Calvin and Providence

On the day after John Calvin's 500th birthday, I'd like to continue the conversation about his theology. Having noted his focus on the Glory of God, which reflects his emphasis on the sovereignty of God, perhaps it would be helpful to think a bit about the doctrine of divine providence. The question that Christians -- indeed people of all religious persuasions -- ask has to do with the degree to which God is active and involved in their lives or in the world itself. The doctrine of divine providence attempts to answer that question. Here are some thoughts about Calvin's perception, including how it relates to the question of human freedom.

For Calvin providence is linked to his understanding of God's glory, by which he understands that everything that happens, happens according to God's will. For Calvin the sovereignty of God extends to all areas of life's affairs. But, Calvin distinguished providence from both fatalism and deism (deism as we know it didn't yet exist, but something akin to it was present). While fatalism assumes the divine to be an impersonal force or chain of necessity, Calvin understood God to be the personal creator of the universe. And as for deism, Calvin did not believe that God created the world and then let it go off to run its course.

As Calvin understood divine providence, the doctrine carried the implication of God's continued personal involvement in human life and existence. Nothing happens by chance, but rather is a part of God's continuance of the process of creation. Still he denies that providence is merely foreknowledge of things that are to happen or that it is simply God's permitting events to happen, for both deny God's personal involvement. Calvin affirmed that even the smallest details of history are subject to God's direction.

If one separates the events of human history from God's involvement then no room is left for God to either exhibit his judgment or his favor on humanity. Thus, the abundance or lack of rain, a fruitful harvest versus a famine, all demonstrate God's favor or judgment on humanity. "If we accept these things, it is certain that not one drop of rain falls without God's sure command." (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John T. McNeil, ed., Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960, 1:16:5).

The problem with Calvin's understanding of providence, as I understand it, is its handling of the question of human freedom and responsibility. If God directs or causes everything that happens to happen, then this seems to deny the possibility of human responsibility. More importantly it also opens God up to the charge of being the author of evil. Indeed, Calvin taught that God hardened the hearts of humanity against himself, and God actively used the deeds of evil men and women for his own purposes. Calvin answers the charge that he implicates God in evil by suggesting that when God uses a person, even an evil person, he uses that person as "thinking creature, according to the quality of his nature which he has given him." This still leaves little room for human freedom, and therefore, it appears that Calvin has gone too far in his views. In the end Calvin appeals to the incomprehensibility of God's will, which includes the revealed will in Scripture and God's concealed will. Though there is a unity between the two, it means that we do not know or understand all that God is up to. In this regard Calvin writes in the Institutes:

"But even though his will is one and simple in him, it appears manifold to us because, on account of our mental incapacity, we do not grasp how in divers ways it wills and does not will something to take place.... Because God's will appears manifold, ought we therefore, on account of the sluggishness of our understanding , to dream that there is any variation in God himself, as if he either many change his plan or disagree with himself? Rather, when we do not grasp how God wills to take place what he forbids to be done, let us recall our mental incapacity, and at the same time consider that the light in which God dwells is not without reason called unapproachable [I Tim. 6:16], because it is overspread with darkness." (Calvin, Institutes, 1:18:3).

Whether or not we accept Calvin's understandings or his explanations, we must face the question of the nature of God's involvement in our lives. If we believe God to be interventionist, which Calvin did, and all powerful, which Calvin did, then how do we explain such things as disasters or illness and death of the innocent -- unless you assume we're all guilty and that our time comes when it comes.