John Calvin
Fatalism
1.
Many people confuse Calvinism (or Reformed theology) with fatalism
because both are deterministic.
In
fact, they are very different.
What
differentiate Calvinism from fatalism is whether the theory claimed
it is personal and purposeful.
It
is also instructive to contrast Calvinism and fatalism against their
background worldviews of Christian theism and naturalism.
Calvinism
is a form of Christian theism and it may be called personal purposeful
determinism.
Contemporary
western fatalism is a form of naturalism and it may be called
impersonal purposeless determinism.
2.
The worldview of which Calvinism is a species is Christian theism.
The
fundamental claim of Christian theism is that the personal God of the
Bible exists and that He has created the world.
The
distinctive doctrine of Calvinism is the doctrine of the Eternal
Decree of God.
The
doctrine of the Eternal Decree of God is the claim that God ordain
whatsoever comes to pass.
[The
Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1]:
"God
from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own
will, freely, and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet
so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence
offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or
contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."
Because
of the doctrine of the Eternal Decree of God, Calvinism is a species
of determinism.
God
also created the world with a purpose or with an ultimate end in
mind.
[The
Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1]:
"It
pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of
the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the
beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things
therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and
all very good."
Because
God created the world "for the manifestation of the glory of His
eternal power, wisdom, and goodness", the world is created with
a purpose or an end in mind.
Thus,
Calvinism may be called personal purposeful determinism.
3.
The Wikipedia entry "Fatalism" differentiates
fatalism from determinism and predeterminism.
According
to the entry, the relationship between the three concepts are:
predeterminism is a species of determinism, and determinism is a
species of fatalism.
All
three believe that all future events are inevitable.
Fatalism
is the broadest concept of the three in that the inevitability of
future events may be due either to chance or to a causal chain of
prior events.
Determinism
is a species of fatalism in that the inevitability of future events
is due to a causal chain of prior events only but not to chance.
Predeterminism
is a species of determinism in that the inevitability of future
events is due to an uninterrupted causal chain of prior events that
goes back to the origin of the universe.
In
generic determinism, the causal chain of prior events may or may not
goes back to the origin of the universe.
The
characterization of the three concepts emphasizes the "how"
aspect of the inevitability of future events.
4.
Our interests are different from those of the Wikipedia entry
"Fatalism", so our definition of terms is different from
it.
Following
the Reformed theologians Loraine Boettner (1901-1990) and Gordon H.
Clark (1902-1985), another way to cut into the concept of "the
inevitability of future events" is to ask two questions:
(a)
Whether the cause of "the inevitability of future events"
is personal?
(b)
Whether all events converge to an end?
A
theory is deterministic if it claims that all the events of the world are
inevitable.
A
theory is personal if it claims that all the events of the world are determined by the
will of God.
So
Calvinism is personal determinism.
As
with the finite Greek gods, if fate controls the actions of the gods
rather than the gods control fate, then the theory is impersonal.
So
fatalism is impersonal determinism, an example of which is Greek
finite godism.
A
theory is (globally) purposeful if all the events of the world
converge to some ends.
So
Calvinism is purposeful determinism.
A theory is (globally) purposeless if all the events of the world do not converge to any end.
A theory is (globally) purposeless if all the events of the world do not converge to any end.
Naturalism
denies that there is any purpose to the universe; it simply just
exists.
So
naturalism is purposeless.
Contemporary
western fatalism is generally read against a naturalistic background
and it may be called impersonal purposeless determinism.
Calvinism is a species of Christian theism and it may be called personal purposeful determinism.
Calvinism is a species of Christian theism and it may be called personal purposeful determinism.
So
Calvinism is deterministic but not fatalistic.
Furthermore, if the God of the Bible exists, then there is no fate and fatalism is
false.
References:
Boettner,
Loraine. 1932. The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Company.
Clark,
Gordon H. 1969. Biblical Predestination. Nutley, New Jersey:
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.
“Fatalism”,
Wikipedia
- The Free Encyclopedia,
(accessed
2019-09-26).
End.
