True Wisdom

Summary: In Book 1, Chapter 1 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin explains the essence of true wisdom under five ideas: two parts of true wisdom, true knowledge of self requires acceptance of the biblical teaching of creation and the fall of man, consequence of the fall, self-ignorance, and the standard to measure knowledge of ourselves. 

For John Calvin, true wisdom consists in the knowledge of God and of ourselves. Since the knowledge of God is now a days unknowable according to the belief of most people, it therefore follows that from the vantage point of Calvin, true wisdom these days is very rare for it lacks the first half of such wisdom. And the absence of such knowledge also distorts the second half. Therefore, if Calvin is right then many ideas today paraded as "true wisdom" are in actuality the display of human follies. 

Moreover, for Calvin, the knowledge of self includes a recognition of at least two facts - that we are God's creatures and the reality of our fallenness in Adam. Denial of only one of these facts would distort our knowledge of ourselves. Calvin got these two ideas directly from the Bible. Of course many today would claim to be wiser than Calvin, and that would mean that in terms of human reasoning, you cannot trace any recognition of creaturehood. What is widespread today is that man reasons on his own, as if, he is his own creator. Another feature of contemporary philosophical discussion is the absence of the acceptance of the biblicality of the fall of man. Man thinks that his reason is normal particularly in relation to spiritual matters and there is no such thing as sin that will make his reasoning sinful. 

Another interesting insight we can learn from chapter 1 is that for Calvin, man has been plunged into a world of misery due to the revolt of the first man and and at the same time, a world of misery exists in man since we ethically lost the image of God. I understand this that for Calvin a "world of misery" is both external and internal in man. This is the outcome of the fall.

Self-ignorance is the fourth idea I encountered in reading this short chapter. If ever man's path is not leading him to God, it shows that he is not aware of his shortcomings and sinfluness. He is satisfied in himself, and he can manage on his own. Such a man is ignorant of his misery. As a result of such ignorance, man renders himself inaccessible to a life of fullness in God. For unless man give up his own strivings to attain a happy life, he will never seek the aid that comes from God. Knowledge of our shortcomings and sinfluness is a prerequisite knowledge that will lead us to the knowledge of God.

The mentioned ignorance only results due to absence of realization of the perfect character of God where man is bound to conform. This is to say that the kind of awareness that Calvin emphasizes, the recognition of our own sinfulness only results from a previous encounter with God. In encountering God, we see how far we have fallen. In His word, we find his perfect righteousness that serves as the standard for us to conform our lives. Measuring ourselves on the basis of such standard, our righteousness turns into wickedness, our wisdom into foolishness, and our power into impotence. This is the common experience of holy men of God in biblical narrative. Expressions like "We shall die, for we have seen the Lord" and 'We are but dust and ashes" are common among those who encountered God.