Mark Arkav’evich Youssim PhD in History, scientific researcher, Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Leninskiy Prospekt, dom 32a, Moskva, Rossiya, 119334)
youssimm@mtu-net.ru
Youssim M.A. Cardinal Gasparo Contarini and John Calvin on predestination, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2019, vol. 8, pp. 56–71.
doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2020-00023
Language: Russian
The article is based on the report on conference «Calvinism-FranceEurope: 500 years later… View from Russia» (November 23–24, 2017,Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University). The questionregarding divine predestination of people towards good or evil, became oneof the central in the religious discourses during the times of Reformation.
The radical way of thinking of Protestant ideologists that would insiston the thesis of «justification and salvation of a sinner by faith alone», wasexcused: by the corruption and secularization of the Roman Church inthe spiritual respect; by the new formed European countries seeking emancipation in the political respect.
Among the Catholic prelates were ones who sympathized the reformsof the Church, such was Gasparo Contarini who, in fact, was the executorof the Roman party at the Regensburg colloquiums in 1541. At that assemblywere made the attempts of ideological convergence of Catholics and Protestants, where among the latter John Calvin was present. In the article, onthe basis of the short analysis of the texts are presented the views of both —Contarini and Calvin concerning this particular issue of predestination.
The article presents the similarities of the approach, its consequent logicalproblems and the lack of possible solutions for the contradiction that is incorporated in the issue of Theodicy. The main role in the colloquiums’ failure, aswell as in the further attempts to find the consent, played not the theoreticalcontroversies of the discussed theses, but the starting presuppositions of the participants that were shaped by many outward factors and their «party» identity.
Key words: predestination, theodicy, justification by faith, free will, Contarini, Calvin, Colloqy of Regensburg
URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/yusim-2020-en/
