[Opinion] Calvinism and Fatalism

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.

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.

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,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatalism

(accessed 2019-09-26).

End.