Abstract

D'ASSONVILLE, Victor Ε.. "... Justification by faith" Calvin's grounds for the Reformation. Koers (Online) [online]. 2020, vol.85, n.1, pp.1-15. ISSN 2304-8557.  http://dx.doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.85.1.2501.

In 1539, at the young age of 30, Calvin wrote a letter to Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto, an eminent scholar and proponent of the Roman Church, in answer to the latters letter earlier that year to Geneva. This answer of Calvin, as requested urgently by the City of Geneva, is very well-known for the way how Calvin refuted Sadoleto's arguments against the Reformation and thus took up the cudgels for the very city that banned him only a year before. This Calvin did by justifying the quintessence of and necessity for the Reformation. Since then, this text has not only been known as one of the most famous defences of the principles of the Reformation of the sixteenth century but even has been described as probably the most powerful and systematic successful apologetic Reformation writing of that age as such. In this article, Calvin's analysis of the core of the Reformation is discussed against the background of his relation to Martin Luther and their appreciation for each other. According to Calvin the "heart" of the Reformation was justification by grace alone. Ultimately it is only a matter of faith in Christ alone. For his explanation of justification by grace and faith alone, Calvin refers consistently to Scripture as the Word of God. In this Christological approach - for which Luther according to a witness expressed his appreciation - Calvin and Luther are very close to each other indeed

Keywords : Luther; Calvin; Sadoleto; justification; Reformation; grace alone; faith alone.

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