Although Dr. Ford Lewis Battles does not see Calvin's *virtutes Dei* as "angels", they do come close. "Every aspect of the divine- human relationship is seen under the *virtus Dei*: this overarching notion (to which has been given the term `virtualism') may be seen, for example, in Scripture (*Inst.*, 1.6), in the giving of Christ to us (2.12-17), in the giving of faith to us (3:2), in the sacraments (4.17.19) and in the likeness of man's soul to God (1.15.5). The *virtus Dei* is in fact the working of the Holy Spirit, apart from whose activity every aspect of the Christian faith would be cold and external, and the *theatrum mundi* itself would not continue to exist...These *virtutes Dei* are the divinely accommodated, humanly perceived, avenues of God's self-disclosure to us. Yet in the accommodatory imagery of the heavenly host we can still believe in angels and, keeping their servanthood firmly in mind, *almost* identify the two notions of *virtutes Dei* with one another. In rejecting statically descriptive notions as expressed in such words as `attributes,' `qualities,' `characteristics,' etc., and in boldly using an angelic model, Calvin is holding fast to the dynamic, personal Scriptural teaching whose consummation is in Christ Himself. Can there be any other adequate English translation of the word *virtus*, in this use, then, than *powers of God*?" (Ford Lewis Battles, _Calculus Fidei Some Ruminations on the Structure of Calvin's Theology_, Grand Rapids: Michigan: Calvin Theological Seminary, 1978 [Privately-published edition with the Appendices], pp.105-106). Orthodox theology can observe that Calvin's *virtutes Dei* are the angels of old, the logoi, the energies of God conceived and constituted in the Word, the presence of God's Grace and Spirit. Calvin wrote at the interface of the ancient and medieval worlds, and the modern, in the era when "virtualism" came to be replaced by "legalism", when the hierarchies and powers were seemingly being stripped away (cf. Galatians 3:19). See Edgar Zilsel, _The Genesis of the Physical Concept of Law_, The Philosophical Review 51(3):245- 279(May, 1942); Francis Oakley, _Christian Theology and the Newtonian Science: The Rise of the Concept of the Laws of Nature_, Church History 30(4):433-457(December, 1961); Colin A. Russell, _Cross-currents Interactions between Science and Faith_, Leicester: Inter-varsity Press, 1985, pp.64-67.

Formulation of the Laws of Nature as externally-imposed by God rather than as immanent in nature was very important in recalling people to an awareness of the Creator-creature distinction, but this did tend to elevate the *juridical* imagery of Creation (Covenant-Law) to the level of a "Gnostic intermediary" which tended to usurp the role and functions of the Word Incarnate (as in the "Federal Theology"). Moreover, this "external" Law could become a wedge between Creator and creature on the way to Deism and atheism. On the vanishing of the "angelic hierarchy*, see C. A. Patrides, _Renaissance Thought on the Celestial Hierarchy: The Decline of a Tradition_, Journal of the History of Ideas 20:155-166 (1959); C. A. Patrides, _Renaissance Views on the "Vnconfused Orders Angellick", Journal of the History of Ideas 23:265-267(April-June 1962); Marjorie Hope Nicolson, _The Breaking of the Circle Studies in the Effect of the "New Science" upon Seventeenth-Century Poetry_, New York & London: Columbia University Press, Revised Edition, Columbia Paperback, 1962, 1965 [1960]; W. P. D. Wightman, _Science and the Renaissance An Introduction to the Study of The Emergence of the Sciences in the Sixteenth Century_, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1962, Volume I, Chapter XV: _The Embodiment of the Spiritual World_; and Michael F. Keefer, _The World Turned Inside Out: Revolutions of the Infinite Sphere from Hermes to Pascal_, Renaissance and Reformation 12(4)New Series/24(4)Old Series:303-313 (1988). For a fascinating repristination of "virtualism" see Walter Wink, _The "Elements" of the Universe in Biblical and Scientific Perspective_, Zygon 13(3):225-248(September 1978), Walter Wink, _Naming the Powers The Language of Power in the New Testament_, Philadephia: Fortress Press, 1984, and Walter Wink,_Unmasking the Powers The Invisible Forces that Determine Human Existence_, Philadephia: Fortress Press, 1986. Also, Ladislaus Boros, _Angels and Men_, London: Search Press, 1976 [Cprt Walter Verlag AG Olten 1974. Trans. John Maxwell], and Jean Danielou, _A History of Early Christian Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea_, Volume One: _The Theology of Jewish Christianity_, London: Darton, Longman & Todd / Philadephia: The Westminster Press, 1964, 1978 [Trans. and ed. John A. Baker], noting pages 118-119 on a distinction between Semitic and Hellenistic angels.

June, 1996

See TUTELARY DEITIES AND SAINTS.

See PARALLELS TO THE BYZANTINE-HESYCHAST, DIVINE ESSENCE/ENERGIES DISTINCTION.

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Index