Written on whose heart? - 5 February 2010 |
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These are the questions for week 13 of the Guided Reading Course.
Before you start, think for a few minutes about this question:
1. Can unbelievers do good? If so, how? And in what sense(s)?
Calvin, Institutes, II.ii
2. What do ‘the philosophers’ and some of the Fathers believe about human capacity for good and evil (II.ii.3-4)?
3. Why, according to Calvin, did the Fathers adopt such a position (II.ii.4)?
4. What do you make of the different definitions of ‘free will’ cited by Calvin in section II.ii.4? What does Calvin think of them (II.ii.9)?
5. What effect, according to Calvin, has the fall had on humanity’s ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ gifts (II.ii.12-13; see also II.iii.1-2)? Do you agree with this distinction? What effect did the fall have on the will (II.ii.12)?
6. How does Calvin account for the competence of unbelievers in fields such as art and science (II.ii.14-16)? Do you agree? You might find it helpful to look also at section II.iii.3.
7. What does Calvin believe fallen human reason is able (and unable) to discern concerning what he calls ‘God’s Kingdom’ and ‘spiritual insight’ (II.ii.18-25)? Do you agree?
8. What does Calvin think Romans 2 means when it says, ‘When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do the works of the law, they are a law to themselves … and show that the work of the law is written on their hearts’? Do you agree with this interpretation?
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Guided Reading Course, Minister's Blog