Author: Raymond Potgieter 1. Dates: Received: 11 Apr. How to cite this article: Potgieter, R. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The same acuity that is evident in John Calvin's theological writings accompanied his correspondence. Calvin's mission was not to support God, but to honour him.
Divine revelation and the glory of God underlie the content of his letters. The audacious confidence with which he writes, reveals his utter reliance upon the veracity of Scripture, which understanding must be conveyed through sound teaching. Yet, his letters are not inundated with scriptural references or quotes in the fashion of a medical prescription.
Rather the connection between Scripture and writing for Calvin were twofold: it lies in the foundations of sound theology applied pastorally. This undergirded his pastoral care. To bring that across in his correspondence with Duchess Renata Ferrara, he followed basic doctrinal principles, evident from many of his letters applied pastorally to the recipient s of the letter. Calvyn se pastorale benadering soos waargeneem in sy briewe. Dieselfde pastorale noukeurigheid wat duidelik in Johannes Calvyn se teologiese geskrifte waarneembaar is, kom ook in sy korrespondensie voor.
Calvyn se oogmerk was nie bloot om God te eer nie, maar om Hom te verheerlik. Die inhoud van sy briewe reflekteer sowel die openbaring as die heerlikheid van God. Tog maak hy nie in sy briewe op oordrewe wyse van teksverwysings of aanhalings gebruik om sy teologie te staaf nie. Die verband tussen die Skrif en sy skryfwerk was eerder vir Calvyn 'n tweeledige saak: dit berus naamlik op gesonde teologie wat pastoraal toegepas word.
Calvin's letters are part of the volumes of correspondence of the reformation generally called Corpus Reformatorum. Most famously, it also includes the works 3 of Philip Melanchthon and Huldrych Zwingli. However, it has never been easily accessible to the general English reader as most of the texts are in Latin, German or French and because most of the publications are scarce.
