Kálvin teológiájának mai olvasata. A korszakok hasonlóságaiból s különbségeiből adódó hermeneutikai problémák

According to English historian and philosopher of history, Arnold Toynbee,“what happened once will… remain unchanged. But it will always appear to be different to us because our point of view will always change.1 And this position is the only one from which we can look back on the past.” This statement is certainly applicable to Calvin’s Jubilee as well. Calvin’s work – apart from perhaps the newly discovered manuscripts – can be taken as unchanged. His legacy (diverse in genre and vast in expanse), including his sole extant poem written in Latin,2 his commentaries, his sermons,his extensive correspondence and up to the 1559 edition of The Institutes, is indeed our unchanged historical inheritance. The only question then is, in what ways does it look different in 2009 from what is looked like, say, a 100 years ago? That is, how have today’s theologians’, historians’, economists’ or politicians’ respective points of view on Calvin’s lifework been modified? Put in another way, it is possible for us to attempt to speak about Calvin’s hermeneutics in the sense of an objective genitive; i. e. thinking about the modern hermeneutical problems of reading, citing and applying Calvin’s writings themselves?