THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

substance and subsistencies, to approach the mystery of God's one-ness and three-ness,
ultimately he dwells on this as mystery. In a compelling passage found in every edition
of the Institutio, 1536 on, Calvin affirms the consubstantiality and co-eternality of
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as "there are three distinct persons, but one essence," and
then immediately avers: "As these are deep and hidden mysteries, they ought rather to
be adored than investigated, inasmuch as neither our intelligence nor our tongue—by
nature or capacity—ought, or is able, to encompass these mysteries." 593
5.2 God Triune in the 1536 Institutio
Calvin generated his first summary exposition of Christian doctrine in the mid-
1530s. At the outset, his Institutio was intended to be a catechetical work, though, with
a dedicatory letter addressed to the King of France appended as a preface, it became an
apologetical work as well. 594 That it had a catechetical intent is evident from its content
and structure: not unlike antecedent catechetical works, historic and contemporaneous,
Calvin's Institutio includes expositions of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed,
593 Inst. 1536, 57. This is not unlike Calvin's confession of the mystery of what transpires in the
sacraments. See 1559 Institutio 4.17.7, a passage that first appeared in the 1539 edition. Calvin's
emphasis on wonder and experience ought not be marshaled to suggest Calvin would condone an antiintellectual
approach to God or devotion to God. The volume and tenor of Calvin's writings speak for
themselves, as does Calvin's reflection, at least regarding the Lord's Supper, that while the communion of
the Lord's Supper itself, and all that it signifies, is a mystery, it is a mystery "deserving of contemplation."
It is fitting to consider, among other things, "in what way (quomodo) Christ can give us his body and
blood for meat and drink" (Tracts and Treatises 2:516). Such are not the words of an anti-intellectual. (I
am indebted to Laura Smit for this point.)
594 As noted before in Chapter 3, Calvin's own comments about the work indicate that he "had
begun to compose the Institutio as a catechetical manual some time before his decision to address the
volume to Francis I and that the apologetic thrust of the address was in fact secondary to the original
intention of the document" (Muller, Unaccommodated Calvin, 26, with reference to Parker, John Calvin:
A Biography, 33). See also Muller, Unaccommodated Calvin, 102ff and 120; Gilmont, Calvin and the
Printed Book, 11; and Randall C. Zachman, John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and Theologian, 134.
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