The Servetus Challenge
Eisegesis and the Problematic of Differing Chronologies of Ecclesiastical Corruption
In: Journal of Reformed TheologySearch for other papers by Joao Chaves in
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This piece focuses on how the challenge that Servetus’s Trinitarian thought posed to reformers in general and Calvin in particular illustrates the oftentimes overlooked similarities between their interpretative frameworks. Although many works on the Servetus-Calvin affair have been produced, such works focus on the dissimilarities between Servetus and Calvin. I will argue that there is a significant similarity between Servetus’s and Calvin’s hermeneutical presuppositions insofar as both thinkers not only do not acknowledge the tentative nature of their scriptural interpretations but also allow their respective hermeneutic to be guided by sources that were produced by people who belonged to a time when, according to their respective convictions, the church was still able to properly recognize true scriptural teaching.
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2
Michael C. Legaspi, The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), viii.
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3
Jonathan Sheehan, The Enlightenment Bible: Translation, Scholarship, Culture, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), xii.
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4
Jaroslav Pelikan et al., The Reformation of the Bible, the Bible of the Reformation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 3.
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5
Pelikan, The Reformation, 1–30; Debora K. Shuger, The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010), 15–23; R. Ward Holder, “Revelation and Scripture,” in T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology, ed. David M. Whitford, 1st edition (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2012), 32–56.
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8
John F. Fulton, Michael Servetus, Humanist and Martyr: With a Bibliography of His Works and Census of Known Copies, (New York: Herbert Reichner, 1953), 46.
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9
Marian Hillar, Michael Servetus: Intellectual Giant, Humanist, and Martyr (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 2002), xv.
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13
Roland Herbert Bainton, Hunted Heretic; the Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511–1553, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1953), 4.
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16
Hillar, Michael Servetus, 3–4. Hillar mentions the debates surrounding the suggestion that Servetus had Jewish origins but he discards this option due to lack of evidence.
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21
Andrew Pettegree, “Michael Servetus and the Limits of Tolerance,” History Today 40, no. 2 (February 1990): 44.
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22
Ángel Alcalá, “Foreword,” in Michael Servetus: Intellectual Giant, Humanist, and Martyr, by Marian Hillar (Lanham: University Press of America, 2002), xi.
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25
Bainton, Hunted Heretic; the Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511–1553, 42.
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26
Ibid., 58. Bainton says that although Setzer was aware that there was some risk involved in printing Servetus’s work, Setzer wanted to “irritate the Swiss.”
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27
James Ropes and Kirsopp Lake, “Introduction,” in The Two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity, ed. James Ropes and Kirsopp Lake, vol. XVI, Harvard Theological Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932), ix.
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42
See Michael Servetus, “On the Errors of the Trinity,” in The Two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity, ed. James Ropes and Kirsopp Lake, vol. XVI, Harvard Theological Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1532); Michael Servetus, “Dialogues on the Trinity,” in The Two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity, ed. James Ropes and Kirsopp Lake, vol. XVI, Harvard Theological Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1532); Servetus, “Texto de La Discussión Escrita Entre Calvino Y Servet”; John Calvin, “Texto de La Discussión Escrita Entre Calvino Y Servet,” in Miguel Servet: Obras Completas, ed. Ángel Alcalá, vol. I(Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2003), 167–229.
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44
Michael Servetus, “On the Errors of the Trinity,” in The Two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity, ed. James Ropes and Kirsopp Lake, vol. XVI, Harvard Theological Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932), 3.
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46
Servetus, “Texto de La Discussión Escrita Entre Calvino Y Servet,” 171.
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53
Robert W. Jenson, Canon and Creed: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville: Westminster J. Knox Press, 2010); Robert W. Jenson, Systematic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
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56
Rafael Bermudo del Pino, “Calvin, Servet et La Théologie Trinitaire de Tertullien,” Reformation & Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 11, no. 1 (April 2009), 3.
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66
Calvin, “Texto de La Discussión,” 172–174. Although Calvin’s pneumatology is not the focus of this paper, it is important to acknowledge that Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the teacher was a significant part of his idea of proper scriptural interpretation. Such reliance on the Holy Spirit gave Calvin even more confidence in his ability to properly interpret scripture.
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67
John Calvin, “Confession of Faith in the Name of the Reformed Churches of France,” in Calvin Works and Correspondence, Past Masters accessed April 27, 2014.
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68
John Calvin, “A Brief From of a Confession of Faith,” in Tracts and Treatises, vol. II, Past Masters, accessed April 27, 2014.
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71
David Curtis Steinmetz, Calvin in Context (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 120.
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73
Young-Ho Chun, “The Trinity in the Protestant Reformation,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity, ed. Peter C. Phan (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 129.
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75
John L. Thompson, “Calvin as Biblical Interpreter,” in The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin, ed. Donald K. McKim (Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 61–63.
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78
R. Ward Holder, John Calvin And the Grounding of Interpretation: Calvin’s First Commentaries (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005), 20–22.
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The Servetus Challenge
Eisegesis and the Problematic of Differing Chronologies of Ecclesiastical Corruption
In: Journal of Reformed TheologySearch for other papers by Joao Chaves in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This piece focuses on how the challenge that Servetus’s Trinitarian thought posed to reformers in general and Calvin in particular illustrates the oftentimes overlooked similarities between their interpretative frameworks. Although many works on the Servetus-Calvin affair have been produced, such works focus on the dissimilarities between Servetus and Calvin. I will argue that there is a significant similarity between Servetus’s and Calvin’s hermeneutical presuppositions insofar as both thinkers not only do not acknowledge the tentative nature of their scriptural interpretations but also allow their respective hermeneutic to be guided by sources that were produced by people who belonged to a time when, according to their respective convictions, the church was still able to properly recognize true scriptural teaching.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 546 | 93 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 161 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 119 | 3 | 0 |
