Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ

231 Pages·2008·1.7 MB·English

by  J. Todd Billings

CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL
AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
General Editors
Sarah Coakley Richard Cross
ChangingParadigmsinHistoricalandSystematicTheology
GeneralEditors:SarahCoakley(Norris-HulseProfessorofDivinity,
UniversityofCambridge)andRichardCross(JohnA.O’Brien
ProfessorofPhilosophy,UniversityofNotreDame)
Thisseriessetsouttoreconsiderthemoderndistinctionbetween‘historical’
and ‘systematic’ theology. The scholarship represented in the series is
marked by attention to the way in which historiographic and theological
presumptions (‘paradigms’) necessarily inform the work of historians
of Christian thought, and thus affect their application to contemporary
concerns. At certain key junctures such paradigms are recast, causing a
re-consideration of the methods, hermeneutics, geographical boundaries,
or chronological caesuras which have previously guided the theological
narrative. The beginning of the twenty-Wrst century marks a period of
such notable reassessment of the Christian doctrinal heritage, and in-
volves a questioning of the paradigms that have sustained the classic
‘history-of-ideas’ textbook accounts of the modern era. Each of the
volumes in this series brings such contemporary methodological and his-
toriographical concerns to conscious consideration. Each tackles a period
or key Wgure whose signiWcance is ripe for reconsideration, and each ana-
lysestheimplicithistoriography thathassustainedexistingscholarshipon
thetopic.Avarietyoffreshmethodologicalconcernsareconsidered,with-
out reducing the theological to other categories. The emphasis is on an
awareness of the history of ‘reception’: the possibilities for contemporary
theology are bound up with a careful rewriting of the historical narrative.
Inthissense,‘historical’and‘systematic’theologyarenecessarilyconjoined,
yetalsocloselyconnectedtoadiscerninginterdisciplinaryengagement.
ThismonographseriesaccompaniestheprojectofTheOxfordHandbookof
theReceptionofChristianTheology(OUP,inprogress),alsoeditedbySarah
CoakleyandRichardCross.
Calvin,
Participation, and
the Gift
The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ
J. TODD BILLINGS
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Preface and Acknowledgements
It is appropriate that a book which engages theologies of the Gift
beginswithstatementsofgratitude.
TheoriginofmyinterestinCalvin’srelationtotheGiftdiscussion
goes back for more than a decade, to when I was a community
development worker in Uganda. In this capacity, Iwas taught to be
suspicious of gifts as a condescending response to poverty; yet, as a
Christian,Ialsoconfessedthatthereissomethinglikea‘freegift’in
Christian salvation that is empowering. In response to my time in
Uganda, I immersed myself in literature which explored the prob-
lemsrelatedtoGiftGiving—fromNietzschetoMarion,Milbankto
Tanner. Gradually, I began to see that many of my questions were
addressed in the writings of John Calvin, in spite of the fact that he
wasafrequentfoilforGifttheologians.Thequestionswereaddressed
inawaythatbothreframedthequestionsintheGiftdiscussionand
gavethemmuchmorecomplexandnuancedanswers.Iamgrateful
to Miroslav Volf and John L. Thompson for being my teachers and
mentorsduringthisinitialtimeofexplorationatFullerSeminary.
My gratitude must extend to my mentors and colleagues at Har-
vard Divinity School, as the next stage of this project was myTh.D.
dissertationcompletedthere.TheTheologyColloquiumatHarvard
Divinity School spent a year engaging with the Gift-Giving discus-
sion,andIamgratefultofacultyandstudentsalikefortheirinsights
from that time. I was also privileged to work with a very Wne
committee throughout the course of the thesis: Professors Sarah
Coakley, David Little, and Kevin Madigan. All three contributed
both energy and insight at every stage of the dissertation project.
Myadvisor,ProfessorCoakley,deservesspecialthanksfor herguid-
ance and encouragement in the process of research and writing.
Several doctoral students at Harvard have also offered a great deal
of helpful feedback. I am particularly grateful to Benjamin King,
Tamsin Jones, Mark Scott, Randall Short, and David Kim for this.
My thanks also go to Harvard Divinity School for awarding me a
vi PrefaceandAcknowledgements
Dean’sDissertation Fellowship,helping me tocomplete myoriginal
thesisresearchandwritingmuchearlierthanIwouldhaveotherwise.
As the manuscript developed from a dissertation into a book,
I have many to thank among my colleagues at Western Theological
Seminaryfor theirhelpinthisprocess.Westernhadtheforesightto
givemeareducedteaching loadasIbeganmyteachinghere,which
hasmadespaceformycontinuingworkonthisproject.Inaddition,
IamgratefultothefacultycolloquyatWesternfortheirencourage-
ment and critical comments. My senior colleague I. John Hesselink
hasbeenespeciallyhelpfulingivingfeedbackattheWnalstagesofthis
work.
IamalsogratefultovariousCalvinandReformationscholarswho
havegenerouslyprovidedinputatsomestageofmywritingproject:
Phil Butin, John L. Thompson, Tony Lane, Irena Backus, and
MichaelHorton.Ithasbeenaprivilegetoreceivesuchusefuladvice.
I should also note that my research for revisions on this book was
completed in August of 2006. I regret that the Wne paper by Wim
Janse, ‘Calvin’s Eucharistic Theology: Three Dogma-Historical
Observations,’presentedatthe2006InternationalCongressonCal-
vinResearch,appearedtoolateformetoincorporateitsinsights.A
revised version of the essay is forthcoming with the conference
proceedings in Calvinus Sacrorum Literarum Interpres, ed. Herman
J.Selderhuis,Go¨ttingen:Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht.
My thanks go to Oxford University Press for agreeing to publish
this book and for providing excellent critical feedback through peer
reviews, which has led to improvements at many points in the
manuscript. In addition, I am delighted that this book has been
selected as the Wrst book in a new series, ‘Changing Paradigms
in Historical and Systematic Theology.’ The boundaries between
historical and systematic theology are porous. In many ways, this
book is an interrogation of various recent uses of Calvin, and a
reconsideration of the possible insights that Calvin’s theology can
provide to contemporary theological discourse. I am also grateful
for copyright permission granted by several publications which
have printed earlier essays of mine that have some overlap with
sections of this book: ‘John Calvin: United to God through Christ’,
inPartakersoftheDivineNature,ed.M.ChristensenandJ.Wittung
(Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007), 200–18.
PrefaceandAcknowledgements vii
‘United to God through Christ: Calvin on the Question of DeiWca-
tion’, Harvard Theological Review, 98 no. 3 (July 2005), 315–34;
‘Milbank’s Theology of the Gift and Calvin’s Theology of Grace:
A Critical Comparison’, Modern Theology, 21/1 (January 2005),
87–105.
Finally, my thanks goes to my brilliant wife Rachel. Her encour-
agement, companionship, and proofreading have been essential for
thisproject.
Aboveall,Gloria Dei.
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Contents
ShortReferencestoCalvin’sWorks xi
1. Calvin,Participation,andtheProblem
oftheGiftinContemporaryThought 1
1.1. CalvinandTheologiesoftheGift 3
1.2. Calvin’sDistinctiveDoctrineofParticipation 14
1.3. Calvin’sDoctrineofParticipationandCalvinStudies 17
2. Calvin’sDoctrineofParticipation:
ContextsandContinuities 24
2.1. Calvin’sTrainingandContext:LocatingCalvin’s
TheologicalMetaphysics 26
2.2. Calvin’sClaimsofContinuity withtheChurchFathers 39
2.3. PatristicandReformationalAppropriationsin
Calvin’sTheologyofParticipationandthe
Divine-HumanRelation 42
2.4. Conclusion 65
3. TheDevelopmentofCalvin’sLanguage
of‘ParticipationinChrist’ 68
3.1. EarlyWritings:‘Participation’intheFirst
EditionsoftheInstitutesandOtherEarlyWritings 70
3.2. DevelopmentofCalvin’s‘Programme’through
CommentariesandControversies 85
3.3. ParticipationandtheFinalEditionoftheInstitutes 100
3.4. Conclusion 102
4. ParticipationinChrist:TheActivityofBelievers
inPrayerandtheSacraments 105
4.1. GiftandGratitude:TheduplexgratiaandPrayer
asParticipationinAdoption 106