<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The beatific vision plays a prominent role in the history of Christian ethics. Reformed ethics has an ambiguous relationship to this history, on two counts. First, it offers some qualified critiques of the role of vision in ordering ethical understanding, and second, on some accounts, Reformed ethics shares some responsibility for the loss of transcendence in the modern world, and the narrowing of the ethical field that has resulted from this loss. This essay argues that the vision of God in John Calvin’s understanding of the Christian life offers resources to defend a Reformed ethics from some recent detractors. Further, it provides a constructive contrast with the role of eschatology in a prominent strand of 20th century ethics. This argument is sustained through a close reading of Calvin’s biblical commentaries on the role of theophanies and the promise of the vision of God, and of Book III, chapters 6-10 of the <italic>Institutes</italic>.</p></abstract>

The beatific vision plays a prominent role in the history of Christian ethics. Reformed ethics has an ambiguous relationship to this history, on two counts. First, it offers some qualified critiques of the role of vision in ordering ethical understanding, and second, on some accounts, Reformed ethics shares some responsibility for the loss of transcendence in the modern world, and the narrowing of the ethical field that has resulted from this loss. This essay argues that the vision of God in John Calvin’s understanding of the Christian life offers resources to defend a Reformed ethics from some recent detractors. Further, it provides a constructive contrast with the role of eschatology in a prominent strand of 20th century ethics. This argument is sustained through a close reading of Calvin’s biblical commentaries on the role of theophanies and the promise of the vision of God, and of Book III, chapters 6-10 of the Institutes.

Christ Our Light: The Expectation of Seeing God in Calvin’s Theology of the Christian Life

Perichoresis

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The beatific vision plays a prominent role in the history of Christian ethics. Reformed ethics has an ambiguous relationship to this history, on two counts....

Christ Our Light: The Expectation of Seeing God in Calvin’s Theology of the Christian Life

Published Online: Jun 02, 2020

Page range: 25 - 40

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2020-0002

Keywords
beatific vision, ethics, modernity, transcendence, Christian life, John Calvin

© 2020 Carsten Card-Hyatt, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Christ Our Light: The Expectation of Seeing God in Calvin’s Theology of the Christian Life

Published Online: Jun 02, 2020

Page range: 25 - 40

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2020-0002

Keywordsbeatific vision, ethics, modernity, transcendence, Christian life, John Calvin

© 2020 Carsten Card-Hyatt, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
beatific vision, ethics, modernity, transcendence, Christian life, John Calvin