Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 62:2 (Fall 2000)
Article: The God Of Love And Weakness: Calvin’s Understanding Of God’s Accommodating Relationship With His People
Author: Jon Balserak

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WTJ 62:2 (Fall 2000) p. 177

The God Of Love And Weakness:
Calvin’s Understanding Of God’s
Accommodating Relationship With His People

Jon Balseraki

Ford Lewis Battles’ influential article, “God Was Accommodating Him self to Human Capacity”1 has largely governed our conception of Calvin’s thoughts on accommodation since its appearance in 1977, with numerous authors citing it as the standard work. Though apparently unaware of doing so, Battles follows the main lines drawn earlier by Edward Dowey,2 E. David Willis and one or two others.3 Making much of its supposed rhetorical roots, Battles argues that God’s accommodation functions in the

WTJ 62:2 (Fall 2000) p. 178

realm of speech; that God, like a good teacher or orator—indeed, more recent authors have spoken of Calvin’s God as the “Grand Orator”4 —adjusts and simplifies the knowledge of himself and divine realities to the weak capacities of those whom he is instructing.5 Hence, all knowledge of God revealed to us is accommodated knowledge.

WTJ 62:2 (Fall 2000) p. 179

The lone critique of Battles’ views and of the general trend of study in this area has come from David F. Wright in a series of essays published between 1986 and 1998.6 By drawing attention to a previously unknown aspect of accommodation in Calvin (namely, God’s tempering of his laws to the barbarity of his Old Testament people) and by striving to re-evaluate the phenomenon in the reformer, Wright not only offers a formidable challenge to contemporary understandings of accommodation7 but also demonstrates that we have a long way to go before we understand the place it holds in Calvin’s theology.8

Wright’s reflections are the impetus for the study that follows. It is the contention here that accommodation pervades Calvin’s thinking to a degree that has yet to be realized within the scholarly community. More particularly, I have become convinced that accommodation is not restricted to God’s revealing of himself, but rather encompasses a broad range of divine activities and characterizes many aspects of the relationship God has with his people. God not only speaks but behaves in an accommodated manner towards his church. Thus, a glimpse of Calvin’s views on the subje...

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