His point is rather that all such study is to be caught up into the life of
Christian devotion by thanking the Spirit of God for working in all human
beings to make it possible for them to apprehend truth.
Finally, consider some of the rather remarkable things that he says about
astronomy:‘Astronomy“unfolds the admirable wisdom of God”by displaying
the wonderful order of the heavens, which are so cunningly arranged that
nothing is“nearer the earth nor farther from it than is useful for preserving
order”.’^19 Calvin goes on to say that‘it is“the symmetry and regulation”of the
universe, amazing in view of its vastness and the speed of its motions, that
particularly display the glory of God. Astronomy, therefore,“may justly be
called the alphabet of theology”.’^20
Once again, there is no indication here that Calvin thinks astronomy has to
be useful in our sense of‘useful’. What he says, rather, is that the study of
astronomy should be caught up into a life of Christian devotion by recognizing
that in the study of astronomy we become aware of the awesome manifest-
ation in the heavens of God’s wisdom and power.
Let me draw out some implications of the three sets of passages that we have
just discussed. First, what these passages show is that, in Calvin’s view, the
learning of Christians is by no means to be confined to the study of the Bible
and of commentaries of the Bible. Neither, when going beyond biblical study,
is it to be confined to the study of Christian writers. Over and over, Calvin
affirms the study of pagan authors. Second, though the Renaissance humanists
in general had an ambivalent attitude towards natural science—they were
students and proponents of the humanities—Calvin displays no such ambiva-
lence. And third, Calvin is working with a very expansive view ofpietas,or
devotion as I have been calling it. The study of philosophy, of law, of math-
ematics, of astronomy, these can be and should be caught up into a life of
Christian devotion. There is nothing wrong with studying astronomy just for
the sake of understanding; there is something wrong if it does not evoke awe.
Bouwsma quotes Erasmus as saying that he always intended his activity
‘to serve some useful purpose’.^21 Only if we understand‘useful’in a very
broad sense does this catch Calvin’s thought. Calvin has no problem with
learning for its own sake. What he asks is not that learning always be useful
but that it always be caught up, in one way or another, into the life of
Christian devotion.
One more point should be made before we move on from Calvin’s Renais-
sance humanism to his anthropological humanism. Calvin’s evangelical
humanist way of reading Scripture is very different from reading Scripture so
as to assemble proof texts for systematic theology. His scriptural hermeneutic is
(^19) Quoted in Bouwsma,John Calvin, 72. (^20) Bouwsma,John Calvin, 104.
(^21) Bouwsma,John Calvin, 17.
The Christian Humanism of John Calvin 85