Defending ‘Avertive’ Religion: Calvin on the Visio Dei and Moral Theology

Abstract

Against claims that John Calvin repudiated the beatific vision and teleological virtue ethics, this article demonstrates the importance of the visio Dei by examining sections of Calvin’s exegesis and several important sermons. To explicate how such a teleology impacts the Christian’s relation to ‘lower goods’, it then explores Augustine’s theology of created being. Together these conversations contribute to an explanation of Calvin’s view of Christian moral life now through growth in virtue and in relation to the hope of seeing or contemplating God.