The prophetic office in John Calvin’s theology

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to re-examine how Calvin understood the threefold office, with particular attention to the prophetic office, In his Christology. The author suggests that the offices are best understood In light of Calvin's fresh Interpretations of Chalcedonlan Christology and the Insights of the Reformation. The problem of the offices is their Interrelation. Calvin understood the unity of the offices in their relational character. Relational In the person of Christ as divine and human, and relational In the structure of the Trinity. These two elements, the relationality of the person of the Mediator, premised upon the relation of the persons of the Trinity, gave the offices the necessary ontological structure from which Calvin could postulate a theory of redemption with a single point of view, rather than previous theories of redemption which are simply juxtaposed. This unifying centre Is the person of the Mediator in the activity of the offices. It Is from this centre that Calvin interpreted the various biblical metaphors which are extremely difficult to bring together Into a unity. The argument Is carried further as the prophetic office In Calvin Is shown to contain the required ontological structure of the remaining offices of king and priest. Calvin's Insistence on the unity of the activity of God in each of the offices explains why there is a unity within the Church, which transcend temporal distinctions. The distinctions of the offices in history allows Calvin to underscore the centrality of Christ's incarnation into a particular time In history, further grounding the work of God In history and creation.