Theological Origins of Modernity* Modernity was an attempt to find a new metaphysical solution to the question of the nature and relation of God and man in the natural world. It was a series of attempts to constitute a new coherent metaphysics and theology. The idea of modernity was a move away from the ancient distinction of understanding reality and universals. Via Antiqua was the older realist path, which saw universals as ultimately real. In comparison, the Via Moderna was the newer nominalist path that saw all individual things as real and universals as mere names. And these logical distinctions provided the schema for a new understanding of time and being. This metaphysical shift from how one sees the world was not due to a change in knowledge but rather a change of understanding time, seeing that time is not as circular and finite but as linear and infinite. Understanding what change meant as a continuous natural process that free human beings could
I have been working through the freshly translated, three-volume English edition of John Calvin’s sermons on Job published by Banner of Truth. It is 2200 pages long, comprised of 159 sermons. Calvin took up preaching through Job for his daily sermons on February 26, 1554. While there is no date recorded as to when he finished, it is assumed he finished in a year because it was recorded that he began preaching through Deuteronomy for his daily sermons on March 20, 1555. It is a mind-boggling feat, to say the least. I am on Sermon 35, and I have to say I find these sermons to be his most lucid and pastorally thoughtful expositions of Scripture. My wife was astounded when I shared some of his insights because she could not believe that I was reading Calvin. She had always regarded him as a theological heavyweight who was very hard to read. That is not to say my wife is theologically inept—far from it! I think most people only know Calvin as the polemicist. Calvin the