Reformational Metaphysics: A Concise Introduction
11 September 2024
Introduction: The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century
During the sixteenth century, Martin Luther ignited a movement that would alter the course of world history. On October 31, 1517, he nailed his 95 Theses against the prevailing misinterpretations within the Roman Catholic Church to the door of the community church in Wittenberg. This act was intended as an invitation to debate the theological errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Primarily, these theses challenged the sale of indulgences—a practice in which the church sold forgiveness of sins for money. Luther's vehement opposition to this practice was fueled by his deep conviction that justification comes through faith alone, the doctrine that ultimately became a cornerstone of the sixteenth-century Reformation. Reformers like Calvin and Bullinger went beyond Luther's focus, however, emphasizing not only justification by faith alone but also recognizing that the issues within the Roman Church were more profound than just soteriology—the doctrine concerning how one is saved. For them, the teaching on justification by faith was part of a larger dispute with the Roman Church, fundamentally relating to the question of ultimate authority. The return to Scripture as the norm deeply involved knowledge of God as Creator and Redeemer, and thus of His created reality. This is evident from the very first chapter of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, which begins with the matter of attaining true knowledge of God as Creator and mankind as creature.
Theocentric Metaphysics
The distinctly theocentric metaphysics of Reformed theology and the practical implications thereof is beautifully highlighted by B.B. Warfield when he notes:
“Calvinism, arising from an overwhelming vision of God and reflecting the majesty of a God who will not share His glory, does not pause until it contextualizes the scheme of salvation within a comprehensive worldview, ultimately subservient to the glory of the Lord God Almighty. Calvinism asks, like Lutheranism, the poignant question: What must I do to be saved? But it presses further to ask: How shall God be glorified?"1
Reformational philosophy, driven by the conviction that God should be glorified in all aspects of life, therefore emphasises that every sphere of created reality, while distinct in nature and calling, are under one and the same authority, the absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ. This conviction, namely that Christ alone is Lord of reality and that no sphere of reality therefore derives being and authority from another aspect of creation but directly from the Creator alone, eventually led to the development of the concept of sovereign spheres or sphere sovereignty in the Netherlands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries under Christian thinkers like Guilluame Groen van Prinsterer and Abraham Kuyper.
The Bible as Foundational to Reformational Metaphysics
Reformational Metaphysics is distinguished by its recognition of the differentiated nature of created reality and the authority of the one God whereby all these realms are associated under His sovereignty. Reality thus exhibits a certain unity-in-diversity. This understanding of reality is fundamentally rooted in the revelation of God in the Bible. Although God reveals Himself in nature, this general revelation cannot be properly interpreted without the light of Scripture. In Scripture, God reveals Himself as the One who created everything good (Genesis 1—2) and, despite the Fall and human corruption, is restoring creation through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 11:9, Romans 8:22).
In the trinitarian classical theism of the Nicene Creed and the Protestant confessions, God is depicted as the simple, eternal, immutable, self-existent, transcendent Creator who nonetheless speaks and acts in history in Israel and Jesus Christ. Today, the doctrine of God is often historicized in such a way that God becomes part of the evolving cosmos, interacting with it much as the pagan gods of the ancient Near East did. This reverts to the pantheistic conception of God that characterized Israel’s neighbors and which the prophets vehemently opposed. Many late modern theologians struggle with the traditional affirmations of God’s immutability and His active participation in history to judge and save. They advocate a novel concept of God, composed partially of an unchanging essence and partially of a changing element, a view that conflicts with the Westminster Confession's statement that God is "without body, parts, or passions" (WCF 2.1), a dilemma often left unresolved.
Reformational metaphysics begins with the Creator-creature distinction as fundamental (Gen 1; Isa 40; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:15-17). There are two levels of being, two levels of existence: the self-sufficient, original existence of God the Creator, and the dependent, derivative existence of creatures. The language describing these aspects of the Trinity works by analogy with language used in describing the classificational, instantiational, and associational aspects of creaturely things. Since the Trinity is ontologically ultimate, the aspects of creatures derive from and depend on the aspects of the Trinity. In contrast to philosophical realism which postulates the mind-independent existence of universals, and nominalism which denies them altogether, multiperspectivalism sees all reality, i.e. both the universals and the particulars, as ontologically rooted in the eternal divine mind of the Trinity.
Because reality originates from the creative will of the Trinitarian God, unity and diversity are equally ultimate. The universal, that is, the class or “kind,” is an expression of the classificational aspect of multiperspectivalism, while diversity of the particulars is an expression of the instantiational aspect of multiperspectivalism. Both presuppose each other and neither is more fundamental than the other. There is no such thing as a “pure” universal graspable apart from particularities of instances. There is no such thing as a “pure” particular apart from the (universal-like) features that it possesses according to the plan of God. The unity of class and the diversity of particularity both rest on the metaphysically ultimate unity and diversity of God, as expressed in both the classificational and instantiational aspects.
While Reformational metaphysics is wholly traceable back to Scripture as God's infallible revelation, this does not mean that the believer's intellect, reason, experience, or historical knowledge become epistemologically irrelevant in terms of our understanding of reality. On the contrary, all these faculties, through which God reveals Himself, His will, and His creation, truly come into their own when used in the light of Scripture. Groen van Prinsterer explained this Reformational principle as follows:
Each science has its principles. As subjects they handle, at the head of the research stand truths that provide guidance and contain their development and application. These form the solidity of the scientific edifice; without them, castles in the air are built. Thus, it is with every science; so with constitutional and international law. Research and demonstration are vain if they do not rest on immovable ground... What are principles? Principles are truths with which research begins; recognized truths laid as the foundation of reasoning. These truths can themselves be deductions derived from higher truths. Thus one ascends from higher to higher principles until one reaches the highest truths, unquestionable yet incapable of analysis and demonstration; objects of a faith that is the beginning of science. These are called principles in the preeminent sense and are grounded in God's will and being.2
This elucidation by Groen shows how each science's unique nature is respected while the revelational aspect, namely the will of God serves as the highest overarching principle for every science and sphere of life. The recognition of the diversity and complexity of reality does not therefore preclude recognizing that every aspect of that reality has a common origin and purpose in the divine will and plan. This means that to make sense of a God-given reality, a God-given revelation concerning that reality is absolutely essential. John Frame describes this principle as follows:
An ultimate presupposition is a belief over which no other takes precedence. For a Christian, the content of Scripture must serve as his ultimate presupposition… This doctrine is merely the outworking of the lordship of the Christian God in the area of human thought. It merely applies the doctrine of scriptural infallibility to the realm of knowing.3
Conclusion
Reformational metaphysics involves applying the objective, universal authority of the Bible as God's revelation to every situation or context. For instance, consider the practical example of abortion. Scripture teaches that murder is contrary to God's will. This is the normative principle. To determine whether abortion violates this principle, we examine the medical science findings about the fetus' nature and the abortion procedure itself. Based on this, we can conclude that abortion indeed constitutes murder and therefore violates God's will. Thus, eternal, biblical principles grounded in God's unchangeable will are applied to the medical field while still recognizing the unique nature of medical science, thereby enabling medical professionals to make medical decisions that accord with God-given reality in both the scientific as well as the ethical sense.
What ultimately distinguishes Reformational metaphysics is the recognition of God's sovereignty over all reality, coupled with the recognition of his infallible revelation in Scripture as absolute interpretative guideline for every distinct aspect of that reality.
1. Warfield, B.B. 1956. Calvin and Augustine. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, p. 292.
2. Groen van Prinsterer, G. 1834. Beschouwingen over staats- en volkenrecht, I: Proeve over de middelen waardoor de waarheid wordt gekend en gestaafd. Leiden: S & J Luchtmans, p. 1, 3.
3. Frame, J. 1987. The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God: Theology of Lordship. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, p. 45.