1519–1559

Zwingli and Calvin: God's Sovereignty, Providence and the Knowledge of God

Reformed theology, according to McGrath, starts from the idea of divine sovereignty: Zwingli, who survived the plague in Zurich (1519–1520), stressed God's omnipotence and human powerlessness. Calvin begins the Institutes by saying that nearly all wisdom is knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves, so intertwined that it is hard to say which comes first. In every person there is a "seed of religion," and creation is a "theater of God's glory," but because of sin this knowledge only renders a person inexcusable; moreover, in revelation God "accommodates" himself to our limited perception. Providence for Calvin is not mere foreknowledge but the actual bringing about of events; he regarded the distinction between God's active and permissive will as a diminishing of God's glory.