The articles collected in this issue of our Journal focus on two theologians with unparalleled influence in the tradition of Reformed theology in particular: John Calvin and Karl Barth. Ian McGee explains how Calvin sees glimmers of truth in non-Christian philosophy and religions. He argues that Calvin’s evaluation of religiosity is best understood in terms of (inappropriate) responses to the gifts and revelation from the divine Logos. In this issue’s second contribution, Sean Luke compares Calvin’s view of evil with Reformed theologians working in England, such as Peter Martyr Vermigli, William Perkins, and William Ames, who use the language of ‘permission’ to speak about God’s relation to evil. Whereas Calvin emphasizes the necessity of all things as ordered by God, these English Reformed theologians use scholastic language to explain how God’s active direction of evil is compatible with human contingency and freedom. Sara Mannen addresses Barth’s doctrine of mystery and contrasts this with contemporary apophatic theology. While Barth’s account of mystery is soteriological in nature and places Christ in the center as the luminous divine revelation, apophatic theologians overemphasize the mystery of divine darkness. The final essay considers Barth’s account of the beatitudes. Declan Kelly shows how Barth treats the beatitudes, not within an ethical framework as is traditionally done, but rather as an expression of God’s encompassing grace. As words of grace the beatitudes are oriented to the saving advent of God’s eschatological kingdom. All these contributions demonstrate in their own way how worthwhile it is to read and reread theological giants from the past and to bring them into conversation with contemporary theological debates, not least those concerning the ‘big questions’ of religious plurality and truth, God and evil, the good life and salvation. This issue closes with a series of reviews of recent publications in the field of Reformed theology.
Pieter Vos and Philip G. Ziegler
