Their Very Hearts Are Touched: Knowing God and Knowing Creation with John Calvin

The Swiss theologian, John Calvin, believed that Christians could look to the order of creation to be sure of God's sovereignty even when God's presence in and power over the vicissitudes human history remained uncertain from a human perspective. What can be made of Calvin's confidence in the knowledge of the created order in light of the Anthropocene and climate change? This thesis considers Calvin's epistemology of creation in order to think through what it means to know the world in the time when human history and the natural world can no longer be separated. By bringing Calvin's theological epistemology into conversation with animism and affect theory, this thesis argues that Calvin's theology of creation may be helpful for those contemplating the meaning of the present ecological crises only if what it means to "know" the world is expanded.