Motivational Internalism in Calvin’s Doctrine of Knowledge of God

<p class="western" align="left">The first section of this paper discusses Calvin&rsquo;s views on knowledge of God as they are apparent in the <em>Institutes</em>, drawing on secondary literature for clarification. The connection between knowledge of God and action is grounded in the nature of God&rsquo;s revelation. All revelation is given with the purpose of eliciting sanctification and worship for the respective purposes of salvation and God&rsquo;s glorification. These purposes serve to determine the substantive content of revelation, which in turn produces those responses&mdash;the knowledge provided by revelation has a uniquely &ldquo;existential&rdquo; quality in that it is always knowledge of facts that have immediate importance to believers; for instance, that all goods that they receive come from God. This knowledge is available to all human beings in nature and through created human nature in the form of the <em>sensus divinitatis</em>; however, the fall of Adam and Eve made access to this knowledge impossible, necessitating a second revelation in the form of the person of Christ which serves to restore proper access to knowledge of God. The second section lays out relevant concepts from literature on motivational internalism, highlighting two versions which are potentially applicable to Calvin&rsquo;s view: first, John Tresan&rsquo;s <em>de dicto</em> internalism, which holds that the concept of moral belief is such that a belief only counts as moral if it is accompanied by other mental states which provide motivation; second, the views of John McDowell and Mark Platts, which hold that the nature of moral facts is such that, when properly recognized, they motivate. Finally, the third section uses these concepts to construct an original &ldquo;Calvinist&rdquo; description of the motivational structure of knowledge of God in which knowledge of existentially significant theological facts includes content which, when perceived, necessarily motivates. The ability to perceive these facts is constantly developed&mdash;through the process of sanctification, believers come to learn how theological concepts apply to their lives and become more fully motivated as their understanding of the &ldquo;existential&rdquo; aspects of revelation increases.