Gottes- und Selbsterkenntnis gehören zusammen. Überlegungen zum Anfangskapitel von Calvins Institutio religions christianae

Abstract

"Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves." The author shows the meaning of this opening sentence of Calvins {!Institutio}, as it is not a statement about the mere combination of independent parts, but contrarily, de-clares the interdependence of those components: knowledge of God produces correspondant knowledge of ourselves, self-knowledge on the other hand is con-ditioned by knowledge of God. The author shows this observation's impact on the self-understanding of the natural human being by close analysis of the first chapters of the {! Institutio}, particularly emphasizing the parallel to Schleiermacher. The natural human being's experience of self and world is the expression of its actual dependence on God as all-dominant reality, to which there is no unaffected Beyond.