Day 06 — Institutes I.3.§1 [직강]

Alright, let's go. Today you meet the most quoted technical term in all of Calvin: the sensus divinitatis, the sense of Deity. Chapter 1 told you self-knowledge points to God. Chapter 2 told you what kind of knowledge counts. Now Chapter 3 makes a bold empirical claim: every human being already has it. No exceptions, no remote tribe, no atheist. This is the paragraph philosophers still fight about — Plantinga built half a career on it. And grammatically? This section is an inversion festival. Calvin's translator front-loads, flips, and inverts in almost every sentence. Perfect training ground.

Today's 3 Big Points — mark them now:

1. Fronted object clause: "That there exists ... some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute." The object comes FIRST, 30 words before the subject. Spot the pattern or you'll hunt for the main verb all day.
2. so ... as not to: "no nation so barbarous ... as not to be imbued." Double negative flips to universal positive — every nation IS imbued. Sister of Day 01's negative gate.
3. Degree-adverb inversion: "so thoroughly has this conviction possessed the mind." Front a so + adverb, and the auxiliary jumps over the subject. Different beast from Day 01's locative inversion — know both.

Three points. Get these, you've earned today. Let's read.

That there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service. Certainly, if there is any quarter where it may be supposed that God is unknown, the most likely for such an instance to exist is among the dullest tribes farthest removed from civilisation. But, as a heathen tells us, there is no nation so barbarous, no race so brutish, as not to be imbued with the conviction that there is a God. Even those who, in other respects, seem to differ least from the lower animals, constantly retain some sense of religion; so thoroughly has this common conviction possessed the mind, so firmly is it stamped on the breasts of all men. Since, then, there never has been, from the very first, any quarter of the globe, any city, any household even, without religion, this amounts to a tacit confession, that a sense of Deity is inscribed on every heart. Nay, even idolatry is ample evidence of this fact. For we know how reluctant man is to lower himself, in order to set other creatures above him. Therefore, when he chooses to worship wood and stone rather than be thought to have no God, it is evident how very strong this impression of a Deity must be; since it is more difficult to obliterate it from the mind of man, than to break down the feelings of his nature,—these certainly being broken down, when, in opposition to his natural haughtiness, he spontaneously humbles himself before the meanest object as an act of reverence to God.

Eight sentences. The skeleton is a courtroom argument:

[THESIS]    Sense of Deity = universal, by natural instinct.
            Purpose: nobody gets to plead ignorance        (S1)
[CONCEDE]   "If anywhere godless — surely the remotest tribes?" (S2)
[REFUTE]    Even a pagan admits: no nation without it      (S3~S4)
[INFER]     No place, city, household without religion
            → tacit confession written on every heart      (S5)
[CLINCHER]  Even IDOLATRY proves it: proud man bows to wood
            rather than have no god at all                 (S6~S8)

Examiner's Eye: the argument's direction. Calvin is NOT saying the sensus divinitatis saves anyone. Look at S1's purpose clause: it exists so that men "may be condemned by their own conscience." This knowledge convicts; it does not convert. A comprehension item that says "Calvin teaches that natural knowledge of God is sufficient for salvation" — wrong, and that's exactly the option they'll dangle in front of you. Second trap: S6–S8 argue idolatry is evidence FOR the sense of Deity, not against it. Direction-flippers love this sentence.

Star scale: ★★★ exam-critical, conquer it. ★★ know the structure. ★ one point and move.

Formula 1. Fronted object clause + 5th-pattern verb

That + S + V ... , we hold/deem/consider (it) to be C
= We hold [that-clause] to be C  — object yanked to front for emphasis
Warning① sentence-initial That + later "we hold/deem" = fronting, not a relative
Warning② the 5th-pattern complement survives after the verb (Day 01: deemed true Wisdom)

Drill: "하나님이 모든 사람에게 양심을 주셨다는 것을 우리는 논쟁의 여지가 없다고 본다" → That God has endued all men with conscience, we hold to be beyond dispute.

Formula 2. Degree negative gate: no N so Adj as not to V

no nation so barbarous as not to be imbued = EVERY nation IS imbued
double negative → universal positive (cousin of Day 01's no one can A without B-ing)
Warning: "as not to" ≠ "so as not to" (purpose). Here it's result/degree.

Drill: "아무리 완고한 마음도 양심의 소리를 전혀 안 듣지는 못한다" → There is no heart so hardened as not to hear the voice of conscience.

Formula 3. so + adverb fronting → AUXILIARY inversion (partial)

S has V-ed so thoroughly → So thoroughly HAS S V-ed
auxiliary only jumps; participle stays put
Contrast: locative inversion (Day 01) moves the WHOLE verb: in the Lord dwell ...
Pronoun subject still inverts here (so firmly is IT stamped) — unlike locative type!

Drill: "이 진리가 어찌나 깊이 새겨졌는지 어떤 폭군도 지울 수 없다" → So deeply is this truth engraven that no tyrant can efface it.

The doctrine being launched. This section is the locus classicus of the sensus divinitatis — the in-built awareness of God — soon joined by its twin metaphor, the semen religionis (seed of religion, ch. 4). Two things to nail down. First, its source: natural instinct, planted by God — not deduced, not taught. "Not a doctrine first learned at school," as §3 will say. Second, its function: inexcusability. Read S1's purpose clause again — the sense of Deity exists so that no one can plead ignorance. It renders all humans without excuse; it saves precisely no one. Calvin is not building a natural theology ladder to heaven; he's reading humanity its rights before the trial.

The pagan witness strategy. Calvin's evidence in §1 is deliberately secular: Cicero's consensus of nations, anthropology (no city without religion), psychology of pride (S6–S8). He proves a universal fact from universal testimony — even hostile testimony. Scripture will take over in chapter 6; here the world testifies against itself.

Reception, one line each. Plantinga's Reformed epistemology turned Calvin's sensus into the model of "properly basic" belief in God — warranted without argument. The Barth–Brunner debate (1934) fought over whether this natural awareness gives theology any "point of contact" — Barth's famous Nein! targeted readings of exactly this chapter. Same paragraph, four centuries of crossfire.

Over-reading guardrail. Don't inflate "some sense," "some idea" — aliqua in Latin, some twice in S1. It's real but minimal, and (ch. 4 is coming) immediately corrupted. Universal awareness, yes; universal truth about God, no.

1. Rom 1:19–20 — "that which may be known of God is manifest in them... so that they are without excuse" (ἀναπολόγητος). The engine under S1's purpose clause: planted knowledge → no ignorance plea → condemnation. Calvin's to prevent any man from pretending ignorance is Paul's ἀναπολόγητος wearing legal dress.
2. Rom 2:14–15 — Gentiles show "the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness." S1's condemned by their own conscience + S5's inscribed on every heart: the writing-on-the-heart image is Pauline before it is Calvin's.
3. Rom 1:22–23 — they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man... birds, beasts." S8's wood-and-stone worshipper is Paul's idolater: religion corrupted, not erased — which is exactly why idolatry counts as evidence.

Note the method, same as Day 01: zero citations on the surface. Calvin argues from Cicero and common observation, but the load-bearing beams — inexcusable, conscience, written on hearts, idolatry-as-exchange — are all Romans 1–2. He speaks Scripture before he quotes it.

Q1. [Grammar] Which underlined part is wrong?

①That there exists in all men some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute; there is no nation ②so barbarous as not to be imbued with this conviction; ③so thoroughly this conviction has possessed the mind that man worships wood and stone ④rather than be thought to have no God.

Answer: ③. Degree fronting (so thoroughly) forces auxiliary inversion: so thoroughly HAS this conviction possessed. ① fronted object clause, fine. ② no N so Adj as not to V, fine. ④ rather than + bare infinitive, fine. Setter's intent: make you accept normal word order after a fronted so-phrase because it "sounds okay."

Q2. [Comprehension] Which statement agrees with §1?

(A) Calvin concludes that remote tribes lack any knowledge of God (B) Idolatry shows that the impression of a Deity has been successfully erased (C) The sense of Deity ensures that all people eventually worship God rightly (D) Universal religious practice amounts to a tacit confession that a sense of Deity is inscribed on every heart

Answer: D — S5 nearly verbatim. (A) is the concession of S2, refuted by S3 — they plant the objection as a fact. (B) direction-flip: idolatry is evidence FOR the impression (S6). (C) scope-overreach: the clause says men are condemned for NOT worshipping — the sense convicts, it doesn't convert.

Q3. [Composition] Use Formula 2: "아무리 타락한 시대도 하나님의 증인이 전혀 없지는 않다."

Model answer: There is no age so corrupt as not to have some witness to God. (no N + so Adj + as not to V. Resist "so corrupt that it does not have" — grammatical, but the formula under test is the as not to degree gate.)

One line: Every human being carries a God-planted sense of Deity — remotest tribe, hardened atheist, even the idolater bowing to wood proves it — and it exists not to save but to silence the ignorance plea. Grammar trio: fronted That-clause, no-so-as-not-to gate, so-adverb auxiliary inversion.

Homework (10 min): 1. Without looking, re-chunk S8 with slashes and brackets — mark the rather-than clause, the two compared infinitives, and the absolute participle (these ... being broken down). 2. Formula 3 composition: "그 분의 약속은 어찌나 확실한지 ~" → So sure are his promises that ... (finish it yourself). 3. Tomorrow's preview, one line: §2 opens with the "crafty politicians" objection — religion as an invention to control the masses. Calvin has Caligula waiting as Exhibit A.

Where we stopped: Book 1, Ch. 3, §1 끝. 다음은 §2.