can be argued that the idea of God’s image also presupposes a relationship between man and Christ. Bradford mentions that the believer who was once a sinner will eventually be like Christ himself—and Bradford seems to imply that he refers to Christ’s resurrected body—because it is then that he explains that that believer is endowed both with ‘the image of the earthly’ and ‘the image of the heavenly’. Since both images refer to Christ and the believer is said to resemble both, one can infer that it is Christ post resurrection that Bradford has in mind here. At any rate, although the idea of image is not used here expressly to underline the image of God in man, it is safe to suppose that it may point to it since the believer is said to be like Christ. Since Christ is the image of the earthly and of the heavenly and the believer will be like him, it seems logical that the believer will eventually share the same reality with Christ, who not only shares God’s image with humanity, but is the very image of God. 13 It follows that the image of God in humanity goes through three stages: the initial prelapsarian stage when the image of God is created perfect in the human being, then the postlapsarian stage when the image of God is left severely damaged in the human being because of sin, and the last stage, when in Christ, through faith, the image of God is restored in the human being due to the work of Christ. The third stage, that of the restoration of God’s image in man, includes the believer’s resurrection in 13

John Bradford, ‘A Fruitful Treatise, and Full of Heavenly Consolation, against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 340.

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Christ, is thoroughly eschatological, and points to eternal life. The restoration of God’s image in man begins in history through one’s conversion, but is made perfect beyond history, in the eschaton, through one’s glorification, when the believer—as Bradford indicates—is like Christ. It is now that the image of God is totally restored so that the believer bears within himself both the image of the earthly (his creation in history) and the image of the heavenly (his re-creation which began in history and is perfected beyond history). In Bradford, the restoration of God’s image in man beyond history coincides with man’s glorification when the human being is no longer under the influence of sinful, earthly, and historical influences, but under the godly, heavenly, and eschatological embrace of God’s presence. 14 Bradford makes a clear distinction between man’s sinful, earthly, and historical life, on the one hand, and his godly, heavenly, and eschatological existence (which again refers to eternal life), on the other because it helps him underline the radical transformation which God’s image goes through within man’s own being. This distinction is illustrated through the difference between darkness and light. Darkness represents the state of God’s image in man’s sinful, earthly, and historical life without Christ, while light points to the state of God’s image in man’s godly, heavenly, and eschatological life with Christ. In Bradford, Christ is the standard for the perfection of God’s image in man, and especially the episode of his transfiguration, when his face was said to shine ‘like […] the sun’. Thus, God’s image, which exists in man’s body, goes from a ‘vile, miserable, mortal, and corruptible’ state in history 14

The idea of God’s presence was paramount for Bradford. See Sydney H. Evans, ‘Anglican Spirituality’, 13–16, in Gordon S. Wakefield (ed.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1983), 13.

148 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES to a ‘glorious, happy, immortal, and incorruptible’ existence beyond history. It is important to notice that Bradford writes about these things in the context of the fear of death, as an indication that it is only the image of God which gives man hope for a happy existence beyond death despite the darkness of sin and history. 15 Bradford’s entire argument is presented below: Here our bodies (as before is spoken) are in danger of innumerable evils, but there our bodies shall be, not only without all danger, but also be ‘like the glorious (and immortal) body of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Now our bodies be dark, then shall they be most clear and light, as we see Christ’s ‘face did shine in his transfiguration, like to the sun.’ Now our bodies be vile, miserable, mortal, and corruptible, but then shall they be glorious, happy, immortal, and incorruptible. We shall be like unto Christ our Savior: even ‘as he is’, so shall we be. ‘As we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly.’ 16

Perhaps the most important idea which Bradford wants to convey in this text is the fact that man’s natural and mortal existence can be transformed in a supernatural and immortal existence, so in a way, his previous idea that men can become gods through the wonderful exchange performed by God for our benefit is reinforced in a new way. We do not actually become gods, but we do become like God; there will be a similitude between us, in our capacity as redeemed believers, and him through the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our mortal image will be recreated or redrawn from scratch, in the sense that we 15 16

Bradford, ‘Against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 340. John Bradford, ‘Against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 340.

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shall no longer look like ourselves, but rather like Christ. While the main feature of our present image is death, the most important aspect of our future image will be life. The image of God, which is already in us through creation, will be made perfect through the recreation of redemption and salvation in Christ. In order for that to happen, man needs to rethink his existence and turn it towards Christ. Man’s relationship with Christ is the very condition which allows our mortal, corrupted, and earthly image to turn into and be like the immortal, incorruptible, and heavenly image of God in Christ. There is another text which contains the phrase ‘image of the earthly’ and ‘image of the heavenly’, this time though with a small addition which clarifies much of Bradford’s intention. Thus, the ‘image of the earthly’ is rendered ‘the image of the earthly Adam’, a clear reference to man’s creation. To be sure, man was created with God’s image as attested by and in the person of Adam, but even man’s creation and his prelapsarian state of perfection seem to be wanting when compared to the ‘image of the heavenly’. In Bradford, ‘the image of the heavenly’ appears as a metaphor of glorification, a state in which only God himself can place the human being. Glorification seems to be post-historical, so it is a reality which affects the human being after death and most likely after resurrection. This is because Bradford connects glorification and man’s becoming God’s image of the heavenly with the ‘day of the Lord’ which, although post-historical and eschatological, bears a clear resemblance to how Christ was after his resurrection from the dead. Thus, Bradford is convinced that believers will all be raised from the dead at the end of history, when the day of the Lord will cause

150 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES everyone who had faith to undergo the ‘resurrection of the flesh’ according to the final judgment of God. 17 It is important to notice that, despite Bradford’s conviction that the body itself is not part of God’s image, it is man’s body which is first and foremost affected by resurrection. Thus, man’s body, which was created in God’s image that was later trashed by sin, will go through a phase of total renewal, in the sense that whatever was sinful and historical will be left behind and everything which is eschatological and pure will be embraced in accordance with what happened to Christ’s body after his resurrection. Bradford explains that man’s body will become ‘incorruptible, immortal, glorious, spiritual, perfect, light, and even ‘like the glorious body’ of our Savior Jesus Christ’, a state of the body which coincides with the total re-creation of man according to God’s image of the heavenly, which is evidently associated with the person of the resurrected Christ. In other words, the God’s image in man does not only refer to man’s creation in history, but also to his re-creation beyond history into the eschaton, when God will fully restore his image in man’s resurrected body. Consequently, God’s image in man reflects not only man’s finite historical life, but also his ‘life everlasting’, a reality which becomes possible in man’s existence despite his sin and because of God’s redemption worked in Christ. 18

17

18

This conviction lies at the root of Bradford’s nonjudgmental ethical convictions, because he would rather consider himself a criminal than point the finger at another who deserved the label. See Craig Taylor, ‘Moralism and Morally Accountable Beings’, 153– 160, in Journal of Applied Philosophy 22.2 (2005): 159. The most striking evidence of eternal life is the total transformation of man after Christ’s resurrection, following the pattern set by the apostles Peter and Paul. See also Fleming Rutledge, The

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Eternal life is part of man’s existence precisely because God had put his image in man’s life when he was created as a historical being before he fell into sin. Man’s prelapsarian state of perfection as well as his postlapsarian state of sinfulness both reflect God’s image in man— although severely impaired by sin in the latter—but God’s eschaton, which becomes real in man’s resurrection from the dead at the end of history, appears not only to restore God’s image in man according to its initial prelapsarian perfection, but also to raise it to a new level of perfection associated with Christ’s person. Thus, in God’s eschaton, man will not be like Adam before the fall, but like Christ after his resurrection. What Bradford wants to underline here through the use of the idea of God’s image seems to be the never-ending benevolence and love of God, 19 who cares so much for his creatures that his final re-creation is not meant to bring man only to what he used to be when he was first created, but also to a state of blessedness that had always been associated with his Son, Jesus Christ. As far as Bradford is concerned, God’s image is not only the perfection which was intended for man through his creation, but also the absolute perfection that was bestowed upon man’s sinful existence due to Christ’s person and work in the re-creation of man through redemption, namely through the resurrection of his mortal body that

19

Bible and the New York Times (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 180. Since God is benevolent and loving, so are we supposed to be. For instance, Bradford reportedly gave his personal belongings as gifts to his imprisoned colleagues before he was burnt at stake. See Alexandra Walsham, ‘Skeletons in the Cupboard. Relics after the English Reformation’, 121–143, in Past and Present 206 [Supplement 5] (2010): 132.

152 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES introduces man to a state of everlasting existence. 20 As Bradford explains in his own words: […] The article of ‘the resurrection of the flesh’ have often in thy mind, being assured by this, that the carcass and body ‘shall be raised up again int he last day’, when ‘the Lord shall come to judgment’, and shall be made incorruptible, immortal, glorious, spiritual, perfect, light, and even ‘like to the glorious body’ of our Savior Jesus Christ. For he is ‘the first-fruits of the dead’ and as God is ‘all in all’, so shall he be unto thee ‘in Christ’. Look therefore upon thine own estate: for ‘as he is’, so shalt thou be. As thou has ‘borne the image of the earthly Adam, so shalt thou bear the image of the heavenly’, therefore glorify thou now God, both in soul and body. Wait and look for this ‘day of the Lord’ with groaning and sighing […]. Last of all, have often in thy mind ‘life everlasting’, whereunto thou art even landing. Death is the have that carrieth thee unto this ‘land’, where is all that can be wished, yea, above all wishes and desires, for in it we shall ‘see God’ ‘face to face’, which thing now we can in no wise do, but must cover out faces with Moses and Elias, till, the ‘face’ or fore-parts of the Lord be ‘gone by’. Now must we look on this ‘back-parts’, beholding him in his word, and in his creatures, and in ‘the face of Jesus Christ’ our Mediator, but then we shall see him ‘face to face’ and ‘we shall know as we are known’. 21

A key aspect of Bradford’s argument is the fact that, in Christ, man is able to change his perspective on death, which suddenly becomes a shelter for man’s existence in 20 21

John Bradford, ‘Against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 348. Bradford, ‘Against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 348.

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such a way that death literally transports man from a life dominated by sin to an existence without sin, as Bradford clearly explains in the following passage: Therefore let us often think on these things, that we may have faith lustily and cheerfully to arrive at the happy haven of death, which you see is to be desired, and not to be dread, to all those that are ‘in Christ’, that is, to such as do believe indeed, which are discerned from those that only say they do believe, by dying temporally, that is, by laboring to mortify through God’s Spirit the affections of the flesh, not that they should not be in them, but that they should ‘not reign in them, that is is their mortal bodies’, to give over themselves to ‘serve sin’, whose ‘servants’ we are not, but ‘are made servants unto righteousness’, ‘being now under grace, and not under the law’, and therefore hath God mercifully promised that ‘sin shall not reign in us’. 22

One can argue, therefore, that Bradford postulates an evident relationship between man and Christ, especially through Christ’s work of redemption, 23 which seems to reflect itself—in a rather mysterious way—even in man’s creation and especially in the creation of some people in a state that, according to Bradford, can be considered privileged; this seems to imply a rather hidden relationship with Christ before one’s actual creation and redemption. 22 23

Bradford, ‘Against the Fear of Death’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 348–349. It is important to understand that, in Bradford, Christ does the work of redemption, not man, and this should be applied to all aspects of Christian soteriology, including the sacramental theology of the Lord’s Supper. See Eric Griffin, ‘Ethos, Empire, and the Valiant Acts of Thomas Kid’s Tragedy of «the Spains»‘, 192–229, in English Literary Renaissance 31.2 (2001): 210.

154 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES In other words, Bradford has such a high view of God’s grace and salvation that he believes not only that salvation works historically from this life to everlasting life, but also backwards, from everlasting life to this life. It is as if, since the believer is saved or is re-created by God, he must have been under the hidden influence of God before his recreation and even before his creation.

MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST IN HISTORY In highlighting the privileged status of some people based on their hidden relationship with Christ before their actual creation and redemption, it is interesting to notice that Bradford displays a lower esteem for forms of life other than the human being, who is said to bear the image of God. This points to the fact that the special relationship between man and Christ has evident benefits for the former not only in eternity, but also in history. To be sure, in his understanding of creation, the human being reigns supreme over any other form of life; this is why he voiced his satisfaction that God did not create him an animal— this time the incriminated animal is the dog—but a human being. There is, therefore, a hierarchy within creation regarding the various forms of life where animals are clearly subordinate to humans. At the same time, however, there is an evident hierarchy even within the human beings themselves, which seems to reflect the benefits that exist for man as a result of his relationship with Christ. Thus—and it is here that the privileged status of some people which is based on their hidden and mysterious relationship with Christ before their actual creation and redemption becomes evident—if Bradford considers himself happy not to have been created a dog, he seems to be equally satisfied that God chose to create him ‘a Christian’, not a ‘Turk, a Jew, a Saracen’. In Bradford’s words: Thou mightest have made me a dog, but of thy goodnes hast made me a creature after thine image. Thou mightest have made me a Turk, a Jew, a Saracen; but

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thou hast made me a Christian, a member of thy church. Thou, after my birth, mightest have left me, and in all need have made no providence for me, as we sometimes see hath happened unto others; but yet thou never didst so with me […]. 24

While Bradford’s dissatisfaction with other forms of monotheistic religions is obvious—on the one hand, the Turk and the Saracen are clearly references to Islam; the Jew, on the other hand, needs to further explanation—he only reflects the intolerant status of his society which favored the Christian religion over Islam and the Jewish religion. Such a state of affairs which positively affected Bradford in the sense that—by birth, not by conversion—he finds himself in the camp of Christians, and not in that of Jews and Muslims, appears to underline his deepest conviction in the goodness of God that sovereignly manifested towards him in a mysterious way, through predestination, which presupposes the existence of a hidden relationship between himself as a human being and Christ, his redeemer, before the moment of his physical creation. 25 This does not mean that men have preexistent souls, but it can refer to the fact that Christ’s redemption has some a priori relevance for man’s creation. For Bradford, the image of God in this case is not exclusively a reference to God’s graceful provision that some beings were created human, not animal, but also solid proof of God’s almighty decision to single out Christians from other religions. In this context, therefore, God’s image seems to work as a 24

25

John Bradford, ‘A Meditation upon the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 141. In Bradford, predestination is not fatalistic, but rather a reality which should trigger one’s faith and trust in God’s loving care. See Gordon Mursell, English Spirituality. From Earliest Times to 1700 (London: SPCK, 2001), 358.

156 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES means of sanctification—not necessarily the soteriological sanctification which turns a human being into a holy person before God himself, but rather some sort of social and religious sanctification based on a clear separation. Bradford considers himself separated from animals, on the one hand, and from people of a different religion, on the other. This can imply that, in Bradford, the idea of God’s image is somewhat more than merely theological, in the sense that it covers aspects which tend to be social and religious. 26 To be sure, the image of God is not only what all human beings share as life forms created directly by God himself; God’s image, Bradford seems to imply, goes deeper than that in the sense that it is a bit more exclusive. Although traditionally all human beings— irrespective of their religious beliefs—share God’s image based on the fact that they were all created by God, Bradford appears to promote a much more restrictive understanding of God’s image which includes only Christians, while excluding non-Christian religions. It is difficult to assert with absolute certainty whether Bradford was aware of such an implication of his doctrine of the image of God in man—most likely he did not. His formulation, however, of this specific context in which he refers to God’s image allows for a restrictive understanding of God’s image which not only excludes non-Christian, but also points to Christians as being the only bearers thereof. It is unlikely though that Bradford ever went that far in thinking about God’s image; what he seems to have had in mind, however, is a profound desire to extol God’s 26

This is perhaps why, beside social and religious aspects, politics played an important role in Bradford. For instance, see his attitude towards the right of Queen Mary I to bequeath her throne in E. W. Ives, ‘Tudor Dynastic Problems Revisited’, 255–279, in Historical Research 81.212 (2008): 259.

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goodness. In this respect, therefore, the image of God is not primarily a reality which distinguishes Christians from non-Christians; the image of God is a clear demonstration of God’s goodness for humanity and especially for Christians who were made members of God’s church. This is why, in Bradford, the doctrine of creation seems to include the doctrine of salvation, because his conviction that God made him a Christian should not be interpreted exclusively on sociological and geographical grounds; on the contrary, when Bradford expresses his thankfulness for God’s decision to make him a Christian, he also seems to imply his conversion to the veracity of the Christian religion. If this is the case, then Bradford’s theology of the image of God in man is not only an exclusivist attempt to single out Christians as the true bearers of God’s image, but also an affirmation of the presence of God’s image in all human beings irrespective of their religious convictions. 27 Bradford’s high view of creation, especially in being coupled with salvation, is somewhat counterbalanced by his lower view of man’s sinful nature. He seems to be acutely aware of how damaging sin can be for the human being, predominantly in hindering man from fully realizing what God did for him. Thus, despite the fact that man was created due to God’s providence as a wonderful being which bears the image of God himself, man still behaves as if God had done him no favor, as if he had appeared in the world without God’s careful supervision and loving grace. Moreover, Bradford decided to apply this awareness of sin to himself—although his choice of words seems to imply that every human being should come to this awareness of one’s sinful nature—so he makes quite a 27

Bradford, ‘A Meditation upon the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 141.

158 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES number of references to how he failed to see God’s greatness in creation and salvation. He also warns, in a rather serious way, that God’s final judgment will rightfully come upon those who, despite the evidence of creation and salvation, remain irremovably cemented in a state of nonawareness which rejects God’s greatness and love for humanity: […] and yet I am of all others most unthankful. Thy creatures I thankfully use not. Thy invisible love by thy manifold visible tokens I consider not; as now I should by this apparel of my body, by this corporal health, by this light, by this my hearing, seeing, feeling, memory, understanding, time, place, company, creatures, and benefits, as well in keeping innumerable evils from me both in soul and body, which else could not but come to me, as also in giving to me presently so many things as without thy especial grace and working I never could have had or presently could keep them. In thy creatures I see not thy power, for I fear thee not; I see not thy presence, for I reverence thee not; I see not thy wisdom, for I adore thee not; I see not thy mercy for, I love thee not; I praise thee not but in lips and tongue. And therefore, in that all thy creatures do teach me, cry out upon me to be thankful to thee, to love, fear, serve, thee, and trust in thee, and that continually, in that I do not see, they cannot but cry out upon me and against me in thy sight, and in the day of judgment will weapon themselves against me. 28

Bradford acknowledges the seriousness of sin to the point that it obliterates man’s ability to see God as he really is 28

Bradford, ‘A Meditation upon the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 141–142.

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despite the fact that man was created in God’s image. He does open complex theological discussions about whether God’s image was damaged or lost as a result of sin; on the contrary, he seems to imply that while God’s image is still present in man after his fall, its original capacities to view God in all his majesty were suppressed by sin, so that man is totally incapable of having a proper relationship with God precisely because he cannot see God as he is in reality. Creation speaks about God in a marvelous way, Bradford believes, and it only confirms God’s love in creating man in his divine image; the problem though is that sin somewhat veils the image of God in man, and man is consequently rendered unable to perceive God as he should. Bradford thus realizes that, in addition to being created in God’s image, man needs an external intervention, some sort of re-creation which would allow him to see God again as he should be seen, in all his majesty and love for humanity. Man needs to be saved, he needs to have his eyes opened by God himself; otherwise, he will continue to see God in a wrong way, and this is not what man is supposed to be. Man is meant to see God and stay in a close relationship with him, so that he can benefit from this spiritual liaison, and in order for this to happen, man must become aware of his sin, seek pardon for it, and then accept God’s grace. This seems to be the only way which allows the image of God, which was placed in man through creation, to be unveiled, so that its capacity to present God to man in all the former’s majesty be fully restored through God’s salvation. Bradford explains: O, that I did now consider this! O, that my blind eyes and my deaf ears were opened! O, that my miserable and foolish heart were made wise and converted! This only though canst do, which hast all men’s hearts in thy hands, to bow them as pleaseth thee. ‘Bow my heart’, good Lord, ‘into thy testimonies.’ ‘Open my eyes.’ Make me to hear for thy mercy’s sake, that I may believe, and so love thee, be thankful to thee, amend in all things and serve thee; though not as thy

160 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES dear servants do, yet at the least as other brute creatures do; that is, to obey thee, and to be profitable to others. Now, forasmuch as my sins let this and all good things from me, I beseech thee pardon me all my sins according to thy gracious promise, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. 29

In a totally different instance related to God’s image in man, Bradford resorts again to the distinction between the human being and animals on the one hand, while on the other hand he points to the aforementioned hierarchy within humanity. Thus, he points out that in creating man—and the reference is again to himself—God chose to shape him in accordance with God’s own ‘image and likeness’. As a possibility, God could have decided to create him—namely Bradford—as a ‘beast’ or he could have chosen to make him a ‘Turk, Jew, or Saracen’, the unholy triplet he had already mentioned in a context with evident negativistic overtones. This time, however, Bradford’s explanation is a little more adorned with other details, such as a relatively detailed picture of the human being in its created state. The fact that God decided to create man as a special being, not as a beast, is particularly thrilling for Bradford because this means that man is created after God’s image. He indicates, as he did before, that in his capacity as bearer of God’s image, man is a being who has rationality, spirituality, and physicality. These features are indicated by means of Bradford’s use of the idea of a ‘reasonable soul’ which it itself is ‘endued with memory, judgment, &c.’ Bradford does not dwell on this at all in this text; what he does, in turn, is to underline the exquis-

29

Bradford, ‘A Meditation upon the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 141.

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ite character of the human body as indication that the image of God is present in man. 30 In other words, man’s body is a token of the image of God since Bradford expresses his thankfulness to God for having given him a ‘beautified body’ who has ‘right shape, limbs, health, &c.’ Again, Bradford thinks of himself when he speaks about man as bearer of God’s image; thus, he seems to have been a relatively healthy individual with a satisfactory bodily constitution because he admits that, because of man’s sin, God could have chosen to create with features that bear testimony to man’s essential sinfulness. To be sure, he could have been ‘cripple, lame, blind, &c.’, but that was evidently not the case. What is unclear in Bradford is whether God’s image is to be found exactly to the same degree in all human beings. He seems to imply that a physically or psychically impaired human being either does not share God’s image in its fullness, or he only enjoys a lesser degree of God’s image. This idea is reinforced when Bradford expresses his joy over having been created in a state which places himself outside slavery or everyday misery. Thus, he seems to have had some friends since he deplores men who are ‘destitute of all friends’ or ‘helpless for this life’. Another reference which indicates that God’s image in man is, at least to some degree, restricted to people who appear to be blessed not only spiritually, but also physically is the fact that Bradford ascribes ‘eternal damnation’ to non-Christians although both Christians and non-Christians share the same

30

Bradford, ‘A Meditation upon the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 141.

162 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES fundamental sinfulness of nature. 31 Here is Bradford’s entire picture: In consideration therefore of this, that thou, the almighty God, of thine own goodness hast vouchsafed not only to make me a creature after thine own image and likeness, which mightest have made me a beast; to give unto me a reasonable soul endued with memory, judgment &c., which mightest have made me an idiot without wit or discretion, &c., to endue me with a body beautified with right shape, limbs, health, &c., graciously to enrich me concerning fortune, friends, living, name, &c., which mightest have made me a slave, destitute of all friends, and helpless for this life; but also hast vouchsafed that I, being a miser, ‘born in sin, conceived in iniquity’, to whom nothing is due (more than to a Turk, Jew or Saracen), but eternal damnation, should be called into the number of thy people, enrolled in thy book, and now in thy covenant, so that thou, with all that ever thou hast, art mine; for which cause’s sake hitherto thou has kept me, cherished, defended, spare, and fatherly chastised me, and now graciously dost keep me in care for me, giving me to live, be, and move in thee, expecting also and ‘waiting how thou mightest shew mercy upon me’, in consideration, I say, of this, most justly and reasonably thou requirest that as thou art my Lord God, so I should be thy servant and one of thy people. 32

Consequently, God’s image in man is not only a proof of God’s mercy; it is also a visible sign of God’s wisdom since 31

32

For details about Bradford’s view of damnation, see John N. King, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and Early Modern Print Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 142. John Bradford, ‘A Meditation on the Ten Commandments’, in Townsend (ed.), The Works of John Bradford, Volume 1, 149–150.

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some people are destined to damnation while others are safely kept for salvation. If in Bradford God’s image is reflected only in those who enjoy God’s salvation through their relationship with Christ, it means that there is a direct connection between the creation of man as image of God in nature and the re-creation of man as image of God in salvation through the work of Christ. Either way, the relationship with Christ provides man with a series of special benefits which are evident not only with view to man’s eternal life in the eschaton, but also to his mortal life in history. This is perhaps why Bradford indicates that he, as an individual, was called to be a member of God’s people or his name was written down in God’s book. It is quite clear that both man’s creation in nature and his recreation in salvation are entirely acts of God and they both seem to have been realized in Christ. 33 Thus, God himself decided to create man physically and, in the very same way, he chose to re-create man spiritually: God calls man, he enrolls him in God’s ‘book’ and in his covenant to the point that God and man share a common reality which can be identified as God’s image in man, so evident in man’s relationship with Christ. If so, creation and salvation are both actions performed by God in Christ because his image was found in those whom he not only created for physical nature, but also re-created for spiritual salvation. This reflects God’s power, mercy, 33

The dialectics of creation and recreation—the latter being seen not as the restoration of creation but as the new work of God in the Spirit or as salvation, which is also Bradford’s view—was resumed in the nineteenth century by Dutch Reformed theologians, especially Herman Bavinck. See, for details, Ernst M. Conradie, ‘Oepke Noordmans (1871–1956): Creation as God’s Judgment’, 120–125, in Ernst M. Conradie (ed.), Creation and Salvation. A Companion to Recent Theological Movements (Wien: LIT Verlag, 2012), 123–125.

164 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES and wisdom in dealing with his creation and, since at least part of his creation—the human beings saved in and through Christ—are connected through a common state of blessedness, it can be argued that God’s image in man is defined by power, mercy, and wisdom, 34 which reflect themselves in the creation of man as being in the world.

MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF When he discusses the image of God in man as being in the world, Bradford approaches two distinct aspects: first, the physical and psychological constitution of the human being as a creature of God which has a body, and second, the fact that man has the possibility of belonging to the kingdom of God and especially to the church of Christ. These two aspects imply man’s awareness of himself, which postulates that man has a relationship with his own being based on his innate capacity of bearing God’s image. Concerning the first aspect, Bradford mentions that the image of God in man refers to the totality of man’s existence in the world as a living organism created by God himself. In this capacity, man either has or in fact is the very image of God and this can be seen in a variety of physical and psychological features. 35 For instance, in his capacity as being a bearer of God’s image, man has a body with ‘limbs, shape, form’—to account for his physicality, but this body works based on ‘memory, wisdom, &c.’—which are evidently proofs of his psychology, and even his spirituality. Bradford mentions again the reality of sin in man’s life which could have resulted in God’s decision to allow him to be born with phys34 35

Bradford, ‘A Meditation on the Ten Commandments’, in Townsend (ed.), The Works of John Bradford, 150. John Bradford, ‘A Prayer for the Mercy of God’ (originally published as ‘A Prayer for the Remission of Sins’), in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 203.

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ical and psychological flaws; in Bradford’s rendering, he himself could have been born ‘a maimed creature, lame, blind, and frantic, &c.’, displaying features which are not within the standards of physiological normality. At the same time, Bradford expresses his relief that we was not born a ‘beast’, but as he acknowledges that God himself could have created him like that, it is problematic to decide whether God’s image exists in persons who are physically and psychologically afflicted by severe illness. Bradford, however, is not a systematic theologian; his main concern is not to produce a clear and astutely organized corpus of dogmatic tenets. What he wants to do is convey some aspects which he evidently considers extremely important since they are presented multiple times in his works. Regardless of whether God’s image is to be found in people with physical and/or psychological disabilities, an aspect which is neither clear, not clarified in Bradford, one can argue—even without hesitation—that the image of God is indeed present in those who are saved. In the lives of those considered saved, the image of God reflects, first of all, some of the key features of God the Father, like holiness, obedience, and innocence. 36 The same image of God incorporates other spiritual qualities which refer to mercy, goodness, grace and truth, all characteristics of God which must also be found reflected in the life of the saved, redeemed professing Christian. God is also good-willed and merciful towards people; these qualities, however, which are essentially divine, must 36

These qualities of God the Father are crucial for human beings, because they reflect man’s salvation from sin and the fact that such a salvation was triggered by the mechanism of a guilty conscience, which reflected Bradford’s own road to conversion. See Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams (eds.), Love’s Redeeming Work. The Anglican Quest for Holiness (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, reprinted in 2003), 56.

166 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES reflect themselves in the lives of all human beings. All the qualities which are part of God’s image offers believers access not only to the church, but also to God himself through prayer. Man’s access to the church is confirmed by the fact that, due to the image of God in himself, he was born into a Christian household, introduced in the church through the mediation of baptism, called to Christian ministry. Man’s access to God, through God’s image in him, is proved by God’s mercy who connects the believer with Christ even ‘before the world was made’, an indication that Bradford was a staunch believer in predestination and election. Nevertheless, one of the most important features of God’s image in man is the capacity to exercise a faith which is not under the tyranny of doubt. 37 Thus, a firm faith, coupled with the lack of ‘mistrust’ and the presence of ‘comfort’ is the core of God’s image in man. Bradford’s entire explanation looks like this: […] Therefore thou wouldest not only make me a creature after thy image, enduing me with right limbs, shape, form, memory, wisdom, &c., (where thou mightest have made me a beast, a maimed creature, lame, blind, frantic, &c.), but also thou wouldest that I should be born of Christian parents, brought into thy church by baptism, and called divers times by the ministry of thy word into thy kingdom, besides the innumerable other benefits always hitherto poured upon me; all which thou has done of this thy good-will that thou of thine own mercy barest to me in Christ and for Christ before the world was made; the which thing as thou requirest straitly that I should believe without 37

This underlines Bradford’s conviction that salvation is by faith alone, in Christ, the only one who can overcome the constant pressure of doubt. See Margo Todd, ‘England after 1558’, 365– 387, in Andrew Pettegree (ed.), The Reformation World (London: Routledge, 2000), 372.

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doubting, so in all my needs that I should come unto thee as to a Father, and make my moan without mistrust of being heard in thy good time, as most shall make to my comfort. 38

Moreover, it is this kind of faith which allows man to see Christ as God’s Son, man’s ‘Lord, Mediator, and Advocate’, the only perfect human who exemplifies the best presence of God’s image in man. This faith, only possible due to the presence of God’s image in man, is also responsible for helping the redeemed person see himself or herself as God’s child as a result of God’s ‘great goodness and mercy’ manifested ‘in Christ’ for the benefit of the whole of humanity. 39 Bradford’s idea of the image of God is not only discussed in connection to Christ, but also with man in general. When it comes to man, it is of course evident that the image of God highlights certain aspects of man’s existence in his capacity as a created being. Thus, Bradford explains that the image of God reflects itself in the human being concerning at least three major aspects of man’s life and constitution: rationality, spirituality, and physicality—in Bradford’s words ‘thou hast made me after thy image, having a reasonable soul, body, shape &c.’. These characteristics are clearly part of God’s image in man, but it is only man that has all of them; nothing is said, therefore, about God or about whether God himself shares in all of them one way or another. It is important to realize that, at this point, Bradford not only points to the various aspects of God’s image in man, but he also—in a rather indirect manner—speaks about the reality of sin and evil which afflicts human life through the mediation of God’s permis38 39

Bradford, ‘A Prayer for the Mercy of God’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 203. Bradford, ‘A Prayer for the Mercy of God’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 203.

168 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES sive will. This is why he underlines the fact that God could have created man in a different way, in the sense that he could have allowed the reality of sin to affect man’s being—Bradford actually refers to himself in the text—to a graver extent. For instance, Bradford indicates, God could have created him in the shape of a seriously afflicted individual crushed by physical and mental infirmities. Thus, he admits that God could have permitted that he should have been created ‘deformed’ and ‘frantic’, a state of affairs which is not to be desired by or for any human being. At the same time, Bradford seems to include the animal kingdom in a lower state of perfection when it comes to God’s creation; thus, he stresses that God could have created him in the shape of an animal—’thou mightest have made me a toad, a serpent, a swine’—which appears to indicate that Bradford did not have a crystal-clear understanding of how God’s plan unfolds in history. To be more precise, he does not differentiate between God’s general plan of creation which includes the coming into being of creation as a whole and God’s plan with each individual form of life which suggests that God shows concern for every form of life, and especially for every human individual (although he refers to God’s sovereignty over his creation and ‘every creature particularly’). 40 It is, of course, evident that within God’s reality it is highly unlikely that such a distinction could exist; in man’s mind, however, the distinction appears to be necessary for the purposes of distinguishing between God’s love manifested in creation and the reality of evil active within that 40

If God’s sovereignty extends over animals, this could mean that Bradford moves beyond the medieval paradigm which sees animals only in a utilitarian way, namely that they exist solely for man’s use. See Victor Ferkiss, Nature, Technology, and Society. The Cultural Roots of the Current Environmental Crisis (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1993), 55.

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same creation. In other words, it is not necessary that God should have created some individual human beings in the shape of certain animals, as Bradford suggests; God has a clear plan with everything which exists in his creation, so he only exerts his sovereignty over what was created. At any rate, the conviction that God did not allow him to be created as an animal but rather as a human being, as well as the fact that he was kept safe without physical and mental problems, gives Bradford the chance to express his belief in God’s unfailing love. The image of God, which is present in man as God’s creation, is not only indication of how God reflects himself in man’s created existence, but also an indication of what lies at the foundation of man’s creation, namely God’s never-ending love. In Bradford, therefore, the image of God goes hand in hand with the love of God and they both point to God’s sovereign rule over creation which manifests itself in the way his ‘fatherly love’ graciously keeps human individuals throughout their historical existence. Bradford, for instance, sees God’s love in having preserved his life through ‘infancy, childhood, youth &c.’, a clear proof of God’s sovereign power over his creation. In this context, the image of God includes, on the one hand, references to man’s rationality, spirituality, and physicality, while on the other hand, it shows God’s sovereignty, almightiness, and love for his creation and especially for the human being. 41 This entire picture of God’s image in man is built, as Bradford shows, on the idea of God as Father: And that I should not waver or doubt of this, that thou art my dear Father, and I thy child for ever through Jesus Christ, it is required in the first commandment which saith, ‘I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have none other gods but me.’ Again, thy Son doth here 41

John Bradford, ‘A Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 120.

170 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES command me to call thee by the name of ‘Father’. Moreover in the first article of belief I profess the same in saying, ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty.’ Besides this, there are may other things to confirm herein, as the creation and government of the world generally, and of every creature particularly; for all is made and kept for man, and so for me, to serve me for my commodity, necessity, and admonition. Again, the creation of me, in that thou has made me after thy image, having a reasonable soul, body, shape, &c., where thou mightest have made me a toad, a serpent, a swine, deformed, frantic, &c.; moreover thy wonderful conservation, nourishing, and keeping of me hitherto in my infancy, childhood, youth, &c.; all these, I say, should confirm my faith of thy fatherly love. 42

The image of God in man is a reality which coexists with the presence of sin within the human being. This is why Bradford admits that he ‘defiled [God’s] gracious image most shamefully’; man’s sinful nature is not only the cause of man’s tainting of God’s image, but also the context in which God’s image has to exist. Unfortunately, Bradford does not offer further information about the relationship between God’s image and man’s sin within the human being, but he does highlight some of the actions which negatively affect God’s image. For instance, the defilement of God’s image can be the result of wrongdoing and contempt mostly because of the continuous presence of sin within the human being. This explains Bradford’s understanding of salvation which incorporates the conviction that, although pardoned, sin still continues to exist within man to the point that its presence becomes evident through the performance of various sins. These sins affect God’s image and, as Bradford writes, God’s ‘holy name’, 42

Bradford, ‘A Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 120.

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so it appears that there is a direct correspondence between God’s image and God’s name. Human sin not only has an internal consequence, in the sense that it affects only the person who commits it; quite the contrary, sin also has external consequences because it has repercussion on other people. More importantly, sin always has consequences on the believer’s relationship with Christ, so—in a way—sin can be said to affect Christ. For instance, Bradford explains that man’s sin caused Christ to suffer for all humanity. As usual, Bradford refers to himself when he writes that it was his sin—’my sinful soul’—that benefited from Christ’s mercy which manifested itself in the ‘many slanders, taunts, mocking, and cruel entertainments’ he had to put up with. These physical afflictions were the result of man’s personal sins and, if this was the case before Christ’s ascension to heaven, it is very likely that the same is true after the Holy Spirit was sent to take Christ’s place in the heart of believers. Thus, believers themselves must be aware of the reality of their own personal sins because these have direct repercussions on their relationship with Christ. 43 Sins cause God’s image in man to be defiled, so the connection between sin and God’s image in man can never be overestimated, as Bradford seems to suggest. Man’s awareness that sin has consequences on God’s image in man should lead to an improvement of personal sanctification. 44 This is true, of course, only in the lives of believ-

43

44

Bradford seems to have been acutely aware of sin. See also Adrian C. Weimer, Martyr’s Mirror. Persecution and Holiness in Early New England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 40. Bradford’s concern for personal sanctification was important enough to suggest the idea that his works led to the emergence of Puritanism. See Melanie Harrington, ‘The Earl of Derby and His Tenants: Sales of Royalist Land during the Interregnum Revisit-

172 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ers because they have the spiritual capacity to comprehend that, since Christ suffered for their sins, they themselves have to come to terms with the reality of personal suffering for his ‘name’s sake’. Believers are aware that they have God’s image in themselves, and this presence should help them accept and ‘suffer gladly all kind of taunts, injuries, contempts, and slanders’ because their relationship with Christ is always mutual. The reciprocity of the relationship between Christ and the believer is based on the reality of the presence of God’s image in man, which offers common ground for the proper understanding of man’s existence and God’s existence. In Bradford, man and God are connected inextricably because God chose to have his image grafted into man’s being; this is why Christ—in his divine capacity—was able to suffer for mankind, while people were made aware of this reality as well as of the necessity that Christ’s suffering should be reciprocated. When the relationship between God and man works effectively in Christ, one can easily understand that God’s image in man—which connects man with God in Christ—consists of an ingredient that has the exquisite quality of suffering virtually anything. This ingredient is love, so love is not only the marrow of God’s image in man, but also the very foundation of man’s mutual relationship with Christ. Because the image of God in man was love, Christ was able to suffer horrendous torture for man, and man is made capable of suffering the same. In Bradford, therefore, the image of God in man has the capacity of improving the believer’s sanctification through the acceptance of Christ’s work and the need to have it reciprocated or duplicated in the believer’s life: For thy most ardent compassion’s sake, which moved thee to suffer for my sake many slanders, taunts, ed’, 1195–1217, in The Economic History Review 64.4 (2011): 1210, n. 92.

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mocking, and cruel entertainments of thine adversaries, have mercy upon my sinful soul, and unlade her from the great load of sin laid upon her, wherewith, alas! I have defiled thy gracious image most shamefully, and done much wrong and contempt to thy holy name in myself continually. 45

Bradford does not write about God’s image in man by referring to Christ and to man in general, he also points to Adam as a reliable source for the decryption of what God’s image in man entails. Thus, in Bradford, Adam does not serve as a representative for humanity; he is considered the first man, the first human being who had a special kind of human nature, in the sense that he lived before the fall in sin—in other words, he had a prelapsarian nature. In this specific situation, before the fall, man’s prelapsarian humanity reflected God’s image in a perfect way. Bradford describes man as God’s creation who has God’s image within his being. The most evident characteristics of God’s image in man’s prelapsarian existence focus on his nonphysical features, such as spirituality, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, although his physical body is not left aside either—in this respect, Bradford mentions immortality as his fundamental characteristic. Although in his previous references to God’s image, Bradford seems to have implied that the body is part of God’s image, this time he makes it clear that the body is not to be considered part of the image of God. Thus, as far as Bradford is concerned, the body is a reality which man shares with animals, so it is as if placing the body among the features of God’s image were somewhat inappropriate. Bradford ap45

John Bradford, ‘A Most Godly and Earnest Prayer upon the Passion and Painful Work of Our Savior Christ’ (originally published as ‘A Prayer for Deliverance from Sin, and to Be Restored in God’s Grace and Favor Again’), in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 209.

174 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES pears to be convinced that only the spiritual aspects of man’s being ought to be regarded as valid characteristics of God’s image in man. Spirituality is ‘from above’, he points out, and it is also ‘of God’s breathing’. Bradford is clearly dissatisfied with Adam’s fall and—although he does not say it plainly—he seems to ascribe the blame for man’s fall in sin to his body, which thus becomes not only the vehicle of man’s fall, but also the very representation of man’s limitation: For the second (man’s state I mean before his fall and his state now) thus let us think; namely, that God made man after his image, that is, endued man with a soul immortal, wise righteous, and holy; for the image of God is not concerning the body which man hath common with the beasts of the earth, but it is from above and of God’s breathing. So that Adam, transgressing God’s precept, did not according as he should and might have done, but according as he should not have done, and might have avoided, if that he had not received the persuasion and counsel of the serpent, which God permitted him to do, to declare that perfect justice, wisdom, and holiness is not nor cannot be in any creature which is not God also; and therefore Christ being God was made man, that in man there might be this perfection and justice which is in Christ our Lord, and in Adam we could have had. 46

Limitation in itself does not appear to be sinful—Bradford himself acknowledges that there is no pure perfection in the created world; creation is limited by God’s design and its inner constitution—but it does seem to have favored man’s actual fall in sin. This explains why God’s image in man, which has to be perfect, must be connected in Brad46

John Bradford, ‘A Treatise of Election and Free Will’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 214–215.

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ford with nonphysical characteristics which evidently exclude the body. The idea of perfection, however, must extend to God’s entire creation, so if there was perfection before the fall, that needs to be restored after the fall; hence Christ’s incarnation which brought divine perfection into man’s less perfect bodily existence in the world. The image of God is perfect in Christ, but it has to be perfect also in man; Bradford though does not tackle the issue so one is left speculating about whether God’s perfection goes hand in hand with God’s image in man. Regardless of the answer to this question, what is clear in Bradford has to do with the superiority of spirituality over man’s physicality. 47 This is why God’s image is associated with spiritual features, while the body is pushed as far from God’s image as possible. According to Bradford, man must lead a life of wisdom—and this is what Adam should have done as well—but this cannot be done unless ‘we […] restrain our busy brain and curiosity from searching further than we should do’. In other words, spirituality should take precedence over physicality, and the image of God should prevail over man’s not so spiritual desires. In Adam’s life, however, that was not the case, he did fall in sin and, in so doing human beings after him were all severely afflicted by sin. Consequently, Bradford writes, the image of God was ‘lost and mangled’, a juxtaposition of words which produces confusion rather than clarifies the postlapsarian status of God’s image in man. Logically, it is either or: either man lost God’s image as a result of sin, or God’s im47

Because of Bradford’s conviction that spirituality should overcome physicality, some entertain the idea that he was too sensitive a person, so his martyrdom should be interpreted as a disguised suicide. See Abraham Gross, Spirituality and Law. Courting Martyrdom in Christianity and Judaism (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005), 59–62.

176 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES age got seriously tarnished by sin; Bradford, however, places the two words together, although he seems to imply that in man’s postlapsarian life, God’s image was not entirely lost since he did preserve some ‘life, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness’ after the sin has been committed. This means that ‘life, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness’ are indeed features of God’s image in man, with the specification that in using the term ‘life’ Bradford seems to refer to spiritual life, rather than to man’s physical existence in the body. 48

THE BENEFITS OF GOD’S IMAGE IN MAN In Bradford, the idea of God’s image is always used in conjunction with the reality of creation and, as far as man is concerned, being created in God’s image is one of the many benefits which mankind has received from God. In fact, Bradford presents God as Holy Trinity, in the sense that all these benefits—man’s creation in God’s image included—are received from God the Father, for the sake of God the Son, and as proof that believers have God the Spirit on a permanent basis. Each believer receives these benefits because of God’s goodness, truth, and capacity to 48

Bradford, ‘A Treatise of Election and Free Will’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 215. It is perhaps of interest to notice that, although he is not willing to include the body among the features of God’s image in man, Bradford still admits that each human being receives God’s image ‘by natural propagation’, so the body with its physical features serves as the vehicle whereby God’s image is transmitted from one human being to another. Bradford admits that sin passes from one generation to another the same way, through the physical mediation offered by the body, but he does not clarify—nor seems he inclined to—the relationship between God’s image and man’s sin as realities that are propagated physically from one human person to another.

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comfort every human being who goes through suffering. Thus, God’s image reflects God’s goodness, truth, and power, but only in close connection with all the benefits that Bradford enumerated in his list. Thus, God’s image cannot be fully explained, nor can it be properly comprehended, unless coupled with the first benefit man enjoys from God, namely election. Thus, man’s creation in God’s image is best explained when placed next to God’s election, which reflects God’s goodness and ‘loving-kindness’. Election is God’s act whereby he chose some for salvation ‘before the beginning of the world’, so those who were elected were created in God’s image. Creation in God’s image is in itself the second benefit, which also explains the third, namely redemption. In Bradford, redemption is performed through the blood of Christ for the sake of those who were evidently lost in sin; it is logical, therefore, for Bradford to suggest that those who were elected for salvation and created in God’s image to be also redeemed from sins. The fourth benefit is sanctification, which is worked by the Holy Spirit and whereby man is made capable of understanding and knowing God’s word. 49 One can easily notice here that Bradford provides his readers with a genuine ordo salutis, which begins with election and continues with creation, redemption, and sanctification. These four benefits can be grouped in a special category which has to do with man’s spirituality, because what dominates Bradford’s discourse here is how man finds himself in relationship with God, who elected, created, redeemed, and sanctified him. Everything begins with 49

This criticizes the Catholic view that certain places are characterized by ‘intrinsic sanctity’, which can only be worked by God in the believer. See Alexandra Walsham, ‘Sacred Topography and Social Memory: Religious Change and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain and Ireland’, 31–51, in Journal of Religious History 36.1 (2012): 36.

178 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES God and is supported by God to the point that human beings were conceived to remain in a permanent relationship with God through the understanding and knowledge of his word. A second list of four benefits is also present in Bradford’s argument, but this seems to be more concerned with man’s existence in the world. For instance, one can see that the first benefit in the second list is God’s help and support, which is always present in human ‘needs and necessities’. Then, the second benefit is God’s decision to save human beings from ‘all the dangers of body and soul’, so this is actually God’s capacity to preserve those whom he elected, created in his image, redeemed, and sanctified. The third benefit is God’s parental care for humanity, which is manifested whenever his children go through ‘tribulations and persecution’, 50 an action which is the normal result of all previous benefits. The fourth, and last, benefit from the second list is God’s patience, whereby he decided to spare the lives of so many people and, in so doing, to offer them the chance to show true repentance for their iniquities. 51 Taking into account Bradford’s two list of benefits, one can conclude that God’s image is a reflection of God’s election, creation, redemption, and sanctification on the one hand, while on the other, it is solid proof of God’s support, preservation, care, and patience as indicative of his immense concern for man’s well-being in the world as 50

51

In Bradford, persecution must always be endured for Christ’s sake. See Janel M. Mueller, ‘Pain, Persecution, and the Construction of Selfhood in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments’, 161–187, in Claire McEachern and Debora Shuger (eds.), Religion and Culture in Renaissance England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 169. As far as Bradford is concerned, repentance is the essence of true spiritual life. See David Womersley, ‘Why Is Falstaff Fat?’, 1–22, in Review of English Studies 47.1 (1996): 14.

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well as beyond it. This is how Bradford painted the whole picture: Honour and praise be given to thee, O, Lord God Almighty, most dear Father of heaven, for all thy mercies and loving-kindness shewed unto us, in that it hath pleased thy gracious goodness, freely and of thine own accord, to elect and choose us to salvation before the beginning of the world, and even like continual thanks be given to thee, for creating of us after thine own image; for redeeming us with the precious blood of thy dear Son, when we are utterly lost, for sanctifying us with thy holy Spirit in the revelation and knowledge of thy holy word, for helping and succouring us in all our needs and necessities, for saving us from all dangers of body and soul, for comforting us so fatherly in all our tribulations and persecution, for sparing us so long, and giving us so large a time of repentance. 52

Since in Bradford the doctrine of God’s image refers not only to man’s physical creation, but also to his spiritual recreation, it is important to understand that the human being must behave in such a way that he resembles God’s image. The idea of resemblance attached to God’s image appears to describe another benefit of God’s image in what Protestant theology terms sanctification, a distinct phase of salvation which follows justification and precedes glorification. It is the reality which allows the human being to work in close conjunction with God for the perfection of the former’s salvation and, in so doing, man appears to have only one standard, namely to resemble God’s image. Bradford is convinced that man’s growth in 52

John Bradford, ‘A Thanksgiving, Being a Godly Prayer to Be Read at All Times’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 245–246.

180 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES sanctification or in the attempts to resemble God’s image cannot be done properly unless one understands what it means to be forsaken by God. The realization that God can ‘leave us’—to use Bradford’s words—can trigger in man the inner desire to grow into the resemblance of God’s image. Even more, when man understands that God’s decision to forsake him can be eternal, the same desire to resemble God’s image is even more profound. When God forsakes man, the latter’s life is characterized by severe bitterness because man is left without any goodness whatsoever, because God himself is ‘all goodness’. 53 This proves again that, in Bradford, the idea of God’s image in man is closely associated with the reality of divine goodness, which—at least to some degree—must reflect itself in the life of each human being, especially in the case of those who were saved and find themselves on the path of sanctification when they work to attain the resemblance of God’s image. Doing this, however, is not easy because, as Bradford notices, the reality of sin and evil is always present within the human being in the form of man’s drive to fulfill his innate and sinful natural pleasures. By creation, Bradford explains, man was created for a special kind of life, but sin destroyed it. Ever since, man has been trying to lead a life of sinful pleasures which runs against man’s created destiny. This is why, when man is sanctified by God, he must leave his life of pleasure behind and take the path which is no longer characterized ‘by seeking always’ himself. In order for man to pursue this path which leads to the resemblance of God’s image, God gave him 53

Understanding God’s goodness seems to have been the element which caused Bradford’s conversion. See F. Ernest Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 42. For details about Bradford’s conversion, see Patrick Collinson, ‘The Reformer and the Archbishop: Martin Bucer and an English Bucerian’, 305–330, in Journal of Religious History 6.4 (1971): 317–318.

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some ‘notable gifts’, which unfortunately Bradford neither describes, nor enumerates. These divine gifts can be lost and, when they are, attaining the resemblance of God’s image becomes impossible since God has already left the person who lost them. When God leaves, man loses not only the possibility of resembling God’s image, but also his life because in leaving man, God also destroys him. On the other hand, if God does not leave man, then it means that God is not destroyed by God and he has the chance to grow into the resemblance of God’s image which in turn is an indication of man’s need to resemble God’s goodness. In his attempts to show that God’s image can be reflected in his life through goodness, man needs to be a ‘witness […] and instrument […] of his [God’s] mercy’, which is the very goal of creation. Because sin, however, destroyed the human being and cancelled this goal of the human being, the only possibility of recapturing it for man’s life is through re-creation, through salvation and sanctification which redirect man towards the possibility of resembling God’s image and goodness. When this happens, man can be said to have found God and, since ‘God only is life and eternity’, as Bradford points out, it is clear that man too can now fully benefit not only from the resemblance of God’s image, but also from God’s life and eternity. In Bradford’s rendering: But now God only is life and eternity, and cannot but demand of us his handy-work, that we should render ourselves and all we have to the end wherefore we were made; that is, to resemble for our portion his goodness, as those which be nothing else but witnesses and instruments of his mercy. So that, when we wholly do naturally strive against that kind of life whereto he hath created us, by seeking always ourselves, what other thing ought to ensue but that he should again destroy us, and take away his notable gifts, wherewith he endued us that by all kind of well-doing we should resemble his image? Yea, what other thing may ensue, but that he should leave us, and that eternally? That

182 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES we might feel and by experience prove how bitter a thing it is to leave the Lord, in whom is all goodness. 54

The idea of God’s image in man is also used by Bradford in close connection with the reality of resurrection, an evident benefit of God’s image. In this respect, it has to be stressed that man needs to conform himself to God’s image and, from what Bradford writes, it seems that conformity to God’s image is a process which extends throughout man’s entire life. At the same time, conformity to God’s image is supposed to produce some kind of satisfaction, so it has sentimental overtones in the sense that there is a personal sense of accomplishment attached to man’s attempt to conform himself to God’s image. When a believer is aware of this need and he or she does everything in his or her power to align the personal life to the image of God, such an endeavor cannot be left without a deep personal satisfaction. Man is content with himself when he realizes that he has conformed himself to God’s image and it is in this context that Bradford connects one’s conformity to God’s image with the resurrection. In other words, a genuine conformity to God’s image can only be realized ‘in the resurrection’, which is an indication that one’s efforts to conform oneself to God’s image is not only a personal endeavor, but also a reality which is supported from outside the human being himself. One cannot bring oneself to life; resurrection is not an action a dead person can trigger for himself. 55 Resurrection is performed by God and so also seems to be the case with one’s conformity to God’s image. While 54

55

John Bradford, ‘A Meditation concerning the Pleasures of This Life’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 189. John Bradford, ‘A Meditation of the Life Everlasting, the Place where It Is, and the Incomparable Joys Thereof’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 272.

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man can certainly wish to conform himself to God’s image, the actual success of his efforts as well as the quality of conformity itself is an issue which can only be assessed by God since he is the one who actively supports it. To be sure, in Bradford, full personal satisfaction can be reached by the believer when he conforms himself to God’s image ‘in the resurrection’. Bradford says nothing about how the reality of resurrection should be understood; in other words, he leaves no clues about the very nature of the resurrection. One cannot infer whether resurrection, in this case, is physical or spiritual. Either way, however, the resurrection is worked by God, which is also an indication of the fact that conformity to God is supported by God himself. Man can be resurrected spiritually, but since such a reality can only be achieved by God, growing into God’s image ‘in the resurrection’ can only mean that one’s spiritual satisfaction is the result of God’s omnipresent and omnipotent being. Likewise, man can benefit from a physical resurrection and, when that happens, the image of God in the formerly deceased person should already be obvious to those who doubt the possibility of resurrection. Conformity to God’s image though which achieves fullness in the resurrection cannot be done without what Bradford calls ‘contemplation’. The believer must contemplate God’s being since this is the only way to get in touch with his higher reality. 56 In other words, every person who has faith in God must find a way to meditate on God’s person and being. Without such a meditation, nobody can effectively set himself on the path which leads to conformity to God’s image, let alone to the resurrection. Conformity to God’s image, therefore, presupposes thinking about God to the point that the personal relationship between the believer 56

See also Darryl J. Gless, Interpretation and Theology in Spenser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 161.

184 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES and God can be described in terms of identification. In his attempt to conform himself to God’s image, the believer identifies himself with God so that God becomes ‘all in all’; the Holy Trinity is therefore present in the life of the believer who wishes to conform himself to God’s image, as Bradford explains in the following passage: Then thou, blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, shalt ‘be All in all.’ Thou shalt be the end of our desires, thou shalt be looked upon without end, thou shalt be loved without loathing, thou shalt be praised without weariness. Although loathsomeness be wont to follow fulness, yet our fulness in the contemplation of thy pleasures shall bring with it no kind at all of loathsomeness. Society of joys shall be in the beholding of thee. ‘Pleasures are on thy right hand for ever.’ ‘We shall be satisfied when we arise after thine image’; I mean in the resurrection. 57

Bodily resurrection brings with it the perfect re-creation of God’s image in man; this is why Bradford’s theology is characterized by doxology from one end to another. God’s image in man, in its perfected state and without sin, can only be seen in its plenitude when believers are brought back to life in the eschatological reality of God’s existence beyond the time and space of material creation. Consequently, in Bradford, God’s image in man can be fully comprehended within the spirituality of Christian eschatology, which not only provides us with the perfect picture of God’s image, but also with the hope that all believers will be re-created in it following the resurrection, when all God’s children will have already entered the final state of eternity and God’s full disclosure: 57

Bradford, ‘A Meditation of the Life Everlasting, the Place where It Is, and the Incomparable Joys Thereof’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 272.

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O, dear Father, shew thyself unto us, and we ask no more. O, grant us with thy saints in everlasting life to praise with perpetual praises thy holy name. Happy then, and happy again were we, if that day were come, that we might sing with thy angels, elders, and innumerable thousands, a new song, and say, ‘Thou Christ Jesus, which wast slain, art worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.’ In this blessed life all kind of maladies, griefs, sorrows, and evils be far away, and all full of all kind of mirth, joy, and pleasure. O, that we might see now a little with St. John that ‘holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from heaven, prepared of God as a bride trimmed for her husband’! O, that we might now something hear the great voice speaking out of the throne, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and he shall be unto them their God; he will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor weeping, nor crying, nor sorrow, for the former things are gone.’ 58

Only months before his martyrdom and within weeks after the decision to have him executed, Bradford wrote again about the notion of the image, this time referring to Jesus Christ (man’s foremost benefit), in whom the image of God reflected itself in a perfect way. Believers, writes Bradford, have the duty to conform themselves to the ‘image of the Son of God’ and they can do it because of two main reasons: first, they were created as bearers of God’s image and second, they were redeemed from their sins through the work of Christ, the very image of God. Since believers possess these two features, namely that they are created as God’s image and then re-created 58

Bradford, ‘A Meditation of the Life Everlasting’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 272.

186 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES through the redemption offered by God’s image itself (Christ), they are capable of growing and conforming themselves to the image of the Son of God. Before they do that, however, believers must understand that they are called to apply this duty in their own lives. Once this lesson is learned they must also realize that conformity to God’s image in Christ does not come without serious perils. For instance, anyone who attempts to lead a life which can be said to be conformed to God’s image in Christ may go through difficult times, during which he or she must prove their faithfulness to God. Nobody can do this without the capacity of being a believer. Problems can be overcome and difficulties can be surmounted provided that the man in question believes in Christ and is redeemed by him. Such an understanding presupposes a total change of heart (and mind) plus a dramatic, even radical, change of one’s life. Consequently, ‘repentance and amendment of life’ are necessary for salvation, 59 which in Bradford’s view, coincides with one’s conformity to the image of the Son of God. All these things, what man should be doing in order to have his sins forgiven and then confirm himself to the image of God in Christ, can be read in the Holy Scripture, the very source of ‘true doctrine and religion’. At this point, Bradford’s theory about man’s conformity to God’s image in Christ reveals his high view of Scripture, which has three main characteristics: it is ‘assured, infallible, and plain truth’. In order for one to conform oneself to the 59

The necessity of repentance does not seem to have appealed to many either in Bradford’s times or after, during the reign of Elizabeth I, because his works—especially his Sermon on Repentance— were seen as controversial and needed special license to be published. See Edward Wilson-Lee, ‘Romance and Resistance: Narratives of Chivalry in mid-Tudor England’, 482–495, in Renaissance Studies 24.4 (2010): 486.

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image of God in Christ it is not enough to read the Bible. Doctrines are not enough if only known; doctrines must also be lived and practiced on a daily basis of one really wishes to confirm himself to the image of the Son of God. Thus, conformity to God’s image in Christ presupposes not only the full knowledge of doctrines and God’s truth, but also ‘confession, profession, and living’, which points to the fact that repentance has obvious social implications. 60 Fully aware of the inevitability of his death for Christ, Bradford encourages his readers to put their lives in order in such a way that they all match the pattern left for believers by Christ himself: When I remember how that, by the providence and grace of God, I have been a man by whom it hath pleased him, through my ministry, to call you to repentance and amendment of life, something effectually as it seemed, and to sow amongst you his true doctrine and religion; lest that by my affliction, and the storms now arisen to try the faithful, and to conform them like to the image of the Son of God into whose company we are called, you might be faint-hearted, I could not but out of prison secretly (for my keepers may not know that I have pen and ink) to write unto you a signification of the desire I have that you should not only be more confirmed in the doctrine I have taught amongst you (which I take on my death, as I shall answer at the day of doom, I am persuaded to be God’s assured, infallible, and plain truth), but also af-

60

Compare Leon Guilhamet, Defoe and the Whig Novel. A Reading of the Major Fiction (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2010), 39.

188 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ter your vocation avow the same by confession, profession, and living. 61

It is interesting to notice that, despite his impending death, Bradford chose to underline that the best way one can conform oneself to God’s image reflected in Christ is through professing correct teachings or God’s ‘true doctrine and religion’. Such a religion should encourage spiritual growth in ‘godliness’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘living’, which effectively leads to conformity to God’s image in Christ. There is no place for ‘fable, tales, or untruth’ when it comes to the believer’s desire to match God’s christological image in his own self; this is why, in Christianity, the confession of truth is paramount for one’s existence in the world. This work can only be done pneumatologically; in other words, any believer who wants to become like Christ, who wishes to conform himself to the image of God in Christ, must allow the Holy Spirit to work within him, as the only means whereby God’s image in man (creation) can be identified with or even elevated to the level of God’s image in Christ (re-creation/redemption). 62

61 62

John Bradford, ‘Farewell to the Town of Walden’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 455. Bradford, ‘Farewell to the Town of Walden’, in Townsend (ed.), The Writings of John Bradford, Volume 1, 455.

THE IMAGE OF MOSES IN RICHARD HOOKER MOSES AS IMAGE OF SALVATION In Hooker, the name of Moses is first used to point to the issue of salvation and the fact that the doctrine of salvation, as a fundamental matter for the church, can only be settled within the larger context of a church council, as seen in his Preface to the Laws. Thus, Hooker points to the fact that, in the early church, the problem of salvation was of such importance that discussions about it were not only frequent, but also controversial. 1 The most intense aspect of salvation in the minds of the first Christians was associated with the salvation of those who were not Jews. Since the first Christians were ethnically Jewish, they must have had a forma mentis about how salvation should be understood, especially since their understanding of the concept was closely associated with the name of Moses. Hooker underlines that, in Jewish soteriology, the idea of salvation could not be detached from the name of Moses and the stipulations of the Mosaic laws. For instance, in the Jew’s mind, salvation went hand in hand not only with the law in general, but also with circumcision in particular as well as the observation of other ‘legal rites and ceremo1

Hooker himself had a public controversy with Walter Travers, which included aspects pertaining to salvation. See, for details, Lee W. Gibbs, ‘Life of Hooker’, 1–26, in W. J. Torrance Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 12–13.

189

190 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES nies’ pertaining to the very same law. In Hooker, therefore, the name of Moses is not so much associated with the idea of the law, but rather with the notion of salvation as connected, in the Jewish religion, with the law and its more or less formal requirements. What is important to notice at this point has to do with the fact that, in the particular situation of the early church, its members were all of Jewish stock, so the name of Moses appears to have been powerful enough to promote—at least for a while—a traditionally Jewish understanding of salvation. 2 Hooker indicates that the association between the name of Moses and the idea of salvation as preached by Jesus caused ‘great dissension and disputation’ to the point that an intervention of some sort was desperately needed. The early church was unable to put together the name of Moses (with all the Jewish religious tradition) and the preaching of Christ about salvation, 3 so in order for the church to have a unified preaching about its core doctrines, especially the teaching on salvation, an authoritative brotherly decision became a stringent necessity. According to Hooker, the first church council, which was held in Jerusalem, seems to have been caused, in a way, by the very name of Moses in the sense that the Jewish religious tradition associated with it needed to be reconciled with the new understanding of salvation as preached by Jesus. If associated with Moses, salvation had to be de2

3

The Jewish roots of salvation, however, must be properly acknowledged as pertaining to God’s general plan of salvation. See also Corneliu C. Simuţ, The Doctrine of Salvation in the Sermons of Richard Hooker (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 280–281. Moses and Christ were often coupled in matters referring to the law, which must be kept in all respects, especially when the idea of law is found in English Calvinists. For more information, see Ian M. Green, Humanism and Protestantism in Early Modern English Education (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 113.

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tached from the formal requirements of the law, but the name of Moses itself and God’s salvation as the result of God’s intervention in human history were not ultimately separated. Here is how Hooker explains the issue: When there grew in the Church of Christ a question, whether the Gentiles believing might be saved, although they were not circumcised after the manner of Moses, nor did observe the rest of those legal rites and ceremonies where unto the Jews were bound; after great dissension and disputation about it, their conclusion in the end was to have it determined by sentence at Jerusalem; which was accordingly done in a council there assembled for the same purpose. Are ye able to allege any just and sufficient cause wherefore absolutely ye should not condescend in this controversy to have your judgments overruled by some such definitive sentence, whether it fall out to be given with or against you; that so these tedious contentions may cease? 4

Moses was a representative of God’s salvation and so was ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’; the only issue which needed clarification was the fact that while Moses was associated with an earlier and incomplete stage of God’s revelation, 5 Jesus is the embodiment of God’s full revelation concerning sal-

4

5

Richard Hooker, ‘Preface’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in John Keble (ed.), The Works of That Learned and Judicious Divine, Mr. Richard Hooker, with an Account of His Life and Death by Isaac Walton, third edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1845), 167–168. For Richard Hooker, God’s revelation in the books of Moses provided him with ‘a model of natural equity’. See Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, ‘The Church of England and the Anglican Communion: a Timely Engagement with the National Church Tradition?’, 313–337, in Scottish Journal of Theology 57.3 (2004): 328.

192 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES vation. 6 In other words, as far as Hooker is concerned, Jesus seems to give a concrete face to the image of God, because his humanity can be—if not totally overlapped with ours—at least compared to who we are and how we function. Jesus gives a face not only to the image of God, but also to believers who can now understand that, since God reveals himself both in Moses and later—in a plenary way—in Christ, God’s revelation speaks about the same truth of salvation; in this sense, the teachings of Moses are not cancelled, but rather completed, enhanced, and emphasized by the teachings of Jesus, who points to the fact that the law, given to and through Moses, is perfected and made accessible to man’s capacities through God’s grace in Jesus. What is even more important here, however, has to do with the fact that Moses and Jesus appear to be connected by means of a common reality, which Hooker next identifies as God’s grace. In Book 3 of the Laws, Moses can also be seen as an image of God’s grace, the very foundation of God’s salvation. 7 This has nothing to do with the fact that he was saved from certain death in his early childhood or that he was kept from the temptations of Egypt during his youth and early adulthood. According to Hooker, God’s grace was plainly manifested in Moses’ life when he was chosen by God to write, deliver, and preach the word of God to the Jewish nation. As if this were not enough for God’s grace to be manifested in Moses’ life, the very word which God have Moses to convey to the people contained references to the work of Christ himself. In other words, Moses was chosen by God (and this is evidently a clear token of 6 7

Hooker, ‘Preface’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works,167–168. For an excellent treatment of grace in Richard Hooker, see Ranall Ingalls, ‘Sin and Grace’, 151–184, in Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker, 164.

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God’s grace) to speak about Christ centuries before Christ was born and lived in Palestine. In Hooker’s rendering, Moses ‘foreshewed’ Christ and his work as proof of God’s revelation to humanity. God’s grace was present in Moses’ life because he not only spoke about Christ and his work in general; he announced, as Hooker puts it, Christ’s ‘death and resurrection from the dead’ and, in so doing, he stood in line with all the prophets who followed as well as with the apostles, of whom Paul was a special example. Hooker points out that Paul was called by God to testify about Christ, but many centuries before, Moses was called to the very same thing although the degree of God’s revelation given to him was considerably smaller. The manifestation of God’s grace in Moses’ life through his calling to spread God’s word to the people of Israel offers Hooker the chance to indicate that human reason must be subject to God’s word as disclosed in Scripture. 8 True knowledge of God cannot come from reason alone; it is only Scripture which offers a valid image of God to all those who want to acquire the knowledge of God. 9 It is not that human reason be considered totally inept in all respects; on the contrary, human reason, faulty as it is because of sin, 10 still remains a faculty im-

8

9 10

The relationship between reason and Scripture in Richard Hooker is also discussed in M. E. C. Perrott, ‘Richard Hooker and the Problem of Authority in the Elizabethan Church’, 29–60, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 49.1 (1998): 46–47. See Nigel Voak, ‘Richard Hooker and the Principle of Sola Scriptura’, 96–139, in Journal of Theological Studies 59.1 (2008): 122. Details about sin and man’s fall in Richard Hooker can be found in W. J. Torrance Kirby, ‘Grace and Hierarchy: Richard Hooker’s Two Platonisms’, 25–42, in W. J. Torrance Kirby (ed.), Richard Hooker and the English Reformation (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003), 39– 40.

194 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES planted within the human being by God himself. 11 It is God’s grace that men and women are allowed to realize God’s existence as a result of their capacity to use reason; true conversion, however, cannot be worked by reason, but only by God’s grace, which is disclosed in Scripture. 12 Reason is useful in the sense that it can bring man to a certain point in his journey of seeking God; beyond that point though, man needs God’s grace which works through God’s spirit in revealing things that can be neither discovered nor comprehended by reason alone. In Hooker’s words: First, concerning the inability of reason to search out and to judge of things divine, if they be such as those properties of God and those duties of men towards him, which may be conceived by attentive consideration of heaven and earth; we know that of mere natural men the Apostle testifieth, how they knew both God, and the Law of God. Other things of God there be which are neither so found, nor though they be shewed can never be approved without the special operation of God’s good grace and Spirit. Of such things sometime spake the Apostle St. Paul, declaring how Christ had called him to be a witness of his death and resurrection from the dead, according to that which the Prophets and Moses had foreshewed. Festus, a mere natural man, an infidel, a Roman, one whose ears were unacquainted with such matter, heard him, 11

12

Richard Hooker’s open appreciation of reason may have come from his high regard for the Catholic origins of the English church. See Daniel Stolzenberg, ‘John Spencer and the Perils of Sacred Philology’, 129–163, in Past and Present 214.1 (2012): 151, n. 67. For details about the relationship between reason and Scripture in Richard Hooker, see W. J. Torrance Kirby, Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 37–38.

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but could not reach unto that whereof he spake; the suffering and the rising of Christ from the dead he rejecteth as idle superstitious fancies not worth the hearing. The Apostle that knew them by the Spirit, and spake of them with power of the Holy Ghost, seemed in his eyes but learnedly mad. Which example maketh manifest what elsewhere the same Apostle teacheth, namely, that nature hath need of grace, whereunto I hope we are not opposite, by holding that grace hath use of nature. 13

Moses, in this respect, is an example of how God’s grace works in the human being because it was only through the special work of God that he understood what nobody else was able to understand. His special sense of calling, his leadership of the people, and his firm trust in God were not achieved by his reason. The use of reason alone would have kept Moses in the desert; it was God’s special calling, his specific intervention, and his evident revelation that drove Moses out of the desert and pushed him straight in front of pharaoh, on the one hand, and of his own fellow Hebrews, on the other. God’s grace continued to work in Moses’ life because following this initial revelation, Moses was given the special revelation of God’s laws and word which helped Moses and the Jewish nation move beyond the specific abilities of their natural reason. 14 In other words, Moses provides us with an image of the mutual completion of nature and grace. While, quite evidently in Hooker, grace reigns supreme over nature because God’s revelation can only be understood if man’s natural constitution is permeated by God’s supernatural grace, one cannot deny the fact that God’s grace is manifested in na13 14

Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 367. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 367.

196 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ture, and especially in man’s nature. Nature is the recipient grace and, in this sense, man is the recipient of God. Moses helps us understand that God lives in the human being because God’s grace indwelled Moses’ body or, to be even more clear, God’s grace became evident in the miracles which God made in the midst of the Jewish people.

MOSES AS IMAGE OF GOD Hooker also refers to the name of Moses in order to talk about God and especially to underline his capacity to create, which is elaborated in Book 3 of his Laws. In Hooker’s elaborate discourse, Moses serves as an instrument to offer details about the main characteristics of God as creator. 15 The first issue which Hooker highlights in connection with God the creator is the fact that, in performing the work of creation, 16 God made full use of what Hooker calls ‘speech’. It is interesting to notice that while speech or discourse involves words, references to the word of God cannot be found in Hooker’s argument. What there is to be noticed has to do with the fact that Moses points to God’s incomprehensible power which is manifested through the reality of speech. Thus, through the mediation of Moses, Hooker indicates that God is infinite, he is characterized by greatness, and he is extremely powerful. The act of creation, and especially the enactment of whatever creation entails, was not difficult for God; on the contrary, it was a performance whose main characteristic was ‘easiness’. In Hooker, Moses is the instrument by which God’s 15

16

Further information about God as creator in Richard Hooker can be found in Philip B. Secor, Richard Hooker, Prophet of Anglicanism (Toronto: The Anglican Book Centre, 1999, and Tunbridge Wells: Burns and Oates, 1999), 255. For details about creation in Richard Hooker, see Rowan Williams, ‘Richard Hooker: The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Revisited’, 382–391, in Ecclesiastical Law Journal 8.39 (2006): 384–385.

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magnificent power is described as perfectly capable of working the complexity of creation ‘without travail, pain, or labor’. Such a presentation of God is vital for Hooker because it sets God face to face with his creation, but also in a sheer opposition with it. For instance, men and women, who are God’s creation, should ‘learn humility’ when comparing themselves with God. This is because while God creates without any difficulty whatsoever, human beings go through a great deal of effort to accomplish everything in their lives. In this respect, Hooker notices that both men and God are ‘voluntary agents’, but there is a fundamental distinction between the two in the sense that while men are ‘natural agents’, God finds itself in a position which places him beyond the realm of nature. 17 As Hooker writes: Wherefore to come to the law of nature: albeit thereby we sometimes mean that manner of working which God hath set for each created thing to keep; yet forasmuch as those things are termed most properly natural agents, which keep the law of their kind unwittingly, as the heavens and elements of the world, which can do no other wise than they do; and forasmuch as we give unto intellectual natures the name of Voluntary agents, that so we may distinguish them from the other; expedient it will be, that we sever the law of nature observed by the one from that which the other is tied unto. Touching the former, their strict keeping of one tenure, statute, and law, is spoken of by all, but hath in it more than men have as yet attained to know, or perhaps ever shall attain, seeing the 17

More about voluntary and natural agents, also referring to Richard Hooker, in Stephen Turner, ‘Cause, Teleology, and Method’, 57–70, in Theodore M. Porter and Dorothy Ross (eds.), The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 7: The Modern Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 58.

198 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES travail of wading herein is given of God to the sons of men, that perceiving how much the least thing in the world hath in it more than the wisest are able to reach unto, they may by this means learn humility. Moses, in describing the work of creation, attributeth speech unto God. 18

In this respect, Hooker makes use again of Moses’ name because it is through Moses that he depicts God as a voluntary agent. This is important for Hooker since Moses helps him establish that God is not a necessary agent. On the contrary, God’s capacity to act in full accordance with his own will makes him the voluntary agent par excellence; according to Hooker, this is the first thing one can learn from Moses’ teachings, namely that there is no necessity in God’s act of creation. God did not create the world because he was compelled by something external; he acted in order to create because he was driven by his own will. Based on Moses’ writings, Hooker concludes that God’s will was triggered by God’s intention and his capacity to decree within his own being what creation should be and what it should look like. The entire creation is the result of God’s voluntary action; God is the very source of creation, the origin of all existing things. 19 This is why, based on Moses’ books, Hooker points out that creation ‘did outwardly proceed from him’, namely from God as the author of creation. There is also a second lesson one can learn from Moses, Hooker explains, and this is the fact that God is the author not only of creation, but also of the laws which govern creation. Conse18 19

Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 206. Details about God’s will and how it manifested itself in creation, including how God allowed the existence of evil, can be read in W. David Neelands, ‘Predestination’, 185–220, in Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker, 193.

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quently, Hooker indicates that God ‘did … institute a law natural’ which characterizes the existence of all creatures. 20 Hooker shows that God’s natural law must be coupled with God’s eternal law because, if one is to follow in the footsteps of Moses’ teachings, natural law is the practical manifestation of the eternal law. In Hooker’s words, natural law is a ‘manifestation by execution’ of the eternal law; Hooker’s entire discourse is characterized by legal language since he speaks about God who issued ‘edicts’, established laws and decrees for ‘the rain’ and ‘the sea’. To quote Hooker: Surely it seemeth that Moses had herein besides this a further purpose, namely, first to teach that God did not work as a necessary but a voluntary agent, intending beforehand and decreeing with himself that which did outwardly proceed from him: secondly, to shew that God did then institute a law natural to be observed by creatures, and therefore according to the manner of laws, the institution thereof is described, as being established by solemn injunction. His commanding those things to be which are, and to be in such sort as they are, to keep that tenure and course which they do, importeth the establishment of nature’s law. This world’s first creation, and the preservation since of things created, what is it but only so far forth a manifestation by execution, what the eternal law of God is concerning things natural? And as it cometh to pass in a kingdom rightly ordered, that after a law is once published, it presently takes effect far and wide, all states framing themselves thereunto; even so let us 20

This can, to some extent, point to predestination, which was not an issue of evident interest to Richard Hooker. See Peter Lake, ‘Business as Usual? The Immediate Reception of Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity’, 456–486, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 52.3 (2001): 480.

200 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES think it fareth in the natural course of the world: since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon it, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will. 21

Hooker’s concern here is to explain that all creatures must obey God’s natural law because this is the very foundation of the world. 22 He does not say whether or not the creatures’ obedience is by necessity or voluntary, but it lies within the domain of common sense to infer that while necessity cannot be excluded from the general picture (especially when one has in mind how nature works), voluntary decisions and actions do characterize, to some degree, the existence of all creatures and especially that of human beings. 23 There is, in other words, some sort of interconnectivity between the realm of God and the realm of man, but we need to understand that when it comes to the realm of man, the natural character of the world, coupled with its evident materiality, cannot be detached from the reality of God. In Hooker, the world is God’s creation, which has never been totally disconnected from God’s being. God chooses to work in the world in an active way, and this image is pictured before us by Moses; God wanted to supervise the world and be actively involved in it based on a relationship which, once established, can never be undone.

21 22

23

Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 206–207. One’s obedience to laws is explained by the concept of ‘living well’. See Michael S. Northcott, ‘Parochial Ecology on St. Briavels Common: Rebalancing the Local and the Universal in Anglican Ecclesiology and Practice’, 1–26, in Journal of Anglican Studies 10.1 (2012): 12. Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 206–207.

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In this respect, Book 2 of the Laws reveals that Moses is the image of man’s direct, unmediated relationship with God. In postlapsarian times, man’s entire being was deeply affected by sin, so his natural abilities (including reason as part of God’s natural law) 24 to guide himself in life were severely impaired. 25 This is why man needs counsel and direction from God himself, but from this need to the actual response of God is a huge distance. The issue of how man is capable of connecting himself with God or rather of how God himself decides to inform man about the right way of life is exemplified by the way Moses explored his own relationship with God. Hooker makes it clear that Moses was not only the one who received the first written revelation from God himself. The writing of Scriptures, to the extent that they were revealed to Moses, is not the only fact which is noteworthy about his life and relationship with God. Moses also represents man’s state of being directly connected to the reality of God’s existence, primarily because Moses spoke with God. There was an unmediated conversation between God and Moses, which the latter fully benefited from for the welfare of his own life as well as that of the entire Jewish nation and, by extension, of the whole world. The history of God’s revelation is a history of God’s personal relationship with people, which is plainly exemplified first by Moses and then by the priests and prophets. 26

24

25 26

See also Lee W. Gibbs, ‘Richard Hooker’s Via Media Doctrine of Scripture and Tradition’, 227–235, in Harvard Theological Review 95.2 (2002): 230. Compare John E. Booty, What Makes Us Episcopalians? (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1982), 21. More information about Hooker’s understanding of the role of priests and prophets, in Corneliu C. Simuţ, ‘Orders of Ministry’, 403–434, in Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker, 410–411.

202 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES There are different interactions between God and humans, of which Hooker is aware since he writes that God entered a relationship with Moses in a certain way while he addressed others quite differently. To be sure, Hooker points out that Moses’ relationship with God was based on personal conversation; this is why he explains that the counsel Moses needed was transmitted to him ‘by speech’. God himself chose to speak to Moses directly, prior to his decision to reveal to him his eternal laws in written form. Priests and prophets enjoyed a different kind of relationship with God although the personal character thereof is equally evident. Thus, God directly contacted priests through ‘Urim and Thummim’, about which Hooker gives no indication whatsoever although it is clear that regardless of what Urim and Thummim were or meant they did represent an unmediated way through which God transmitted his will to the priests. 27 Here is Hooker’s explanation: By the virtue of which examples if any man shall suppose the force of negative arguments approved, when they are taken from Scripture in such sort as we in this question are pressed therewith, they greatly deceive themselves. For unto which of all these was it said that they had done amiss, in purposing to do or in doing any thing at all which ‘the Scripture’ commanded them not? Our question is, Wheather all be sin which is done without direction by Scripture, and not, Whether the Israelites did at any time amiss by following their own minds without asking counsel of God. No, it was that people’s singular privilege, a favour which God vouchsafed them above the rest of the 27

The transmission of God’s will to human beings means that man has the capacity to discern it. See also A. J. Joyce, Richard Hooker and Anglican Moral Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 170.

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world, that in the affairs of their estate which were not determinable one way or other by the Scripture, himself gave them extraordinarily direction and counsel as oft as they sought it at his hands. Thus God did first by speech unto Moses, after by Urim and Thummim unto priests, lastly by dreams and visions unto prophets, from whom in such cases they were to receive the answer of God. 28

When it comes to prophets, God conveyed his will to them through ‘dreams and visions’, as Hooker explains, another direct method through which God remained in touch with special people chosen by him for this purpose. In later times, priests and prophets became the medium through which God spoke to other people, so the interaction between God and humanity was no longer direct although at least some people did enjoy the reality of being the direct recipients of God’s answer which they had to deliver to other people. Hooker mentions Joshua and David, who received counsel from God through Eleazar the priest and Nathan the prophet, although the God who spoke to them was the same God who spoke to Moses. In this respect, Moses is not only the prototype of man’s direct relationship with God, 29 but also the image of man’s need to be in constant conversation with God for counsel, direction, and guidance; in a word, for leadership. 30 28 29

30

Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 312. Richard Hooker describes man’s relationship with God in positive terms here; when it comes to the negative side of one’s relationship with God, its main feature is, according to Hooker, the reality of superstition. See Philip Seargeant, ‘Discursive Diversity in the Textual Articulation of Epidemic Disease in Early Modern England’, 323–344, in Language and Literature 16.4 (2007): 331. Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 312–313.

204 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES When it comes to leadership Hooker uses Moses in Book 3 of the Laws to investigate critical aspects about Moses and then about God, whose leadership is evidently the most important. Thus, he mentions Moses concerning the leadership of Israel; in fact, he was the person through whom God himself governed the people of Israel. The reality of revelation cannot be excluded from the picture since, as Hooker suggests, God’s leadership is performed actively through God’s revelation. As far as Moses is concerned, Hooker explains that God revealed, in a supernatural way, all the things he needed for the practical government of the people of Israel. It is important to notice, however, that God did not reveal everything to Israel and neither did he offer clear-cut explanations for all the things in the world. What Hooker wants to clarify here is the fact that while God did decide to disclose some things to humanity, other things were left undiscovered, and so they remain to this day in some sort of obscurity at least from what one would expect to be God’s point of view. In other words, there are things disclosed and things hidden; Scripture may answer the things God intended to be revealed and, at the same time, Scripture does not answer the things God wants to remain hidden. 31 This also speaks about God’s leadership and lordship over his creation; God’s will is sovereign in all respects, even when it comes to what is answered and what is left unanswered in the content of God’s revealed Scriptures. Moses represents this image of leadership, and especially the reality of God’s sovereignty over his creation. In this respect, Moses was the absolute leader of Israel (of course, from a human perspective) in the sense that what he said was perceived as having final authority since it came from 31

Compare Charles W. Brockwell, Jr., ‘Answering ‘the Known Men’: Bishop Reginald Pecock and Mr. Richard Hooker’, 133– 146, in Church History 49.2 (1980): 142.

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God himself. Moses led the people of Israel based on what God revealed to him, which means that Moses knew some things, while others were totally unknown to him from God’s perspective. God chose to uncover some things for Moses, but it was the same God who kept Moses ‘in darkness’ regarding other things. For the things he knew, Moses had God’s direct revelation; for the other things, Moses had ‘the law of nature’. 32 Thus, Moses represents the ambivalence of God’s relationship with creation, in the sense that while some things are clarified by God through direct revelation in Scripture, others should be clarified by man using the light of nature. Scripture is not a book which offers answers to everything, so it is not prescriptive in all respects; 33 Scripture has answers only for the things God wants to reveal, and so had Moses. The great leader of Israel had divine answers only for the things God wanted to disclose; for whatever was left there to be discovered, Moses had to resort to the light of nature. 34 Hooker writes: […] either as those things sometime were, which God supernaturally revealed, and so delivered them unto Moses for government of the commonwealth of Israel; or else as those things which men find out by help of that light which God hath given them unto that end. The very Law of Nature itself, which no man can deny 32

33

34

According to Hooker, the law of nature is to be trusted because God is the creator of nature. See also Martin I. J. Griffin, Jr., Latitudinarianism in the Seventeenth-Century Church of England, edited by Lila Freedman (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 75. Read also Stephen State, ‘Hobbes and Hooker, Politics and Religion. A Note on the Structuring of Leviathan’, 79–96, in Canadian Journal of Political Science 20.1 (1987): 83. See also Brian W. Martin, John Keble. Priest, Professor, and Poet (London: Croom Helm, 1976), 48.

206 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES but God hath instituted, is not of God, unless that be of God whereof God is the author as well this latter way as the former. But forasmuch as no form of Church-Polity is thought by them to be lawful, or to be of God, unless God be so the author of it that it be also set down in Scripture; they should tell us plainly, whether their meaning be that it must be there set down in whole or in part. For if wholly, let them shew what one form of Polity ever was so. Their own to be so taken out of Scripture they will not affirm; neither deny they that in part even this which they so much oppugn is also from thence taken. Again they should tell us, whether only that be taken out of Scripture which is actually and particularly there set down; or else that also which the general principles and rules of Scripture potentially contain. The one way they cannot as much as pretend, that all the parts of their own discipline are in Scripture: and the other way their mouths are stopped, when they would plead against all other forms besides their own; seeing the general principles are such as do not particularly prescribe any one, but sundry may equally be consonant unto the general axioms of the Scripture. 35

In this respect, the image of Moses in Hooker is an invitation to make full use of God’s word and the things revealed in Scriptures; anything else, however, should be boldly approached based on the natural capacities which God embedded in man as long as they do not contradict the ‘general axioms of the Scripture’. 36 In Hooker, Moses represents that man who has enough courage to confront 35 36

Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 352–353. Compare Jack Lynch, The Lexicographer’s Dilemma. The Evolution of ‘Proper’ English from Shakespeare to South Park (New York, NY: Walker Publishing Company, 2009), 90.

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the world in which he exists firstly based on what he can read in Scriptures and secondly based on what he understands through the careful use of his own natural abilities; 37 the latter though must never collide with the things God distinctively set out in his direct revelation written in Scripture. 38 Moses helps us understand how man should live in the world. The only access man has to God, which translates as the only possibility for nature to meet grace, is through the precepts of Scripture; it is Scripture that teaches us about the natural law and the fact that it was devised by God, but it is Moses who shows us how the natural law can be subject to God in a spiritual way. Moses functions as a pattern which can and should be appropriated by each believer, because he was enabled to take over God’s law from God himself and not only to deliver it to his fellow Hebrews. Moses took God’s law within, as well as for, his own life—his entire life was changed dramatically, and especially his thinking—in a way which transformed not only his own history, but also the history of the Jewish people.

MOSES AS IMAGE OF RATIONALITY The name of Moses also appears in connection with what can be called rationality, as written in Book 1 of the Laws; in this case, rationality is a combination of mental faculties, such as knowledge, will, and wisdom. 39 Concerning the 37

38 39

In this respect, Moses is also the image of the magistrate who can decide in matters pertaining to church order. See Stephen Hampton, ‘The Manuscript of Archbishop John Williams’, 707–725, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62.4 (2011): 722. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 352–353. In some quarters, Richard Hooker is perceived as a rationalist, and not as a voluntarist. See Steven Forde, ‘’Mixed Models’ in

208 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES first two, Hooker explains that human knowledge and will form a pair of psychological instruments which inform human action. Thus, and this is interesting to notice, Moses’ name is used with reference to the issue of theological ethics, so in Hooker, rationality seems to have a direct influence on one’s ethical behavior. To be more precise, Hooker refers to Moses not only to point to the link between knowledge and will, but also to how these two work together in producing the reality of choice. Leaving theology aside for a moment, Hooker shows how the human being works in an ideal state. Evidently, this points to man’s prelapsarian perfection, which resembles the image of God. It should be highlighted here that it is only in the ideal state of prelapsarian completeness that man is able to perform actions in a way which can be characterized as free. Hooker does not introduce the idea of free will as applied to theology and especially to soteriology; 40 what he does is only to underline that, as far as history and creation are concerned (most likely in their fallen state), man is not able to do certain things. 41 To be more precise, man is capable of refraining from doing evil things, which means that in so doing he performs good things. At this point, he also mentions that the reality of good consists in doing something good or simply in the very essence of a good thing. The state of goodness, however, is fundamentally ethical and moral in the sense

40

41

John Locke’s Moral and Political Philosophy’, 581–608, in The Review of Politics 73.4 (2011): 599. For a very good article on Richard Hooker’s view of free will, see Nigel Voak, ‘English Molinism in the Late 1590s: Richard Hooker on Free Will, Predestination, and Divine Foreknowledge’, 1–48, in Journal of Theological Studies 60.1 (2009): 135. This is clearly a limitation of man’s free will on Hooker’s part. See Darryl J. Gless, Interpretation and Theology in Spenser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 217, n. 7.

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that goodness must be perceived as goodness in order to be subsequently enforced as such. 42 In other words, one must ‘like’ and ‘desire’ a thing as being good before that very thing is performed or done in a practical way. The idea of choice is introduced here because man appears to have the capacity either to do or not to do a certain thing which is considered good. Choice becomes active when will becomes active, so choice is the result of the enactment of one’s will. Once the will is set into motion, what follows naturally is the reality of choice. 43 A good thing though is done as a result of one’s choice when understanding works based on reason. 44 Thus, to put things in order, Hooker enumerates the following as constitutive to man’s moral action: reason, understanding, will, and choice; these four, however, make up what Hooker terms ‘knowledge’, the very element which informs man’s capacity to choose. 45 Reverting to Moses’ name, Hooker uses it within an evidently theological context because, in theology, knowledge has to do with good and evil on the one hand, 42

43

44

45

Morality is extremely important for Richard Hooker and his understanding about it has direct repercussions on his sacramental theology. See, for details, T. L. Holtzen, ‘Sacramental Causality in Hooker’s Eucharistic Theology’, 607–648, in Journal of Theological Studies 62.2 (2011): 640. For a good discussion about will in English theology after Richard Hooker, which cannot avoid Hooker’s theology, see Joan S. Bennett, Reviving Liberty. Radical Christian Humanism in Milton’s Great Poems (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 104– 106. Richard Hooker’s appreciation of reason is sometimes considered a rejection of biblical fundamentalism, especially with reference to Puritan theology. See Nicholas McDowell, ‘Tales of Tub Preachers: Swift and Heresiography’, 72–92, in The Review of English Studies 61.248 (2010): 87. See also Joyce, Richard Hooker and Anglican Moral Theology, 159.

210 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES and with life and death on the other. When it comes to choice, life is what man should be choosing, but this option is based exclusively on the precepts of God’s word. As far as Hooker is concerned, it is only through the mediation of God’s word that man is capable of choosing life; in his natural state, postlapsarian imperfection, it is very likely that man chooses death, which also points to the fact that man’s natural knowledge is less than perfect. In Hooker, morality is essentially theological since man is able to use his reason, understanding, and will (in a word, knowledge) in order to choose correctly (that is, choose the good) only when he follows the tenets of God’s word. 46 This is how Hooker explains it: But of one thing we must have special care, as being a matter of no small moment; and that is, how the Will, properly and strictly taken, as it is of things which are referred unto the end that man desireth, differeth greatly from that inferior natural desire which we call Appetite. The object of Appetite is whatsoever sensible good may be wished for; the object of Will is that good which Reason doth lead us to seek. Affections, as joy, and grief, and fear, and anger, with such like, being as it were the sundry fashions and forms of Appetite, can neither rise at the conceit of a thing indifferent, nor yet choose but rise at the sight of some things. Wherefore it is not altogether in our power, whether we will be stirred with affections or no: whereas actions which issue from the disposition of the Will are in the power thereof to be performed or stayed. Finally, Appetite is the Will’s solicitor, and the Will is Appetite’s controller; what we covet according to the one by the other we often reject; neither is any other desire termed properly Will, but that where Reason and Under46

Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 220–221.

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standing, or the show of Reason, prescribeth the thing desired. 47

It is crucial to understand that man’s will, appetite, and reason are not just psychological faculties which man is free to use as he pleases; they make up a whole, a complex web of mental capacities which constitute what we call man’s morality. One should be fully aware that there is a hierarchy within these faculties: reason comes first, the will second, and the appetite third; one could even claim that the three are reason, will, and feelings, since the last category appears to point to the urges which need to be controlled and which always generate explosive feelings. While the will and the feelings seem to influence each other directly, Hooker provides us with a picture of reason which literally reigns over both the will and the appetite in order to channel them towards their proper use, so one can say that ultimately reason informs morality. The third component of human rationality is dealt with when Hooker uses the name of Moses in Book 3 of his Laws to describe what he means by the idea of wisdom, which is not treated as if it were just another concept. 48 To be sure, in Hooker, wisdom appears in connection with a larger variety of human faculties, which describe man’s natural abilities: some of them are merely mental, while others are clearly ethical in nature. For instance, wisdom can be first ‘mathematical’ (intelligence), second ‘natural, moral, and civil’ (ethics), and third ‘rational and oratorial/rhetorical’ (reason). Moses is mentioned in connection with the first, ‘wisdom mathematical’, which seems to be a reference to exact sciences supported by intelligence. The second type of wisdom is ascribed to Solomon and it seems 47 48

Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 221. See Egil Grislis, ‘Scriptural Hermeneutics’, 273–304, in Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker, 301.

212 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES to describe one’s ability to reach crucial decisions in society based on ethical and moral considerations. 49 The third category of wisdom, Hooker points out, is attached to Greek culture in general and, quite evidently, refers to philosophy, to man’s capacity to inquire about life’s deepest mysteries as well as to come up with answers that have a poignant religious component and can be assessed by men’s natural rationality. 50 This is why this kind of wisdom, which can be described as Greek/Hellenistic philosophy, is connected by Hooker to the apostle Paul himself (a Hellenistic Jew with Roman citizenship) and the school of Gamaliel (a rabbinic endeavor with some Hellenistic flavor): There is in the world no kind of knowledge, whereby any part of truth is seen, but we justly account it precious; yea, that principal truth, in comparison whereof all other knowledge is vile, may receive from it some kind of light; whether it be that Egyptian and Chaldean wisdom mathematical, wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished; or that natural, moral, and civil wisdom, wherein Solomon excelled all men; or that rational and oratorial wisdom of the Grecians, which the Apostle St. Paul brought from Tarsus; or that Judaical, which he learned in Jerusalem sitting at the feet of Gamaliel: to detract from the dignity thereof were to injure even God himself, who being that light which none can approach unto, hath sent out these lights 49

50

For details about the relationship between wisdom and ethics, see also Craig Muldrew, The Economy of Obligation. The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998), 319. In Richard Hooker, religion is essentially eschatological. See Niall O’Flaherty, ‘William Paley’s Moral Philosophy and the Challenge of Hume: an Enlightenment Debate?’, 1–31, in Modern Intellectual History 7.1 (2010): 7.

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whereof we are capable, even as so many sparkles resembling the bright fountain from which they rise. 51

From this perspective, Moses epitomizes not only the idea of wisdom, but also all its facets as reflected by means of natural intelligence on the one hand, and trained, educated philosophy on the other. For Hooker, the notion of wisdom is important because it cannot be detached from the reality of knowledge. Wisdom, irrespective of its variegated types, informs knowledge, while knowledge is always directed towards the investigation of truth. In Hooker, truth seems to be placed on the same level as reality, but in order for reality to be useful to humanity, it has to be known. In order for reality to become known, it has to be perceived in a certain way and it is here that wisdom, with all its facets, turns into a compulsory aspect of one’s life. Wisdom investigates life, produces knowledge, and ultimately reaches the depths of truth/reality itself. Hooker, however, shows that wisdom works in conjunction with the will, which has the capacity to set the trajectory of wisdom towards good or bad things. Depending on the will, wisdom can be headed towards God (or, in Hooker’s words, to the ‘kingdom of heaven’), or it can be oriented towards the sinfulness of this world. Either way, it is the will which propels wisdom towards action and, in Hooker, Moses (alongside Solomon and the apostle Paul) is the image of natural wisdom which, based on a correctly informed will, seeks to delve into the mysteries of God. The will which is not subject to God’s influence leads one’s wisdom to ‘foolishness’ by mistaking the things of God for madness. Conversely, the will which is subject to God has the capacity to direct one’s wisdom away from the real

51

Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 370.

214 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES foolishness and madness of the world to the ‘mystery of Christ’. 52 From God’s perspective, this is the kind of wisdom which remains forever and is so vividly represented by Moses. As for Hooker, the wisdom based on a godly will, which manifested itself throughout Moses’ life, contains four distinct facets of man’s psychology: ‘understanding, knowledge, judgment, and reason’, all dependent on one’s will which, properly submerged in God’s reality, benefit from God’s providential as well as perpetual support. 53 What Moses shows us is that there is no way for man to lead a proper life without or detached from God. Man may want to direct his will against God, but in so doing, he appears to forget that there is nothing in him which does not come from God. Man is God’s creature and his entire constitution is the result of God’s active work; this is why man is mysteriously preoccupied not only with nature and materiality or with the things which can be seen, but also with things that cannot be seen and usually fall within the category of spirituality.

MOSES AS IMAGE OF SPIRITUALITY Man’s spirituality surfaces in Hooker’s Laws when he uses Moses’ name in Book 3 to draw a picture of faithfulness, servanthood, and freedom. In speaking about the first two, Hooker points out that Moses was a servant ‘in the house of God’ and it was in this capacity that he displayed a degree of faithfulness which was comparable to the faithfulness of Christ. This is not to say that Moses was in any way equal with Christ; what Hooker had in mind here was 52

53

In this respect, wisdom is connected with salvation in Hooker. See Simuţ, The Doctrine of Salvation in the Sermons of Richard Hooker, 162. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 370–371.

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the fact that Moses had the capacity to exhibit a behavior which God used with great effectiveness. It was through Moses that God spoke to the people; it was through Moses that God himself gave his laws to his people, and it was through Moses that God revealed his own nature and being in those very laws which Moses conveyed to all the Hebrews liberated from the bondage of slavery. 54 There is no comparison between Moses and Christ in Hooker’s mind; comparing the faithfulness of the two is not only preposterous, but also impossible. At the same time, before God, there are no degrees of faithfulness. God requires faithfulness from his servants and they, the servants, must give it to God. For instance, Moses was faithful in doing what God asked him to do, and so was Solomon, through whom God did another kind of work. 55 Hooker himself notices this difference between the two, in the sense while both built places of worship for God, 56 Moses produced a tabernacle (which could be moved from one place to another) and Solomon came up with a temple (which could not be moved at all):

54

55 56

This means that faithfulness and servanthood also have a social and political component. See Philip Hamburger, Separation of Church and State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 36. Compare Secor, Richard Hooker, Prophet of Anglicanism, 284. Hooker does not elaborate on the idea of worship here, but throughout his works it does refer to the reality of participation of the people of God in the communal act of fellowship. See, for instance, Renta Nishihara, ‘Anglicanism as Public Philosophy’, 187– 212, in Journal of Anglican Studies 6.2 (2008): 192. Nishihara’s understanding of Hooker’s theology, especially his view of the via media, is criticized by Kayama Hiroto, ‘A New Perspective for Anglicanism: Mission in Northeast Asia’, 167–186, in Journal of Anglican Studies 6.2 (2008): 168.

216 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES Moses delivering unto the Jews such laws as were durable, if those be changeable which Christ hath delivered unto us, we are not able to avoid it, but (that which to think were heinous impiety) we of necessity must confess even the Son of God himself to have been less faithful than Moses. Which argument shall need no touchstone to try it by but some other of the like making. Moses erected in the wilderness a tabernacle which was moveable from place to place; Solomon a sumptuous and stately temple which was not moveable: therefore Solomon was faithfuller than Moses, which no man endued with reason will think. And yet by this reason it doth plainly follow. 57

They both did their jobs, they both were faithful in what God told them to do; there is no way in which their faithfulness can be compared based on what they did or did not for God. Moses’ faithful service to God was confirmed by God’s decision to have him transmit to the people a set of laws which were binding for the people of Israel, very much like Christ delivered laws that were compulsory for the whole world in terms of personal salvation. Before God, however, faithfulness is never measured based on one’s work, but rather based on one’s willingness to conform oneself to God’s request. Hooker is aware that God had specific tasks for Moses as he had for Christ. This is why he emphasizes that Moses was called to govern ‘in the house of God’, while Christ’s duty was to rule ‘over the house of God’. In other words, Moses’ job was actively to work within ‘the house of God’ (which can be a reference both to the Jewish people in particular or to creation in

57

Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 391–392.

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general) 58, while Christ’s task consisted of supervising the same. Regardless of whether Hooker’s intention in speaking about the house of God was to refer to the Jewish nation or to the whole of creation, evidently Christ is in all ways superior to Moses. It seems as if Moses himself had been aware of Christ’s superiority and it was in accepting this hierarchy that he proved his faithfulness and servanthood. In fact, Moses foreshadowed Christ’s faithfulness and servanthood and, in so doing, he demonstrated that he was a servant within God’s creation while Christ was the very owner of God’s creation. Moses and Christ had different responsibilities entrusted to them by God: Moses to rule as a servant and Christ to serve as a ruler; the common denominator of both, however, was their indisputable faithfulness. This is what Hooker writes in this respect: He that will see how faithful the one or the other was, must compare the things which they both did unto the charge which God gave each of them. The Apostle in making comparison between our Savior and Moses attributeth faithfulness unto both, and maketh this difference between them; Moses in, but Christ over the house of God; Moses in that house which was his by charge and commission, though to govern it, yet to govern it as a servant; but Christ over this house as being his own entire possession. 59

Faithfulness, in Hooker, appears to be the key ingredient of spirituality, and the connection between Moses and Christ only strengthens this idea. While Moses is evidently 58

59

Moses’ faithfulness is an indicator of the faithfulness of God’s people. See, for instance, John K. Stafford, ‘Practical Divinity’, 535–562, in Kirby (ed.), A Companion to Richard Hooker, 556. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 392.

218 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES inferior to Christ especially when it comes to the latter’s divine constitution, he does nevertheless seem to explain Christ in a way which highlights Christ’s importance. The image of Moses presents and clarifies the image of Christ; the spirituality of Moses explains the spirituality of Christ. Both Moses and Christ are God’s revelation and, even if Christ is God’s supreme form of revelation to humanity, what God decided to reveal to Moses helps us understand Christ far better than if, for instance, we knew nothing about Moses. In other words, the revelation of God in Christ makes more sense when built on God’s revelation to Moses. Furthermore, Moses’ spirituality is a demonstration of God’s revelation—which is also true in Christ’s case—so man’s spirituality is not only a confirmation of God’s revelation, but also the immediate result of God’s revelation. This is why, in the same Book 3, man’s faithfulness and servanthood are measured against one’s perception of God’s revelation. There is no doubt that, in Hooker, God’s revelation has always been the same, in the sense that regardless of whether one refers to the Old Testament (represented by Moses) or to the New Testament (represented by Christ), what God wanted for and from humanity has constantly been the same. God’s intention for humanity has never changed, which means that God’s revelation through Moses and then through Christ is, from the standpoint of its most essential principles, one and the same, so man’s response to God’s revelation should constantly be characterized by faithfulness and servanthood. There are differences between the Moses and Christ from the perspective of how much they received from God; Moses was commanded to give the people of Israel a set of rules, while Christ came with no distinct set of rules. This, however, must not become a reason to negotiate one’s faithfulness and servanthood to God especially since what they preached represented the same revelation of God. The most striking difference between God’s revelation through Moses and God’s revelation through Christ,

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Hooker believes, resides in the fact that while Moses was provided with a corpus of positive laws (namely affirmative requirements with precise demands) 60 received as revelation by God himself, Christ came as God’s revelation; he himself was the revelation of God: That the care of God hath fallen in earthly things, and therefore should rise as much in heavenly; that more is left unto men’s consultations in the one, and therefore less must be granted in the other; that God, having used a greater particularity with them than with us for matters pertaining unto this life, is to make us amends by the more exact delivery of laws for government of the life to come: these are proportions, whereof if there be any rule, we must plainly confess that which truth is, we know it not. God which spake unto them by his Prophets, hath unto us by his onlybegotten Son […]. 61

As Hooker explains, God spoke to the Jews through Moses (namely through the laws he gave Moses), but then he spoke to the whole of humanity through Christ (i.e. through the very person of Christ). 62 This is the main distinction between Moses and Christ: Moses received God’s 60

61 62

See also José Harris, ‘From Richard Hooker to Harold Laski: Changing Perceptions of Civil Society in British Political Thought, Late Sixteenth to Early Twentieth Century’, 13–38, in José Harris (ed.), Civil Society in British History. Ideas, Identities, Institutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 16. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 400. When God speaks to humanity, his laws exhibit some degree of influence over man’s laws to the point that the latter are transformed into the former. See John B. Ejobowah, Competing Claims to Recognition in the Nigerian Public Sphere. A Liberal Argument about Justice in Plural Societies (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001), 169.

220 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES law, while Christ is God’s law. Moses had a body of positive laws, Christ was the law of God itself. If so, the problem is how people should understand Moses’ laws and how they should understand Christ. Hooker’s answer is simple: since Moses’ laws are written, they should be followed to the letter; there is no freedom in reading and obeying the law of Moses since they are written down and contain clear references to man’s entire existence with indications regulating one’s moral, religious, and social life. When it comes to Christ though, things are different. Christ cannot be read and understood like a compendium of laws; he must be followed in ‘freedom and liberty’, to use Hooker’s phrase. 63 One must notice, however, that in both cases, Moses’ and Christ’s, the faithfulness and servanthood of their followers were a compulsory prerequisite. Consequently, based on faithfulness and servanthood, it is freedom which must dictate in matters pertaining to how one should understand Christ. By extension, those who follow Christ and constitute his church throughout history must live according to the same pattern of freedom. The church is a society and, like every society, it needs a certain sets of rules, 64 but since Christ did not leave a distinct set of rules for the church, whatever is conceived and then devised as law for the church must be accepted and promoted by

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Freedom must inform man’s conscience in all respects; for Hooker, this is the essence of the Christian life. Compare Jay Newman, On Religious Freedom (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1991), 110. In his Laws, Richard Hooker was more concerned to offer insight into why and how the English church should function, rather than in providing it with dogmatic fundamentals. See David Pearson, ‘Patterns of Book Ownership in Late Seventeenth-Century England’, 139–167, in The Library 11.2 (2010): 145.

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means of freedom. 65 Hooker seems convinced that Scripture does not contain references to a ‘complete and unchangeable form of polity’; this is why the church must learn how to walk in the freedom which Christ himself brought to humanity in his own person. 66 In this respect, the non-freedom of Moses points to the fundamental freedom of Christ as methodological instrument for the interpretation and application of God’s revelation in Scripture. 67 It is extremely important to notice here that both Moses’ non-freedom and Christ’s freedom are expressed by certain teachings which are compulsory and normative. Such teachings are regularly described by means of the notion of law which conveys not only the idea of necessity, but also that of benefit. Moses may have received a law from God, but that law—while restrictive in some sense— was utterly beneficial for the whole people of Israel because it regulated their relationship with God as well as their relationship with each other. The same is true when it comes to Christ’s law; we understand it better when we compare it to Moses’ law. It is only through the law of Moses, which is based on the idea of non-freedom, that the quintessential freedom of Christ’s law appears in a far more comprehensive light. In other words, we understand 65

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More about how Richard Hooker understood the idea of society, especially based on the idea of communion, see Michael S. Northcott, ‘Anthropogenic Climate Change, Political Liberalism, and the Communion of Saints’, 34–49, in Studies in Christian Ethics 24.1 (2011): 45. One of the features of the church in Richard Hooker is variety, the direct consequence of freedom. See Jacqueline Rose, ‘John Locke, ‘Matters Indifferent’, and the Restoration of the Church of England’, 601–621, in The Historical Journal 48.3 (2005): 616. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 400, 410–412.

222 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES Christ better if we look back to the law of Moses, as Hooker points out next.

MOSES AS IMAGE OF THE LAW It is common knowledge that the name of Moses is generally associated with the Jewish law, and Hooker makes no exception in presenting Moses in such a specific way, as Book 2 of his Laws plainly discloses. Although Moses’ name is seen next to the law, he represents a stage of God’s revelation which, in Hooker’s argument, points to the fact that God’s disclosure is progressive throughout history. This crucial aspect of God’s revelation is visible in the distinction existing between Moses’ law and the Gospel 68 in matters pertaining to food regulations. As Hooker shows, while in the Jewish law certain foods were strictly forbidden because they were seen as unclean, the Gospel has a much more lenient approach to the point that nothing is considered unclean, so everything can be accepted as permitted by God. At the same time, while for Moses certain foods remained unclean despite religious rituals such as prayer, 69 for Christians everything can be eaten provided that the word of God is believed and prayer is said before the meal is ingested. Hooker, therefore, indicates that food goes through a process of sanctification as a result of prayer and belief in the word of God, which may show that some foods were correctly deemed unclean by Moses’ law in ancient times. Hooker does not discuss whether or not some foods are indeed unclean, but he 68

69

For details about Richard Hooker’s idea of laws, as well as the distinction between the law of Moses and the law of the Gospel, see Kirby, Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist, 55. Further information about Richard Hooker’s view of prayer in Kenneth Stevenson, ‘Richard Hooker and the Lord’s Prayer: a Chapter in Reformation Controversy’, 39–55, in Scottish Journal of Theology 57.1 (2004): 48ff.

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does point out that they are sanctified ‘by the word of God and by prayer’, as an indication that something happens before God when food is accepted by the redeemed man: And though meats and drinks be said to be sanctified proof, by the word of God and by prayer, yet neither is this a reason sufficient to prove, that by Scripture we must of necessity be directed in every light and common thing which is incident into any part of man’s life. Only it sheweth that unto us the Word, that is to say the Gospel of Christ, having not delivered any such difference of things clean and unclean, as the Law of Moses did unto the Jews, there is no cause but that we may use indifferently all things, as long as we do not (like swine) take the benefit of them without a thankful acknowledgment of His liberality and goodness by whose providence they are enjoyed. 70

The difference between Moses and Christ in this respect is more than evident, although such a difference should be understood more in terms of a change of attitude rather than an essential distinction. In other words, Hooker seems to imply, Christians must be aware that before God they must have a changed attitude not only when it comes to food but also when they meditate on God himself. When a Christian thinks about God, his thoughts must encompass every aspect of his life, including the way he eats and drinks. 71 The Christian must not guide himself according to the law of Moses, not that the law is bad, but 70 71

Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 292–293. In Richard Hooker, one’s concern about what and how one eats and drinks, or the concern for material food, must be coupled with an equally important concern for spiritual food, the Eucharist and Scripture. See Lorraine Cavanagh, By One Spirit. Reconciliation and Renewal in Anglican Life (Bern: Peter Lang, 2009), 191.

224 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES because the law points to another reality, namely that of Christ. While the law was essentially restrictive, the Gospel is fundamentally liberating, so Christians must be aware that, when they eat, the old requirements of the law must give way to the new tenets of the Gospel which speak about the gifts of freedom, goodness, and providence that they receive from God. 72 Moses believed in the same God, but the revelation of the truth about this God was discovered progressively through history, so the full knowledge of the truth about God goes hand in hand with belief in this God and this is what changes man’s perspective on everything, including the issue of what one may or may not eat. Christians know this based on God’s word which is contained in Scripture and which sanctifies everything so that, through prayer, 73 the knowledge of truth, and faith in Christ, nothing should be rejected as unclean when it comes to food and drink. A changed attitude of gratitude, however, is compulsory as proof of one’s personal liberation from the restrictions of Moses’ law and acceptance of Christ’s cleansing. In Hooker, therefore, Moses and Christ are not opposing representations of doctrine, but rather different and progressive stages of God’s revelation. Moses and Christ revealed the same God and the same truth, only at different times in history and with different degrees of progression. 74

72

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More about Richard Hooker’s perception of freedom in Catharine Cookson, Regulating Religion. The Courts and the Free Exercise of Clause (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 66. Prayer seems to have been crucially important for Richard Hooker’s own life. See Frederick Quinn, ‘Covenants and Anglicans: an Uneasy Fit’, 139–152, in Journal of Anglican Studies 6.2 (2008): 147. Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 292–293.

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Moses is also the image of the ‘mutability of laws’, 75 namely the fact that laws can be changed, an aspect which Hooker’s Laws contain in Book 3. 76 It is crucial to understand here that Hooker does not refer to God’s laws which are depicted in Scripture as pertaining to man’s salvation. He only means the laws which are made by God, under the direct authority of God, but which do not touch on the essentials of God’s salvation for humanity. On the contrary, when it comes to the changing character of laws, what Hooker has in mind is the regulations that have ceremonial connotations. A vital aspect must be understood here: while Moses is indeed the image of God’s immutable laws about man’s salvation as depicted in Scripture, 77 he is also associated with God’s mutable laws about ceremonial issues as presented in Scripture as well. The difference between the two kinds of laws is both their content and their function: while the former contain teachings about man’s salvation and what man should do about it, the latter contain regulations about ceremonial (not ethical or moral) aspects of man’s life. 78 The fact that the former category of laws has perennial authority for humanity goes almost unquestioned for Hooker; the problem, however, arises when it comes to the latter category which, for some, should be followed by the letter, while for others their validity has already 75 76

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See also Richard Helmholz, ‘Richard Hooker and the European Ius Commune’, 4–11, in Ecclesiastical Law Journal 6.28 (2001): 10. The mutability of the laws in Richard Hooker is also discussed in Thomas Garden Barnes, Shaping the Common Law. From Glanvill to Hale, 1188–1688, edited and with an introduction by Allen D. Boyer (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 61. Compare Kenneth L. Parker, The English Sabbath. A Study of Doctrine and Discipline from the Reformation to the Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 101. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 385.

226 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ceased. Hooker seems to agree with the second perspective, which is based on the conviction that ceremonial laws, although authored and devised by God himself, have limited authority throughout history because of their ceremonial character. Since Moses recorded both categories of laws in the same Scripture, Jews have always found it difficult to distinguish between them. This is why, Hooker explains, ceremonial laws acquired within the Jewish nation the same high esteem which was traditionally ascribed to the Ten Commandments, to take just one example. The Jews’ fundamental inability to separate God’s eternal laws from God’s ceremonial laws seems to have been caused, among other things, by the fact that Moses went down in history as the human author of both, especially because he wrote them down following God’s direct act of inspiration. For the Jewish mind, what God has once authored should remain forever with the same degree of appreciation, although God’s ceremonial laws were intended to be transitory and bound to a specific historical context. Hooker believes that the Jews suffered from some kind of ‘blindness’ which prevented them from making a difference between God’s permanent laws and God’s ceremonial laws since the means whereby God transmitted them to the people was the person of Moses: Whether God be the author of laws by authorizing that power of men whereby they are made, or by delivering them made immediately from himself, by word only, or in writing also, or howsoever; notwithstanding the authority of their Maker, the mutability of that end for which they are made doth also make them changeable. The law of ceremonies came from God: Moses had commandment to commit it unto the sacred records of Scripture, where it continueth even unto this very day and hour: in force still, as the Jew surmiseth, because God himself was author of it, and for us to abolish what he hath established were presumption most intolerable. But (that which they in the blindness of their obdurate hearts are not able to dis-

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cern) sith the end for which that law was ordained is now fulfilled, past and gone. 79

Thus, the ordinary Jew perceived Moses not only as God’s messenger, but also as God’s enforcer and therefore the person who had authority to make God’s laws come to life within the community. 80 The apostles solved this problem because, despite their Jewishness, they did not perceive themselves as the persons who made God’s laws authoritative within the church. On the contrary, they indicated that the Holy Spirit was the one who applied God’s laws in the church, while they, the apostles, were only God’s servants who obeyed them. 81 This means that the Holy Spirit, namely God himself, is the author of the laws, while men and women are called to live according to them in full awareness of God’s authorship. It is only the Holy Spirit who is capable of understanding that the same name of Moses refers, at the same time, to God’s eternal and immutable laws, as well as to God’s ceremonial and changing laws. 82 Although the image with which Moses seems to be most frequently associated is that of the law, in Hooker’s 79 80

81

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Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 385. See also Robert Luce, Legislative Principles. The History and Theory of Lawmaking by Representative Government (Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, 2006, originally published Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930), 8. The apostles, however, did have authority over the church, at least from a human-organizational perspective; this is why Richard Hooker uses the word ‘bishops’ when he refers to them. See Roger Turner, ‘Bonds of Discord: Alternative Episcopal Oversight Examined in the Light of the Nonjurring Consecrations’, 398– 409, in Ecclesiastical Law Journal 3.17 (1995): 401. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 385.

228 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES same Book 3 of the Laws the connection between Moses and the law is not contrasted in a negative way with the link between Christ and the Gospel as if the law were opposed to the Gospel. On the contrary, Hooker speaks about the law in positive terms and in so doing he emphasizes the benefits which the law offers to humanity. 83 In this respect, Moses followed the direct command of God who decided to use him for the recording of his laws. Moses wrote down God’s laws for humanity in domains which encompass the whole of man’s existence. 84 To be more precise, what Moses received from God as law was meant to regulate not only the daily social life of individuals, but also their spirituality. 85 In other words, the law was designed to coordinate man’s social and religious life or, as Hooker puts it, the law comprised ‘all things pertinent as well to the civil as to the ecclesiastical state’. From this perspective, Moses is the image of God’s care for humanity in all respects; for God, man’s life is important as a whole. There is nothing in man’s life which escapes God’s careful attention; his love extends over man’s entire existence, from the routine of social aspects to the special character of religious issues. Since man’s life exists in time, Hooker points out that Moses’ law are concerned with man’s ‘temporal estate’, although the spiritual side is evidently not left unattended. 83 84

85

For details, see C. Scott Dixon, Protestants. A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania, 1517–1740 (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 112. In other words, as far as Richard Hooker is concerned, religion serves the common good; religion informs society in a positive way. See John C. English, ‘John Wesley, the Establishment of Religion, and the Separation of Church and State’, 83–97, in Journal of Church and State 46.1 (2004): 94. In fact, social life and spirituality seem to go hand in hand in Richard Hooker. See Faramerz Dabhoiwala, ‘Lust and Liberty’, 89–179, in Past and Present 207.1 (2010): 101–102.

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Resuming the comparison between Moses and Christ with specific reference to the idea of law, there is however a distinction between the two, as Hooker clearly mentions. Thus, while Moses’ law was delivered as a corpus, Christ’s law is to be found scattered through the writings of the apostles which does not, however, mean that its spiritual coherence is lacking. What Hooker meant was that Moses’ law is predominantly legal, while Christ’s is soteriological. On the one hand, the law of Moses targets specifically legal and ethical aspects 86 which are nevertheless connected with issues touching one’s spiritual salvation especially from the perspective of one’s personal relationship with the God who gave the law; Christ’s law, on the other hand, is predominantly spiritual but this does not mean that it avoids ethical and legal questions: That Christ did not mean to set down particular positive laws for all things in such sort as Moses did, the very different manner of delivering the laws of Moses and the laws of Christ doth plainly shew. Moses had commandment to gather the ordinances of God together distinctly, and orderly to set them down according unto their several kinds, for each public duty and office the laws that belong thereto, as appeareth in the books themselves, written of purpose for that end. Contrariwise the laws of Christ we find rather mentioned by occasion in the writings of the Apostles, than any solemn thing directly written to comprehend them in legal sort. 87

86

87

The ethical component of the natural law can place Richard Hooker in the tradition of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. See, for instance, Joyce, Richard Hooker and Anglican Moral Theology, 238. Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 394.

230 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES Since both laws, Moses’ and Christ’s, represent God’s will for humanity, it is clear that Hooker points to the wholeness of God’s law as revealed in history, which comprises legal, ethical, and spiritual aspects, all pointing to the totality of man’s social and religious life. In Moses’ case, however, the idea of law is fundamentally attached to the reality of the Jewish nation, and Hooker is careful to highlight this aspect. This is why he writes that what Moses transmitted to the people of Israel from God was a set of ‘positive laws’, 88 namely a body of decisions which were intended to refer specifically to one’s relationship with God as part of the Jewish nation. 89 It is crucial to see, however, that that law of Moses addressed a wide variety of social and ethical concerns under the larger umbrella of religious teachings. This is why, for Hooker, Moses is the image of God’s concern and love for humanity; despite the fact that Moses’ law was given especially to the Jews, the marrow of the law itself is the reality of God’s love. God was deeply interested in the life of humanity, and this factual reality can be seen in how he taught the Jews about morality, religion, and society. 90 Consequently, the Jews have always perceived the law not as Moses’ law, but rather as God’s command for all 88

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Richard Hooker’s notion of ‘positive laws’, often coupled with that of ‘natural laws’, seems to have exerted a powerful influence on English political and juridical philosophy. See Jack Lynch, ‘Johnson and Hooker on Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity’, 45–59, in The Review of English Studies 55.218 (2004): 49. Socially, positive laws were intended to contribute to the common good. See also Esther D. Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights. Contested Doctrinal and Moral Issues (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007), 43. This is because society needs a firm standard of justice without which it cannot function properly. See Rivkah Zim, ‘Religion and the Politic Counsellor: Thomas Sackville, 1536–1608’, 892–917, in English Historical Review 122.498 (2007): 910.

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the areas of their existence, regardless of whether they were moral, social, or religious in nature. 91 The only way though to create such an understanding of the law, namely a perspective which ties together the idea of law and the necessity to obey it because it was given by God, is through the means of the concept of Scripture. The law is not just a law, and Moses’ law was not just a law; the law of Moses was seen as God’s command because it was written in what Christians have always called Scripture.

MOSES AS IMAGE OF SCRIPTURE Browsing through Hooker’s theological corpus, one can see that another instance in which Moses’ name appears in Hooker (this time in Book 1 of the Laws) describes Moses’ involvement in the writing of God’s word, the Scriptures, which is also the most consistent image associated with Moses. To be more precise, Hooker presents Moses as a vehicle for the writing of God’s word in the form of Scripture. Moses is certainly not the author of God’s word; on the contrary, God himself authored his own word, 92 but it is crucial to understand that Moses served as an instrument which God used to convey his word to the world. Hooker is careful to underline that, when it comes to God’s word, Moses was only a passive transmitter. It was neither Moses’ initiative and nor was it his natural ability which produced God’s word; it was God himself who decided to act in such a way that his word was given to Moses for him subsequently to convey to the people. In this case, it seems that what Hooker implies is that man in 91 92

Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 393–397. See also Timothy F. Sedgwick, ‘Anglican Ethics and Moral Theology’, 66–69, in Joel B. Green, Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Rebekah Miles, and Allen Verhey (eds.), Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 67.

232 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES general, here represented by Moses, has no active contribution to the authorship of God’s word. Man was used by God, and Moses’ example is illuminating in this sense, for the actual writing down of God’s word, but the author, the mind which conceived it and then decided to transmit it to humanity for further deliverance was God himself, not man; this is why Scripture is supreme 93 and sufficient for man’s life. 94 In this respect, Moses starts a line of special people chosen by God to transmit other bits and parts of his word in later centuries and millennia to other generations. Hooker only mentions ‘the prophets’ and ‘the holy evangelist St. John’ who, very much like Moses, acted under God’s influence for the transmission of God’s word to those for whom it has always been intended: In the first age of the world God gave laws unto divine laws our fathers, and by reason of the number of their days their memories served instead of books; whereof the manifold imperfections and defects being known to God, he mercifully relieved the same by often putting them in mind of that whereof it behoved them to be specially mindful. In which respect we see how many times one thing hath been iterated unto sundry even of the best and wisest among them. After that the lives of men were shortened, means more durable to preserve the laws of God from oblivion and corruption grew in use, not without precise direction from God himself. First therefore of Moses it is said, that he ‘wrote all the words of God’ not by his own private motion and device: for God taketh this act to himself ‘I have written.’ Furthermore, were not the Prophets fol93 94

Read Diarmaid MacCulloch, ‘Richard Hooker’s Reputation’, 773– 812, in English Historical Review 115.473 (2002): 778–779. Compare Hubert Cunliffe-Jones, A History of Christian Doctrine (London: Continuum, 1978, reprinted 2006), 414.

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lowing commanded also to do the like? Unto the holy evangelist St. John, how often express charge is given, ‘Scribe’, ‘Write these things.’ 95

When it comes to God’s intention to deliver his word to humanity, Hooker makes an interesting remark because he seems to imply that sin, man’s fall, is responsible for God’s decision to use men like Moses for the writing down of his word. In fact, Hooker points out that ever since the creation of humanity, God’s word was present in creation through God’s laws which were placed in man’s mind. In other words, in prelapsarian times but also following man’s fall, when people used to lead long lives, God’s word, as incapsulated in God’s laws (and, by extension, in the law of nature) 96, was present in creation because it was put by God in man’s reason. There was a time, however, when God decided to shorten man’s life and when that happened, man’s reason, coupled with an equally faulty memory, was no longer able to retain the complexity of God’s word. Thus, Hooker seems to imply that sin, which evidently affected God’s decision to shorten man’s life, had direct repercussions on man’s reason and memory to the point that God’s word was no longer properly preserved in man’s psychical faculties (which were severely impaired by his physical defects). This is why God decided to use Moses, and others as well in later times, to write down his word in order to make sure that his word remains within the grasp of humanity. Moses, in this re95 96

Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 264–265. More about the connection between Scripture as God’s Word and the law of nature, also with reference to Richard Hooker, in John Gascoigne, ‘The Religious Thought of Francis Bacon’, 209–228, in Carole M. Cusack and Christopher Hartley (eds.), Religion and Retributive Logic. Essays in Honor of Professor Garry W. Trompf (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 214.

234 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES spect, is an image which reminds us of man’s fall and sin which threatened to expose God’s word to ‘oblivion and corruption’. God in turn decided to preserve his word among men, so he used Moses, the prophets, and other special people for the transmission, preservation, and delivery of his word to men and women throughout history. Moses also portrays the man who acts on God’s direct command for the purposes chosen by God himself, among which the writing of God’s word was of paramount importance since it seems to have constituted the only means whereby the connection between God and man could be preserved in postlapsarian history. 97 Hooker makes use of Moses’ name again when he writes about the importance of Scripture for humanity in the same Book 1 of the Laws. Scripture, which contains God’s laws in written form, is a compendium of documents which should constantly inform the church, its doctrines and life, so that the church conforms itself to the requirements and the will of God. When Scripture is no longer taken as the standard for the church’s existence and teachings, then human traditions set in and the church plunges into ignorance, misery, and lawlessness. 98 Scripture is divine in all respects, traditions are not, and Hooker points to Moses’s name as indication of the standard of truth which is contained in Scripture. 99 To be sure, Hooker underlines the fact that Scripture not only con-

97 98

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Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 264–265. For details about the relationship between Scripture and human traditions, see Frank Wade, Transforming Scripture (New York, NY: Church Publishing, 2008), 46. See also Peter Lee, Authority within the Christian Church (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), 148.

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tains truth; it contains the ‘certain truth’ which explains creation; hence the superiority of truth over creation. 100 When it comes to creation as presented in Scripture, Hooker refers to events which he takes for granted as having not only historical factuality, but also spiritual significance. Thus, he indicates a series of turning points in human history as exposed in Scripture: the original state of creation (with special reference to this world), the misfortune of the Flood, the history of Noah’s family and that of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, as well as the Hebrews’ journey to the promised land under the leadership of Moses, whom Hooker describes as ‘their captain’. Moses appears here not only to designate a person who was in charge of God’s people through their tough time in the wilderness as they fled Egypt; on the contrary, Moses’ name emerges as the confirmation of God’s direct involvement in the history of humanity, and also as the token of God’s validation of the truth of Scriptures. 101 This is important because the truth of Scripture reveals the truth of history through the written historiography of the Bible: I mean those historical matters concerning the ancient state of the first world, the deluge, the sons of Noah, the children of Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt, the life and doings of Moses their captain, with such like: the certain truth whereof delivered in Holy Scripture is of the heathen which ad them only by report so in100 In Richard Hooker, truth should not only characterize creation; it governs creation through the means of justice. See Paul Raffield, ‘The Elizabethan Rhetoric of Signs: Representations of Res Publica at the Early Modern Inns of Court’, 244–263, in Law, Culture, and the Humanities 7.2 (2010): 261. 101 For details about the truth of Scriptures in Richard Hooker, see Lisa M. Gordis, Opening Scripture. Bible Reading and Interpretative Authority in Puritan New England (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2003), 114.

236 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES termingled with fabulous vanities, that the most which remaineth in them to be seen is the show of dark and obscure steps, where some part of the truth hath gone. 102

In Hooker, Moses points to the truth of Scripture and to the vital impact which Scripture has on the world. The truth of Scripture is available not only to the church, but also to those outside the church whom Hooker dubs ‘heathens’ without hesitation. This is not a problem in itself; the true problem is when the truth of Scripture is either distorted or obliterated by heathens and sometimes even by Christians. The result of the distortion of the truth of God’s word from Scripture is darkness since the truth is chopped or hidden. The consequences are identical even when only a part of the truth is obscured; truth is truth exclusively if it is allowed to shine in its completeness. Heathens, Hooker points out, hide some of God’s truth from Scripture, but unfortunately the same happens when the church places traditions above the tenets of God’s word. In this respect, Hooker accuses the Church of Rome for not conforming itself to the truth of God’s word from Scripture which, in his opinion, is deliberately placed under the authority of ecclesiastical traditions. This is why, as representative of God’s laws as contained in Scripture, Moses can be identified with the correct standard of the truth of God’s word revealed in the Bible. In Hooker, Moses speaks about the necessity to have the truth of God’s word elevated above all human ecclesiastical traditions in order for the church to avoid the ignorance which emerges as a result of the deformation of God’s teachings from Scripture. 103 102 Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 266. 103 Hooker, ‘Book 1’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 266–267.

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The name of Moses also appears in Hooker’s second book of the Laws in conjunction with his idea of the centrality and exclusivity of Scripture for the believer’s life. As Hooker puts it, Hooker initiates a line of people, chosen by God for the purpose of having his word and laws disclosed to his people and, by extension, to the whole world. Moses was the first to record God’s laws; in other words, he was the first to have produced what can be called ‘Scripture’. He was followed in this endeavor by the prophets and later by the apostles of Christ, who all used arguments from Scripture when it was necessary for them to explain how one’s life should work in the natural world. Hooker knows that Scripture may or may not contradict the reality of nature; either way, however, what takes precedence in man’s life should be Scripture, not the arguments one extracts from the surrounding natural reality. 104 Thus, Moses epitomizes the image of the preeminence of Scripture in the believer’s existence. Hooker explains the paramount importance of Scripture for man’s life by comparing it with the light which penetrates darkness. One needs light to guide his or her own steps as he or she walks through darkness; likewise, people need Scripture as they walk through life. Hooker also shows that using light during the day would be ‘madness’, but resorting to light during the night is mere common sense. This indicates that Scripture should be used because of the darkness of this world, an indication that Scripture is needed now, since the natural world in which we live is characterized by sin and sin is the darkness which impairs 104 More on Scripture and its relationship with nature in Richard Hooker in David W. Lankshear and Alex M. Smith, ‘Beliefs, Values, and Practices of the Anglican Church’, 159–188, in William K. Kay and Leslie J. Francis (eds.), Religion in Education, Volume 1 (Leominster: Gracewing Publications, 1997), 166.

238 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES man’s capacity to see God. In this respect, Moses represents the image of man’s need to guide himself in accordance with the light of God’s word found in Scripture as he leads his life in the postlapsarian reality of God’s creation. Scripture must take precedence over nature (including reason) 105 and the language Hooker uses refers to the idea of light: the light of Scripture is indeed more powerful than the light of nature, because the latter is ‘drowned’ when compared to the former. 106 Moses clearly represents the light of Scripture and the power of the word of God in the life of those who follow in the footsteps of the prophets and the apostles. At the same time, Moses is the image which connects the prophets with the apostles and in so doing, he shows that God’s salvation has always been the same regardless of the degree of revelation people had throughout history. Scripture itself is the result of progressive revelation; its truth, however, which is the truth of God, has always been the same in spite of the fact that some of it was disclosed to a lesser degree in ancient times, while the rest of it was revealed plainly in Christ. Moses is the name which points to Scripture, its prevalence over nature, and also its powerful capacity to inform people of God’s truth as they live in the midst of nature’s sinful corruption. Hooker though insists that the light of nature (or reason) is not to be totally ignored; on the contrary, it should be taken into account for as long as it does not contradict the teachings of Scrip105 For a position which seems to confer a higher degree of authority to reason in Richard Hooker’s thought, see Ian Markham, ‘Trends and Directions in Contemporary Theology: Anglican Theology’, 209–217, in Expository Times 122.5 (2011): 210. 106 Details about Scripture and reason in Hooker can be found in William P. Haugaard, ‘Hooker, Richard (1554–1600)’, 198–204, in Donald K. McKim (ed.), Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 200.

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ture. 107 Moses, the prophets, and the apostles used examples from nature provided that they did not collide with God’s special revelation in what ‘scriptum est’, in what was written expressly in the totality of Scripture: Had the Prophets who succeeded Moses, or the blessed Apostles which followed them, been settled in this persuasion, never would they have taken so great pains in gathering together natural arguments, thereby to teach the faithful their duties. To use unto them any other motive than Scriptum est, ‘Thus it is written,’ had been to teach them other grounds of their actions than Scripture; which I grant they alleged commonly, but not only. Only Scripture they should have alleged, had they been thus persuaded, that so far forth we do sin as we do any thing otherwise directed than by Scripture. 108

For Hooker, Moses represents the starting point of God’s revelation in Scripture, as is evident in Book 2 of the Laws; in this sense, he is the image of the things which God allowed us to understand beyond our natural capacities. To be more precise, Moses is the name which kindles one’s awareness that human reason has a limit, beyond which only God’s revelation in Scripture can go. 109 God revealed to Moses a wide range of issues which cannot be comprehended by reason alone, because they cannot be discovered by reason alone. What man is able to understand 107 Compare Gray Temple, Gay Unions. In the Light of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason (New York, NY: Church Publishing, 2004), 121. 108 Hooker, ‘Book 2’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 298–299. 109 In Richard Hooker, Scripture has supreme authority over reason. See Gary Dorrien, Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit. The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 109– 110.

240 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES with his reason is the fact that Scripture is the revelation of God’s word. 110 In Hooker, the image of Moses is permanently connected with the idea of God’s revelation and especially with God’s revelation in Scripture because his name is frequently mentioned alongside the names of other illustrious people whom God uses in order to convey his will to the people. Most of the time, Moses appears in Hooker next to the prophets and Jesus Christ, since the former (Moses and the prophets) spoke of the latter (Christ). God’s revelation reached its culmination in Christ, but Moses’ name cannot be detached from the inception of God’s revelation in Scripture. Moses is, at the same time, the image of spiritual stability not necessarily because of his own example, but because he recorded God’s will in Scripture and that functioned as a compulsory teaching and moral standard for the Jewish nation for centuries. For instance, as Hooker points out, when Jesus Christ was accused before his execution, his judges should have used ‘Moses and the prophets’ to condemn him, which was obviously not the case. In Hooker’s mind, the condemnation of Jesus presupposes an automatic dismissal of ‘Moses and the prophets’ because both Jesus, on the one hand, and ‘Moses and the prophets’ on the other, represent God’s revelation in history. Thus, in Hooker, Moses is also the image of God’s love who decides to provide humanity with his word for the specific purpose of helping limited and sinful human reason understand the mysteries of God’s salvation beyond the outer limits of what people can normally understand by using their own reason. 111 110 See also Louis Bouyer, The Church of God. Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2011, originally published in French in 1970), 70. 111 Consequently, in Richard Hooker, reason is coupled with and, at the same time, subordinated to Scripture. See Paul D. L. Avis, An-

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For Hooker, Moses is also the image of Christian evangelization; 112 Moses and his books, or rather God’s revelation through Moses serves as the instrument by which Christ is explained to those who do not believe in him. 113 What had happened to Christ was common knowledge in first century Palestine, but still, in order for anyone to understand Christ’s work in its fullness, ‘Moses and the prophets’ were a necessary aid. This is because God’s revelation did not begin with Christ, it culminated with Christ, but it was foreshadowed by God’s disclosure throughout history which is comprised in the phrase ‘Moses and the prophets’. God’s revelation is needed in all its complexity; the entirety of God’s word is compulsory for the full knowledge of God and his work in Christ as the basis for man’s salvation. 114 The people who do not know God must be completely aware of God’s entire revelation from ‘Moses and the prophets’ to what happened with Christ and, later on, of how Christ’s work was depicted in the Scriptures of the New Testament (which can be included in what Hooker calls ‘the rest of the Scripture’). For instance, Hooker uses the case of Festus 115 and king Agrippa, two persons who had no clue about Christ’s di-

112

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glicanism and the Christian Church. Theological Resources in Historical Perspective (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2002), 31. In this sense, the mission of the church is to imprint Christ in the lives of people. See Dwight J. Zscheile, ‘Beyond Benevolence: toward a Reframing of Mission in the Episcopal Church’, 83–100, in Journal of Anglican Studies 8.1 (2009): 87. For the role of Scripture in the transmission of God’s revelation in Christ, see Arthur S. McGrade, ‘The Public and the Religious in Hooker’s Polity’, 404–422, in Church History 37.4 (1968): 411. Compare C. F. Allison, The Rise of Moralism. The Proclamation of the Gospel from Hooker to Baxter (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003, originally published in 1966), 2ff. See also Daniel Eppley, Defending Royal Supremacy and Discerning God’s Will in Tudor England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 205.

242 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES vinity, but still had heard about him. According to Hooker, neither Festus, who was a Roman, nor Agrippa, evidently a Jew, were versed in the knowledge of ‘Moses and the prophets’; nevertheless, they were both in need of God’s salvation and the apostle Paul did not hesitate to resort to ‘Moses and the prophets’ when he explained to them who Christ was and what he provided people with. In Agrippa’s case, Paul’s evangelizing efforts were somewhat made easier because Agrippa is said to have ‘believed’ the prophets; it was some sort of authority which even people like Agrippa would take for granted: In the presence of Festus a Roman, and of King Agrippa a Jew, St. Paul omitting the one, who neither knew the Jews’ religion, nor the books whereby they were taught it, speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ; intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused, that unless his judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets, him they could not choose but acquit, who taught only that fulfilled, which they so long since had foretold. His cause was easy to be discerned; what was done their eyes were witnesses; what Moses and the Prophets did speak their books could quickly shew; it was no hard thing for him to compare them, which knew the one, and believed the other. 116

Thus, in Hooker, alongside the prophets, Moses is the image which represents and confirms the authority of God’s word revealed in Scripture as the foundation for one’s knowledge about salvation as well as the essence of the church’s evangelizing efforts in taking the message of salvation to those in need of it. What we learn from Hooker 116 Hooker, ‘Book 3’, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in Keble (ed.), Works, 374–375.

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is that there is no salvation without Scripture, and Scripture cannot be detached from God’s revelation given to Moses. Whatever God revealed to Moses is Scripture and therefore vital for one’s salvation, which indicates that in order for us to have a proper understanding of what salvation really entails, we must not only search Scripture in general, but also investigate the actual content and meaning of the revelation that God decided to disclose through Moses. God’s revelation through Moses is therefore a key aspect of Christian mission, which is able not only to present salvation to pagans, but also to picture it in a way that makes sense to those who have never heard of Christ and his salvation.

CONCLUSION Given that doctrines tend to be associated with abstract issues rather than with practical matters, the purpose of this book is to present some fundamental Christian dogmas pertaining to the Reformed tradition in a way which might make readers a bit more sympathetic to theological problems. Having restricted the Reformed tradition to French and English theologies and their representatives to Guillaume Farel and Jean Calvin (for the French camp) and John Bradford and Richard Hooker (for the English party), I attempted to offer a reader-friendly approach to four key doctrines of the Protestant Reformation as they were tackled within the theological boundaries of the Reformed thought. The four doctrines investigated in this book under the guise of a concept belonging to performing arts rather than theology were the image of marriage (because of the novelty it brought for clerics who, if Protestants, were not only permitted, but often insistently encouraged to get married), the image of worship (for consistently reorienting Protestant liturgy to the Bible as God’s Word and especially to the Psalms), the image of God (for redefining anthropology and, in so doing, for showing how Protestant soteriology focuses on the being of God rather than on the achievements of man), and the image of Moses (for proving that a whole theological system can ‘hide’ behind the apparently random use of biblical names in theological treatises), each corresponding to Farel, Calvin, Bradford, and Hooker respectively. The image of marriage in Farel discussed in Chapter 1 is a rather complex painting with six primary colors which present the reality of matrimony in a multifaceted 245

246 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES and vivid way. First, Farel discusses the issue of sin which affects marriage and priesthood. While he does not dwell on sin per se, he does underline the fact that it damages not only marriage as a social reality and human phenomenon, but also the spiritual service of the priests who— instead of supporting marriage—grew into a gang of villains with wretched lives and a debauched attitude towards marriage. Farel explains that under the compelling influence of the devil himself, the members of the clergy not only indulged in adulterous relationships, but also promoted a distorted theological perspective on marriage which said that celibacy was superior to married life. Thus, while celibacy is for the morally and religiously superior people pertaining to the church hierarchy, marriage is left for the commoners. This perspective on marriage affected society as a whole, so people were no longer interested in entertaining healthy marital relationships but chose instead to focus on obscenities and sexual immorality. Second, Farel concentrates on the sacralization of marriage or the things which could restore holiness to the institution of marriage. This is important to Farel because marriage should never be an end in itself. In other words, one should not be exclusively preoccupied with the restoration of holiness in marriage, but also in life in general. The reason for such an understanding lies within Farel’s conviction that marriage is an image or a representation of salvation. When marriage goes wrong it means that one’s life and particularly one’s salvation is on the verge of collapse. This is why he explains that the sacralization of marriage should focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who can restore not only the sanctity of marriage but also the holiness of life. Based on Christ’s work which helped humanity escape the devastating consequences of sin, men and women should also be able to restore the holiness of their marriage provided that they practice the love which is required by Christ himself to be at the core of marital relationships.

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Third, Farel insists on the desacralization of marriage which is the result of many factors, the most important of which appears to be the attitude of the clergy. Thus, although the clergy was supposed to uphold and preserve marriage, they chose to go against in not only by promoting a non-biblical approach to marital life, but also by engaging themselves in lecherous lives and adulterous actions. Despite the plight of marriage in society and the fact that it was supported by neither the clergy nor people in general, there is nevertheless hope concerning the situation of marriage and this is the fourth aspect which concerns Farel. The sanctity of marriage can be fully restored but only if everybody in society takes decisive steps in favor of marriage. If the members of the clergy fail miserably in this respect, it is the duty of the leaders of society to act against sin and in favor of married life. The civil magistrates therefore should not only promote the holiness of marriage, but also punish sinful behavior and especially adulterous relationships. Farel is aware that this is not an easy task, so he decides to give specific instructions to all those involved in the situation of marriage in the then society. Thus, the fifth aspect of Farel’s case in favor of marriage focuses on his instructions for husbands and wives. Far for being prudish, Farel explains that the Bible speaks openly about sexual intercourse and, in so doing, it affirms God’s will that husbands and wives do engage in sexual relationships. However, they should understand that such physical interaction is permitted only within the boundaries of marriage, so if kept within the limits of marital life, sexual intercourse can be performed in a holy way. Consequently, for Farel, sex can be holy but only if the persons engaged in it are a man and a woman who are also joined in holy matrimony. Such an attitude to marriage should be promoted in society as a whole to the point that all its members are aware of what marriage is and how it works before God and other people.

248 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES In the end, the sixth and last issue discussed by Farel is given by the instructions he offers to all God’s children or to all the members of the then society, which coincided with the church. As far as Farel is concerned, a good Christian is a good member of society but since all the members of society were baptized, they were all supposed to be good Christians. In order for them to be like that in their daily life, they should understand that healthy sexual relationships can only be accepted within the boundaries of marriage and a sane marital life can only be preserved if the husbands and wives focus on the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Chapter 2 dealt with the image of worship in Calvin’s theology, which is reflected in the Huguenot Psalter. In its capacity as a ecclesiastical, artistic, and cultural phenomenon which emerged during the sixteenth century, the Huguenot Psalter—with all its versions, but especially in the form of the Genevan Psalter—became known for its key role in defining the identity and life of the French Protestants in a particular historical context which was not only extremely intricate and complex, but also dominated both by civil wars and cold blooded persecution. Firmly anchored in Protestant theology of the Reformed persuasion and ultimately in Calvin’s thought, the Huguenot Psalter managed to preserve the very existence of French Protestant churches despite all efforts to annihilate it through various means which were not only political and ecclesiastical, but also military in nature. Thus, the Huguenot Psalter incorporated Calvin’s convictions about the worship of the church, which proved to be quite effective especially during the second half of the sixteenth century when the Huguenots were on the verge of extinction. Only ten years after the publication of the Huguenot Psalter under the title of The Genevan Psalter, the faith of the French Protestants was heavily tested when, during the Night of the Saint Bartholomew, most of them perished by suffering cruel deaths at the hands of French Catholics.

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In the wake of this devastating event, the French Reformed churches were left with only a small number of believers who, in the same way that those who lost their lives in the tragic summer of 1572 had done before them, stubbornly and faithfully continued to sing the psalms which were considered a genuine source of spiritual strength because they were part of God’s word. It appears that the Huguenot Psalter enjoyed a huge reputation among the French Protestants precisely because it accurately reflects the essence of God’s word, which should be approached in a special way during the worship of the church. Calvin, for instance, was very clear when he insisted that church worship must be done with one’s whole heart, which was seen as the inner temple of the praises brought by believers before God. The worship of the church must be founded on the word of God, a feature which characterizes the Huguenot Psalter from one end to the other, although the believers’ minds and feelings should also be used—in full spiritual awareness—when they are together to sing praises to God. In Calvin, the worship of the church must be an attempt to combine both earnestness and moderation, which are meant to contribute to the inner edification of all believers. The psalter, therefore, was not seen exclusively as means to sing praises to God; it was conceived as both the church’s regular way to lift up the believers’ praises to God and as a fundamental tool which was meant to preserve the word of God in a brief, concise, and always available way, so that whenever persecution struck with unimaginable brutality, the God’s comfort should be made manifest through the promises of his word in the psalms. It was only based on God’s word as reflected in the psalms that the French Protestants appear to have found spiritual tranquility in the face of persecution and it was for the same reason that they saw worship as a matter of the heart which functions as man’s inner temple where, in sincerity, earnestness, and moderation, the hymns of the church originate for the edification of the whole congrega-

250 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES tion of saints who are fully aware, mentally and emotionally, that they were elected by God himself and that their faith is being put to test whenever persecution comes not only to make their lives extremely difficult, but also to destroy their lives by decimating them in unimaginably coldblooded ways. One of the psalter’s greatest achievements was to instill in the Huguenots’ innermost convictions the belief that God’s love and personal suffering go hand in hand, because God loves them so much that he puts their faith to the test through persecution which they can put up with by fulling trusting God. These features of the Huguenot Psalter, which originate in Calvin’s theology, may constitute the basis of a Protestant or non-Protestant psalter devised for a specific ecclesiastical and geographical region. Such a locally oriented psalter can be a proof not only of the relevance of Calvin’s theology and of a certain/specific psalter of Reformed leanings, but also of the fact that the life of today’s Protestant or non-Protestant churches may be kept intact—even revived and revitalized—through a spiritual worship which is based on God’s word from the psalms. In Chapter 3, which presented the image of God in John Bradford, the first aspect that can be seen in Bradford’s anthropology has to do with God’s relationship with Christ as God. In discussing the image of God, Bradford points to the fact that Christ, God’s Son, is the bearer of God’s image; to be more specific, he is the image of God’s substance. The purpose of this comparison between Christ and God’s substance is Bradford’s intention to establish that Christ and God not only share the same substance, but they are equal and eternal in all respects. The idea of God’s image, therefore, helps Bradford sketch not only a definition of God, but also a definition of Christ which underlines God’s absolute sovereignty and especially his control over his creation. Bradford does not insist on providing an extremely detailed definition of God the Father; what he does in turn is offer a wide spectrum of fea-

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tures describing God the Son, most of which are connected with his work of salvation. Thus, based on the fact that there is a clear relationship between God and Christ through the mediation of God’s image—and this is the second aspect of Bradford’s theology of God’s image—Christ is the Savior, and it is in this capacity that he is also known as Messiah, Advocate, Intercessor, and Priest, so since he managed to accomplish the work of salvation, it means that he is a divine person, very much like God the Father himself. In his capacity as God’s Son, Christ not only bears God’s image; he is God’s image, and in Bradford the image of God encompasses a whole bunch of divine characteristics, the most important of which are dignity, authority, wisdom, holiness, mercy, and love. To some extent, these features are also transmitted to man, God’s creation, so the human being has the ability to control his feelings, show sympathy in difficult times, and display patience when suffering strikes. All these are possible and they do exist in man’s being only when men and women are saved by Christ, the one who applied them practically for the sake of mankind. Man’s relationship with Christ for eternal life is the third aspect which emerges from Bradford’s discussion about God’s image and it focuses on the distinction between created and uncreated realities. For instance, God’s image exists both in Christ as creator and in man as created, but since Christ became incarnate he shares the reality of creation with the human being at least regarding his body and earthly life. This is why Bradford points out that Christ and man share the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly, which highlights the relationship which exists between man and Christ based on God’s image. Thus, the image of God characterizes both the uncreated Christ and the created human being regarding the historical existence of both, but at the same time, God’s image is the reality which allows both Christ and man to experience resurrection as well as eternal life. In this sense, God’s image has also an eschatological component

252 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES which points to man’s hope not only to be brought back to life after death, but to be part of God’s post-historical existence in everlasting life. This is why God’s image points to God’s grace and benevolence in restoring creation to its original sinless perfection, which refers not only to man’s everlasting life beyond history, but also to his mortal life in history, as proved by the fourth aspect of Bradford’s view of God’s image. In Bradford, the grace of God’s image reflects itself in man’s life to the point that it keeps certain people from infirmities and includes others in the body of the Christian church. Thus, for Bradford, the fact that he himself was born without physical and psychological problems, as well as the fact that he came into this world in the midst of the Christian church are signs of God’s grace which cannot be detached from the reality of God’s image. It is because of God’s image that we have our names written in God’s book, an evident reference to man’s salvation from sin, which shows again God’s power, wisdom, and mercy: all fundamental features of God’s image. Concerning man’s relationship with himself, which is the fifth aspect that emerges from Bradford’s analysis of God’s image in man, one needs to pay heed to man’s awareness of himself. Although man was created with a physical body, Bradford seems to be more inclined to consider the nonphysical features of the human being as intrinsically part of God’s image. Memory and wisdom, therefore, appear to be more in line with God’s image, perhaps because God himself is revealed in Scripture in spiritual, not physical, terms. Man’s awareness of his own self is an indication that God created him with the capacity to understand the way his own being functions both in relationship with himself and others, including God. As a result of man’s self-awareness, Bradford notices that human beings have the capacity to understand God’s grace which has revealed itself to many in the sense that they were created physically adequate and spiritually able to perceive the possibility of a relationship with God. For

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Bradford, this is proof of the grace of God who sovereignly extended his love over many men and women who were predestined and elected to be part of the church of Christ. It is God’s image which allows man to see God’s grace at work before history, in history, and beyond history in all the stages of man’s salvation from sin which begins with predestination and election, continues with sanctification, and ends with glorification. Man is fully aware of his situation when he accepts Christ; in other words, man’s relationship with Christ leads to man’s relationship with himself. Man cannot fully understand his existence in the world, let alone his salvation from sin, unless he has a correct relationship with Christ. The body seems to play no significant role in this awareness, other than that of being the vehicle of nonphysical psychological faculties, so he appears to be excluded from God’s image. This, however, consists of life, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness as features not only of man’s redeemed existence and consequently of God’s spiritually recreated image in man, but also of God’s very being, the one who made it possible for man to have his damaged image of God restored according to God’s image in Christ. The benefits of God’s image in man is the sixth, and last, aspect which Bradford takes into consideration when he discusses the image of God in man. Although he first lists four benefits—election, creation, redemption, and sanctification—Bradford points beyond them to major themes such as man’s relationship with God as Trinity. Thus, man enjoys election, creation, redemption, and sanctification only because God intended man to have a close relationship with himself as Trinity. Bradford also has a second list of four benefits which refer to qualities that are given to man based on his relationship with God as Trinity. For instance, man enjoys God’s support and help as a benefit of his relationship with God as Trinity because he himself must be able to show support and help to other people. Likewise, since God saved man and man enjoys the status of being saved by God, he then must save

254 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES others or at least do his best to keep them away from perilous attitudes and situations. Man benefits from God’s parental care, so he must do the same with his neighbors. Man must display love and kindness to his peers because God was the first to do so with those he decided to save from sin. Man also enjoys the benefit of God’s patience, which shows that all saved human beings must extend their patience to those who are not yet in the same position. All these features are common to God’s image and they are all latent in each human being until God’s redemption is activated in accordance with the image of God in Christ. God’s image, therefore, is not only what man receives by creation and remains dormant within him until God redeems him, but also the whole range of possibilities which lie ahead of him pending becoming active through salvation according to God’s image in Christ. Chapter 4 was an analysis of the image of Moses as pictured by Richard Hooker in the first three books of his Laws in different contexts which pointed specifically to theological, anthropological, and scriptural issues. Concerning the first category, Hooker’s theological concerns have to do with salvation and God, and Moses becomes an image of both. In this role of image of salvation, Moses appears in the Preface to the Laws as the one who informed the religion of the Jewish nation, but also as the character who pointed to Christ as the true bearer of man’s salvation. Also with reference to salvation, Moses is present in Hooker’s third book of the Laws as the image of God’s grace as the person who delivered the message of salvation to Jewish people through the mediation of God’s word. Moses is also the image of God in the same third book of the Laws and, in this respect, he is mentioned by Hooker to describe God as creator. God’s capacity to create without difficulty is set against man’s ability to manifest his creativity in a way which involves effort because of God’s decision to endow his creation with natural laws. Book 2 of the Laws refers to Moses as the image of man’s relation-

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ship with God, his creator, which is based on God’s decision to speak to the human being in many different ways. Hooker is keen to underline the fact that, when one considers man’s relationship with God, it is God, not man, who has the upper hand in all respects. This emphasis is cemented by Hooker’s concept of leadership exemplified by Moses who anchored himself in the word of God. The second category, that of anthropological issues, is about man’s natural constitution and it tackles especially human rationality and spirituality. In Hooker, human rationality is made of knowledge, will, and wisdom, the three mental faculties which, in one way or another, have a direct influence on man’s ethical actions. This is evident when Moses’s name is used in Book 1 and 3 of the Laws, which speak on the one hand about humanity’s prelapsarian and postlapsarian existence, while on the other hand they explain how intelligence, ethics, and reason work together in the complexity of man’s daily existence. Man’s spirituality is discussed in Book 3, where Moses emerges as the embodiment of faithfulness, servanthood, and freedom. In this context, Hooker provides his readers with a useful comparison between Moses and Christ which illustrates the same three components of man’s spirituality, but also highlights the fundamental difference between the two, in the sense that Christ is depicted as superior to Moses. In using the notions of faithfulness, servanthood, and freedom, Hooker also points to how man should follow Christ based on Moses’ life with God. The third category deals with scriptural aspects which refer not only to Scripture itself, but also the the idea of law. Hooker discusses these issues in all his first three books of the Laws with special emphases on the role of Moses for each aspect which was taken into account. Thus, in Book 2, he speaks about the Jewish law and its strictness, which he later sets against Christ’s Gospel and its freedom. While insisting on the fact that both the Jewish law and Christ’s Gospel are God’s revelation, Hooker is careful to underline the fact that some laws are changea-

256 READING DOCTRINES AS THEOLOGICAL IMAGES ble and others are not. The ceremonial aspects of the Jewish law can be changed, but Christ’s Gospel must remain unaltered, as seen in Book 2. In this respect, the only authority that is able to help people decide what is immutable and what must be left unchanged is the Holy Spirit, the very author of divine laws. In Book 3, Hooker speaks again about the relationship between Moses’ law and Christ’s Gospel which turns into a comparison between Moses and Christ as agents of God’s revelation as well as images of God’s love for humanity. Concerning this aspect, Hooker explains in Book 1 of the Laws that God’s love for humanity expresses itself in how God revealed himself in Scripture, a collection of writings whose fundamental truth had a powerful impact in human history. Then, in Book 2, Hooker writes about the authority of the Scriptures in the lives of God’s people, but also about the role of Scripture for the spreading of God’s knowledge throughout the world starting with Moses and the prophets and culminating with the work of Christ. If I were asked to provide the readers with one single conclusion that rises to the status of being absolutely indispensable for a proper understanding of this book, I would say that—as prominent representatives of the Reformed tradition—Farel, Calvin, Bradford, and Hooker not only managed to recognize God’s incontestable sovereignty over his creation and man, but also succeeded in aptly showing that the images of marriage, worship, God, and Moses provided us with a splendid tableau vivant of God’s loving concern for the salvation of human beings.

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