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119
politics, economics and social affairs that Eugene Choisy
speaks of Calvin's "theocracy', and Emile Doumergue and
Ernest Troeltsch of his "Christian Socialism'." 171
Thus, for Calvin, trust and obedience to God required active
engagement with the practical issues of individual, familial, social
and political life. Thus, Reform was not a mere matter of proper
ordering of the soul, but to establish the proper order of society and
civil affairs according to the Word to the Glory of God. 172
Reformed faith has ever since seen trust and obedience as more
than personal virtues but civic virtues as man has been called by
God to engage his society as well as to preserve and protect
creation.
This is in stark contrast to modern naturalism that would
uphold human passivity before the precedent order of autonomous
nature. Pantheistic naturalism eschews any ―domination‖ of nature
even as a Reformed view encourages man‘s fruitful engagement
and even authority over nature. Whereas naturalism holds that
nature moves according to its own order, a Reformed perspective
argues that nature cannot be understood apart from man‘s proper
stewardship and engagement with in light of God‘s command to
subdue it. Thus, it would be a dereliction of God‘s divine command
for man to leave nature to itself. More than a mere cog in the
biosphere, man must do more than seek quietude, submission and
submersion into natural order. Rather humankind is commanded
by God to preserve and perfect nature through his interaction with
it and to this command he is accountable as God‘s steward over
creation.
The wisdom of this perspective can be seen in light of the
middle path it provides between a rapacious unrestrained
171 Farris, Allan. John Calvin: Social Revolutionary. Available [Online]:
[23 April
2000].
172 This is neatly summed up by Clark Pinnock in Flame of Love:A Theology of
the Holy Spirit. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1996.) p. 45