Concordin the context of describing the believer’s confidence (fidu-
cia) as sure and certain:‘This knowledge of (agnitio) and confidence
in God’s grace makes people glad and bold and happy in dealing with
God.’^190 The Augustinian way of speaking is applied to thefirst-
person perspective of the believer.
2.7. Calvin and Religious Knowledge
Calvin’s writings can be considered as an extensive summary of the
Latin traditions of religious recognition, as initiated through August-
ine, developed in Bernard and Thomas, and interpreted by Ficino and
Luther. Calvin employs the termsagnosco/agnitioandrecognosco/
recognitiofrequently, associating them with the traditions of heter-
onomy, the bond between master and servant, as well as the ideas of
constitutive mutual acknowledgement. As thefinal edition of his
Institutio religionis Christianae(1559) offers abundant evidence of
these features, I will focus on this work.
In addition, Calvin’sInstitutiocan be understood as a bridge
between Latin and vernacular traditions of religious recognition.
Although I use the Latin edition, I also mention the corresponding
French terms employed in the French edition of this work (1560) in
the footnotes. Likewise, I will indicate the corresponding English and
German words in early English (1574) and German (1572) transla-
tions ofInstitutio. Chapter 3 makes more observations concerning
the English and German vocabulary. As the most important dogmatic
textbook of early Protestantism, Calvin’sInstitutioexercised a broad
and deep influence on later theology and philosophy, shaping the
emerging vernacular vocabularies.
The opening chapters explain the basic epistemological and meth-
odological assumption of Calvin’s work, namely, the issue of how
knowledge of God is possible.^191 Calvinfirst employs the tradition of
Augustine and Bernard in claiming that knowledge of God needs
knowledge of oneself. In a truly Protestant manner, Calvin holds that
true self-knowledge is awareness of one’s own depravity:
(^190) Bekenntnisschriften1419, 33–6; Trans.Book of Concord, 576.
(^191) Calvin,Inst.(1559) 1, 1–5. The following translations are mostly fromInst-E.
98 Recognition and Religion