Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 25:2 (Summer 2021)
Article: Calvin’s View Of Angels
Author: Herman J. Selderhuis

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Calvin’s View Of Angels

Herman J. Selderhuis

Herman J. Selderhuis is President and Professor of Church History and Church Polity of the Theological University Apeldoorn (TUA) in the Netherlands. He is also, director of the Refo500 Foundation, president of the Reformation Research Consortium (REFORC), chairman of the Luther Heritage Foundation, editor-in-chief of several international, academic book series and board member of several European research projects. Dr. Selderhuis has his expertise in the theology and history of the Reformation and on Reformed church law. In both areas he has published several books and numerous articles. He and his wife Irene have six children and eight grandchildren.

Introduction

To be clear from the beginning: Calvin’s view concerning angels is not really spectacular. That might be the reason that not much has been written on this subject.1 Calvin’s approach to topics like angelology is characterized by staying close to what the Bible says and by staying away from speculations in line with his warning against “vanam curiositatem.”2 That is the concern he expresses when he writes on the angels in his Institutes. It is his care “to keep within the bounds which piety prescribes, lest by indulging in speculations beyond my reach, I bewilder the reader, and lead him away from the simplicity of the faith.”3 Calvin is not rooted in medieval theology as for example Martin Luther was.4 Calvin was not a student at one of the theological faculties where each student had to go through handbooks of scholars like Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas that all had vast material on angels based on the Bible but also on stories and theories developed by church fathers, medieval theologians and popular traditions. And from the little we know about the spirituality in which he was raised, we get the impression that angels did not play a significant role in Calvin’s youth. From the passages in which he criticizes what the church taught and what people believed about angels, it becomes clear that he knew what was going on in

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this field of faith, but it is just as clear that in his own views he stayed away from what people thought and just repeated what Scripture taught. In spite of all this, it is highly remarkable how much space Calvin devotes in his sermons, commentaries and other works to angelology.5 In this article we can only take a look at what Calvin writes about angels in...