Reading CALVIN: COMMENTARIES
CALVIN: COMMENTARIES, Editor: Joseph Haroutunian. The Westminster Press. ISBN: 0664241603.
[Re-Started from page 100: Nov. 16, 2005 - Completed no latter than: Nov. 30, 2005]
I'll have to read minimum 20 pages a day.
On page skimmed this book of extracts (of 406).
Update: My mistake with this project was in not formulating it as an aim. Notice I just merely wrote a start date and a 'whatever' end date, while giving no criteria for the aim to give it boundaries and containment and a goal. No daily goal and no overall goal. I.e. in this case no minimum number of pages to read. Nothing concrete to dedicate time and effort to. So what happened? I read when it drew my interest (the intro material of this book is very good) then I became desultory in my efforts once I got into Calvin's actual Bible commentary (in my defense I found myself to be so much on the same page with Calvin in the little I did read that I felt like at that point I was covering old ground).
But to be a good example (to myself as well) I will reformulate this aim into a real aim and finish it (because I still think it is valuable to get a good dose of Calvin-as-commentary-writer to compliment one's overall impression and understanding of Calvin one gets via his Institutes, and this book gives that opportunity).
Update: Skimming this book of extracts is not reading it, so this project is finished. It was ill-conceived due to the fact that it's not a real book. It's a collection of extracts. A good one though. At this point of my life, though, I really have a desire to read complete, contained works, or the Bible itself...
8 Comments:
I have a strong desire to only read the Bible right now, but after just finishing a complete reading my approach usually is to increase capacity for more understanding before I do another complete reading (mock, mock, mock at that which you don't know about or understand).
So I've decided to read this volume of Calvin's Commentaries I acquired used awhile back since it will still give me a dose of Scripture.
Like many (like most people) who learn the basics of Calvinism (Reformed Theology, i.e. apostolic, biblical doctrine) from the Bible itself and from secondary Calvinist sources I've yet to read Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion complete. I've read portions, and I've read an abridged edition complete.
So... How does one 'increase capacity for new understanding'...?
By mining, by fishing, and by planting. The foundational sources of wealth in the economy of the world. And in the microcosm that is a human being.
You have to mine influences (higher influences, not the common influences of the world, but higher influences); fish the great ocean of the beautiful (the Macrocosmos) for higher impressions; and plant friction like seeds inside you and allow it to transform and be harvested as higher functions.
The prophets understood all this. It's now they made contact. How god made contact with them.
So, before another complete Bible reading I have to get to work with some mining, fishing, and planting. It is real labor.
I really like how you highlight the page number that you're on so that we can all know where you're at in your book. This lets us keep track of your progress as well as giving you some motivation to stick with your program!
Yes, I'm using you...
Calvin, one year after conversion:
http://www.graciouscall.org/books/calvin/calcom/calcomg22.shtml
This is remarkable and worth reading in full.
I'm not reading this book as diligently as I need to (to, like, actually get anywhere near finishing it, or just getting off page 100). I mentioned I have false starts, usually many, after finishing a big reading project like my recent 5th complete reading of the Bible.
What is stalling me regarding this book of Calvin Commentary extracts is the fact that it's not a complete work. It's a book of extracts. Good for sampling and getting a sense of Calvin as he is in his Commentaries, but when a book is not a complete, contained type of work I have less enthusiasm for doing a dedicated complete reading.
OK, that's my initial justification for my laziness regarding reading this book...
This reading is on hold. (See? I have failures, and I admit it.)
I did at least read the long General Introduction (as well as the three prefaces by Calvin himself to various works) which gave me alot of bio insight into Calvin which I didn't have (I've never read a bio of Calvin, kind of because I don't like to get into the personalities of teachers but just what they're 'bringing').
So, it's thus far not a waste of time...
Regarding my 'Update' to this post some might say: "People read books all the time, why do you make such a big deal out it?"
But the fact is: people do things when they have a worldly motivation and goal to do them. People in school getting some degree have a motivation to read whatever they have to read, for instance. A person who needs to read something that pertains to his job or to getting an advancement will read that material. But when it comes to reading something just for the goal of pursuing Wisdom herself you have to create the motivation yourself. You have to value the goal. And you have to make the incentive to complete the goal. Also, people will read something for pleasure (it draws them), or theologian types will even read something for the pleasure in 'vetting' it, or disagreeing with it, or agreeing with it. But to read something you are neutral to, for the most part, yet which is a great influence, is very different. It's bizarre for a person to carry around CALVIN: COMMENTARIES. People say: "Are you studying for a theological degree?" No. Just reading it on my own. "Oh. That's, um, rather pathetic, is it not?" It's unusual. "Shouldn't you channel that effort at least into a direction where you'll get 'some' worldly gain, like a degree or something?" Pursuing Wisdom herself is not a worldly goal. If I were to make of it a worldly goal I wouldn't get from it what I get from it now... I'm after understanding, not worldly gain or acclaim. Of course one needs to tend to the world to survive, but I'm only sacrificing, for instance, television time to read this book. I can read 20 pages in an hour, or I can watch some mindless dead influence coming out of mediocre hands and minds in Hollywood for an hour...
I'm going to be honest and say, as well, that for the 300 pages I have to go with this book of extracts I'm going to skim-read them (if 'skim-read' is a word). Because they are extracts I don't have a sense that I have to read it like I would a complete, contained, work. So, I will read the book, but I will read it in a fast, skimming manner, pausing over sections that contain new material for me, if I see any...
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