Naturally we want to know wherein lies our iconicity. In what respects do
we mirror God back to Godself and then to each other? Calvin offers two rules
of thumb for answering this question. In thefirst place, our iconicity is to be
discerned in what differentiates us from the other earthlings:‘the likeness of
God extends to the whole excellence by which man's nature towers over all the
kinds of living creatures’.^45 Second, keeping in mind that our likeness to God
can be increased and diminished, we must follow the rule that the fundamen-
tal goal of our human existence is to become as like unto God as possible—or,
to use the language of the Orthodox tradition, to become as‘divinized’as
possible. And what would a human being's full likeness to God be like? We
apprehend the answer to that question in Jesus Christ, who is‘the express
image of the Father’.^46
CALVIN’S SOCIAL HUMANISMLet us consider, last, Calvin’s social humanism. My discussion of Calvin’s
anthropological humanism was more truncated than my discussion of his
Renaissance humanism; my discussion of his social humanism will have to be
yet more truncated. I can do no more than point to its main theme.
As we have just now seen, one of the principal themes in Calvin’sreflections
on theimago deiis that there is a deep and fundamental solidarity among all
human beings on account of the fact that each and every one us bears the
image of God; wefind ourselves mirrored in each other. André Biéler, in his
massive and exhaustive study,Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, argues
persuasively that solidarity was the fundamental theme in Calvin’s social
thought as a whole, with the theme of God’s goodness towards us as the all-
embracing context.
On the theme of solidarity in Calvin Biéler quotes, along with a multitude of
other passages, Calvin’s comment on Luke 10:30:‘The primary character of
the social order created by God is thesolidaritythat unites all beings one with
another. The human race is conjoined together by a sacred bond of commu-
nity. All are neighbors one of another...Wemust never wipe out our com-
mon nature.’^47 And on the theme of God’s goodness Biéler quotes, along with
many other passages, Calvin’s comment on Genesis 1:26:
Hence we infer what was the end for which all things were created; namely, that
none of the conveniences and necessaries of life might be wanting to men. In the(^45) Calvin,InstitutesI.xv.4.
(^46) Quoted in Wallace,Calvin’s Doctrine of the Christian Life, 36.
(^47) André Biéler,Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, trans. James Greig (Geneva: World
Alliance of Reformed Churches, 2006), 205.
The Christian Humanism of John Calvin 91