Abstract
Among other important theological concepts (e.g. religio or iustificatio, etc.) the concept of doctrina and its usage concern the heart of Reformational theology – especially in the theology of John Calvin. In spite of some important investigations that have already been undertaken in this regard, there is still a deficiency in respect of a comprehensive theological investigation of this theme. The fact that some well-known contemporary scholars nevertheless do not pay attention to the respective and different cardinal usages of doctrina by Calvin, underlines the need for further research. It is of considerable importance to analyse the way Calvin used the concept of doctrina, not only in a dogmatic and dogmen-historical sense but also with regard to homiletics, catechetics and pastoral care.In this article the focus is on the 1536 edition of the Institutes of Calvin. Using an adequate method to analyse Calvin’s usage, the results of such an analysis are presented in order to emphasise the importance of a careful dealing with concepts in general and in dealing with Calvin’s usage of doctrina in particular.
This investigation shows that Calvin used doctrina in such an active and dynamic way that one often has to translate it with a verb, a verbalised noun or even with a verbal phrase. It is of utmost importance to distinguish between Calvin’s lexical usage and his discourse-analytical usage of the concept. Calvin’s bond to Scripture and his stressing of doctrina as proclamation accentuate his “Word-of-God-theology”.
Copyright information
- Ownership of copyright in terms of the Work remains with the authors.
- The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the Work, provided attribution is given to the place and detail of original publication, as set out in the official citation of the Work published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the Work on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repositories.
Publication and user license
- The authors grant the title owner and the publisher an irrevocable license and first right and perpetual subsequent right to (a) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Work in any form/medium, (b) to translate the Work into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Work or other derivative works based on the Work and exercise all of the rights set forth in (a) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works, (c) to license others to do any or all of the above, and (d) to register the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the Definitive Work.
- The authors acknowledge and accept the user licence under which the Work will be published as set out in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Creative Commons Attribution License South Africa)
- The undersigned warrant that they have the authority to license these publication rights and that no portion of the copyright to the Work has been assigned or licensed previously to any other party.
Disclaimer: The publisher, editors and title owner accept no responsibility for any statement made or opinion expressed by any other person in this Work. Consequently, they will not be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any statement or opinion in this Work.
In cases where a manuscript is NOT accepted for publication by the editorial board, the portions of this agreement regarding the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit this manuscript to any other publication for first publication.
Our copyright policies are author-friendly and protect the rights of our authors and publishing partners.