Die verband tussen Teologie, Filosofie en die vakwetenskappe by Calvyn en enkele implikasies daarvan vir die materialistiese en idealistiese denke

Abstract

The relationship between Theology, Philosophy and the particular scientific disciplines in John Calvin’s views and some implications of his theological views for materialistic and idealistic philosophical thought

Central to John Calvin’s theology is the notion that God is a self-existent being: God is not dependant upon any other being for His existence; rather He exists independently of everything else in creation. Even if everything would diasappear, God would still exist. God’s property of self-existence is an incommunicable attribute of God’s being. God’s aseity implies that God does not exist through another or from another. He exists in and of Himself, independent of everything else and is known from Scripture as a self-existent being. The theological statement of the aseity of God has vast implications for philosophical endeavour and for all the particular scientific disciplines. The doctrine that God alone is self-existent and that everything else is dependent for its existence on God is closely related to the theological doctrine of creation, the doctrine of God’s sovereign governance of the world and that the knowledge of God’s aseity and sovereignty is only possible in and through Christ (the Word or Logos). According to the doctrine of creation, everything that exists (other than God) has been created by God, and everything that exists other than God is a created thing. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty flows from His incommunicable aseity: God is the supreme creator and lawgiver of reality. Not only did God create the whole of reality but he also maintains and governs the world through his wisdom, power and grace. Knowledge of God as the supreme self-existent being, the whole of creation being totally dependent upon God, the sovereign governance of God’s creation in his omnipotence and wisdom is revealed to man through God’s Word. Calvin’s references to Christian philosophy appeals to his view that reason is auxiliary to faith and that philosophy drawing its foundational ground ideas from theology stands juxtaposed to non-Christian philosophical thought. In this article the authors firstly investigates the theological ground ideas underlying his views on philosophy and the particular scientific disciplines. Secondly, the authors investigate Calvin’s theological grounding of philosophy for materialistic and idealistic philosophical views respectively.