Calvin’s Old Testament Theology and Beyond

Abstract

The Old Testament is particularly important for the Reformed tradition, since Calvin emphasized the unity of the covenant. This chapter highlights five paradoxes and/or problems in Calvin’s approach and compares Calvin with two Dutch theologians to overcome these problems. The concreteness of Arnold van Ruler’s pneumatological approach, and the accents on particularity and Judaism in Kornelis Heiko Miskotte’s theology serve to improve Calvin’s important impulse. The chapter concludes that the church cannot do without the Old Testament because of the concrete, Jewish, character of salvation, that the unity of the Old Testament lies in the Trinity, and that the Old Testament shows the mediated character of revelation.