Le sainct esprit a yci pourtrait au vif ... Calvin's understanding of the Holy Spirit's modus operandi in the life of believers in the light of the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms

Abstract

The autobiographical details in Calvin’s Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms illustrate the modus operandi of the Holy Spirit working out an identification between the authors of the Psalms and the reader. In the Preface, the Psalms are divinely inspired, life-giving words that enhance the experience of the readers similar to the experience lived and expressed by the authors.The testimonium internum Spiritu Sancti is the core of the Preface inasmuch as expressed by means of a necessary process of anatomy and dissection of all the affections of the soul. Since the book of Psalms adequately deals with all that concerns the knowledge of eternal salvation, the modus operandi of the Holy Spirit through the Psalms is the gospel itself.