School #36

Reformed / Calvinist Theology

Calvin, Zwingli, Westminster Divines

Reformed theology holds that the triune God of Scripture is the sovereign creator and sustainer of all things. God creates time, space, matter, and energy ex nihilo, and governs every event by his providence — including human choices, which are nonetheless real and responsible. Human knowledge is creaturely and derivative; only God possesses exhaustive omniscience. The observer is embodied, finite, and called to image God through active moral engagement within creation.

I. Time

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Substantival
Grain Continuous
Freedom Deterministic
Traversability Linear
Dimensionality One
Direction Uni-directional

Time is substantival and finite — created by God ex nihilo, it had a beginning and will have an eschatological consummation. Time is deterministic in the sense that God's eternal decree encompasses all events, though human choices are genuine and morally responsible within that decree. Time is continuous, linear, and uni-directional: history moves purposefully from creation through redemption to glorification.

II. Space

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Substantival
Curvature Flat
Dimensionality Three
Locality Local

Space is substantival, finite, and flat — part of God's created order, real and good. It is local and three-dimensional: creaturely existence is always spatially situated. God is omnipresent in and through all of space without being contained by it; space exists as the arena of God's providential action.

III. Matter

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Substantival
Conservation Conserved
Dimensionality Three
Locality Local

Matter is substantival and finite — created ex nihilo, it is real, good, and sustained by God's continual providence. Matter is conserved through God's faithful upholding of creation's regularities (natural law). It is local: material substances occupy determinate positions and interact through God-ordained secondary causes.

IV. Observer

Time Instance Single
Space Instance Single
Extent of Knowledge Immediate
Retainment of Knowledge Total
Physicality Embodied
Agency Passive
Number Plural
Time Instance: Single — creaturely observers exist within the flow of time as God created it; only God is eternal and outside temporal succession
Space Instance: Single — human observers are spatially located, finite creatures; God alone is omnipresent
Extent of Knowledge: Immediate — creaturely knowledge is always partial and perspectival; exhaustive knowledge belongs to God alone
Retainment of Knowledge: Total — in principle, what is known can be retained; human scholarship and memory are genuine goods
Physicality: Embodied — the body is part of God's good creation; Reformed theology rejects any Gnostic deprecation of the material
Agency: Passive — God is the primary cause of all things; human agency is real as secondary causation but fully dependent on divine sustaining
Consciousness: Present — the imago Dei includes rational, moral, and relational consciousness
Number: Plural — human beings are made for community; the covenant community reflects God's communal life

V. Energy

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Substantival
Conservation Conserved
Dispersibility Irreversible

Energy is substantival and finite — part of God's created order, governed by natural laws that reflect divine wisdom. Conservation holds because God faithfully sustains the regularities of creation. Dispersibility is irreversible within the created order, reflecting the directional movement of history toward its eschatological end.

VI. Information

Ontological Status Substantival
Conservation Conserved
Granularity Continuous

God possesses exhaustive foreknowledge — all information about every event, past, present, and future, is known to God with perfect certainty. Created information is sustained by divine providence. Information is substantival because God's knowledge is a real feature of reality. It is conserved because nothing escapes God's omniscience. It is continuous because God's knowledge is infinite and undivided.

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