In Calvin at the Centre, Paul Helm analyses several topics in Calvin's theology in light of those theologians who may have influenced Calvin and whom he may have influenced. Each topic places Calvin between different theologians, giving the range of discussion an impressive breadth. There are ten chapters in the book. ‘The Knowledge of God and of Ourselves’ places Calvin between Augustine and Descartes. The second chapter looks at the differing responses to Descartes in the Reformed tradition. The third chapter looks at Calvin on scripture, reason and grace, and places Calvin between Aquinas on the one hand and Bayle, Tuckney and Whichcote on the other. The fourth chapter examines the visibility of God and locates Calvin between Augustine and Barth. The fifth chapter examines the relationship of providence to predestination and places Calvin between Aquinas and the Westminster divines, especially Arrowsmith. The sixth chapter analyses the necessity of the atonement and locates Calvin between Anselm and the debate between Owen and Twisse. The seventh chapter looks at Calvin's relation to Augustine in light of his teaching on the two-fold grace of Christ, and the way this two-fold grace becomes separated in Turretin. The eighth chapter looks at Calvin's compatibilism, and locates Calvin between the Stoics and Gill and Edwards. The ninth chapter examines Calvin's teaching on intermediate states and compares his position with Peter Martyr Vermigli. The final chapter looks at Calvin's teaching on God's gracious preservation of sinful humanity in light of the subsequent discussion of pure nature and common grace in Kuyper and Bavinck.
The quality of the analysis of Calvin in each chapter varies considerably. The opening chapters are surprisingly the weakest of the collection, with the exception of the chapter on Descartes and Reformed theology. In the chapters on the knowledge of God and ourselves, and on scripture, reason and grace, Helm gives a highly rationalistic view of Calvin. He claims that, for Calvin, God essentially embodies the principles of reasoning and the laws of logic in his essence (p. 60). Since scripture is the word of the eternal Logos, it is rational in a deep sense (p. 95) as the expression of the supreme mind (p. 92). Not surprisingly, Helm interprets faith in similarly rationalistic terms. Faith is propositional knowledge, and the propositional content of faith is holy scripture (p. 67). Helm also claims that the propositional content of faith is not the same as the propositional content of the assurance of faith (p. 65). Helm seems to miss Calvin's insistence that God is the fountain of every good thing, revealed both in creation and in Christ. Helm's focus on propositions keeps him from seeing the way Calvin appeals to scripture as the ‘spectacles’ which allow us rightly to contemplate the works of God so that we might come to the knowledge of God the Creator. In spite of Helm's claim that Calvin sets forth no criteria as to what constitutes knowledge (p. 71), Calvin claims that the Lord manifests himself by his powers, and our awareness of the powers of God teaches us piety, which is the knowledge that God is the fount of all good things. The object of faith is not scripture propositionally conceived, but is rather the fountain of all the good things set forth for sinners in Jesus Christ. Once we come to faith, we come simultaneously to assurance – Calvin goes to great pains never to distinguish or separate the two.
Helm's apparent neglect of the distinction between knowledge of God the Creator and knowledge of God the Redeemer leads him to overestimate the relationship between providence and predestination in Calvin, leaving him unable to account for why Calvin placed providence in the knowledge of God the Creator. His discussion of Calvin and Barth on election is especially weak, as he seems to miss the central objection Barth has to Calvin's teaching, namely that the election of God is not revealed in the gospel itself, as it is for Barth, but is rather the hidden decree lying behind why the gospel is preached to some and not to others, and is believed by some and not by others.
The chapters in the second half of the book are of much higher quality. Helm does an excellent job of distinguishing Calvin on the atonement from Anselm, given Calvin's grounding of the atonement in the superlative love and goodness of God, and not in the requirements of the immutable justice of God. Helm also does a wonderful job of showing how close Calvin comes to the Stoic understanding of compatibilism, without actually becoming a Stoic himself. He also provocatively argues that Calvin is not as critical of Augustine regarding justification as he might be because of his understanding of the two-fold grace of Christ. The explorations of intermediate states and of common grace are also very insightful. The latter chapters definitely make the book a valuable contribution to our understanding of Calvin, though one could wish that the opening chapters were much stronger.
