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Was Calvin a Biblical Literalist?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Richard G. Prust
Affiliation:
Laurinburg, N. Carolina

Extract

One of the most controversial issues dividing Calvin scholars has to do with Calvin's understanding of God as the author of Scripture. Specifically the issue is this: did Calvin believe that the Scriptures were verbally inspired in such a way that they can be identified without qualification with God's Word and therefore held to be infallible?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1967

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References

page 312 note 1 Johnson, Robert C., Authority in Protestant Theology (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1959), p. 50.Google Scholar

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page 313 note 1 Johnson, op. cit., p. 51.

page 313 note 2 ibid.

page 313 note 3 Commentaries on 2 Timothy, 2 Tim. 3.16.

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page 315 note 2 Institutes I.9.1–3.

page 315 note 3 Institutes I.9.3.

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page 315 note 5 Commentaries on Acts, Acts 7.14.

page 315 note 6 Institutes II. 11.6.

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page 317 note 1 Many interpreters, however, who address themselves to the question of Calvin's alleged literalism see ‘little or no distinction in Calvin's mind between the words of scripture and the doctrine’. Forstman, H. Jackson, Word and Spirit: Calvin's Doctrine of Biblical Authority (Stanford University Press, 1962), p. 58.Google Scholar

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page 322 note 1 Commentaries on 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1.20.

page 322 note 2 Commentaries on 2 Timothy, 2 Tim. 3.16.

page 322 note 3 Commentaries on Genesis, Gen. 49.5.

page 322 note 4 Commentaries on 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1.20.

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page 327 note 2 Commentaries on Daniel, Preface, p. 79.

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