Today’s reading confronts one of the Church’s most persistent temptations: the desire to make the invisible God manageable through visible forms. In Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 11, Sections 1–4, John Calvin argues that every attempt to represent God visually—however sincere—inevitably corrupts His glory. Drawing from the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles, and even pagan witnesses, Calvin shows that God’s self-revelation consistently resists human imagination and demands reverent restraint. Divine appearances were never invitations to image-making but safeguards of mystery, reminders that God is spirit, not substance. Because the human heart naturally drifts toward superstition, Calvin insists that fidelity requires not creativity but obedience: we must seek God only where He has chosen to reveal Himself—by His Word, through His Spirit, without substitutes.

Readings: John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 11, Sections 1–4

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