H. P. Grice on Calvin

CALVINIANUM IMPLICATUM Calvin, John (1509–64) French Protestant reformer and theologian, born in Noyon, taught in Geneva. Calvin argued that knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves are jointly grounded in our recognition of misery and corruption in our lives. Without a sense of our own limitations, we cannot know God, and without knowing God and acknowledging his benevolence and love, we have false estimates of ourselves. Conscience is the subjective aspect of knowing, worshiping, and obeying God and sin is a wilful resistance to this knowledge, worship, and obedience. In his social and political teachings, Calvin argued for the separation of church and state and for justice in civic affairs, ideally through a republic. His major work, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), was repeatedly revised and developed throughout his life.