Calvin and the Goodness of God

The popular picture of Calvin suggests that he was a theologian of truth, and that he subordinates God’s goodness and beauty fairly radically to His truthfulness. In his recent Notre Dame Press book on Calvin’s theology of Word and Image, Randall Zachman thinks otherwise:

“I argue, on the contrary, that goodness is central to Calvin’s understanding of God. God for Calvin is ultimately and essentially ‘the fountain and author of every good thing,’ and although he certainly considered power to be one of those good things, it is always seen in the context of other good things such as wisdom, righteousness, life, mercy, and goodness. Moreover, the fountain of every good thing manifests itself to us in two essentially related ways: in the beauty of God’s works and in the truth of God’s Word. The goodness of God not only proclaims and attests itself in truth, but it also manifests and exhibits itself in beauty. We need the truth of God to be able to discern the beauty of God in God’s works; but we also need the beauty of God to be sweetly allured and gently invited to God, so that we might be ravished with admiration for the beauty of God’s goodness, and seek God from the inmost affection of our hearts.”