Jean Calvin also explained Augustine’s epistemology and added that Augustine believed that everyone can receive a clear revelation about God through the Holy Spirit, through faith, and through reason.
In the sixteenth century, Johannes Reuchlin, an associate of Jean Calvin, was the first to write about Augustine’s philosophy, especially his doctrine of intelligence. Reuchlin made little reference to Augustine’s doctrine of grace, but rather to Augustine’s theology. Augustine always believed that the intellectual abilities of people are limited, and Reuchlin believed that this limited ability is the reason for a person’s need for salvation. Augustine taught that man is sinful and, as a result, cannot attain true knowledge. Reuchlin rejected Augustine’s teaching that humans are incapable of understanding the universe and that they need faith in God and use reason to be saved. Reuchlin believed that regarding Augustine’s view that human knowledge of God and the universe is limited, Reuchlin believed that Augustine’s view was wrong.
Augustine, according to Reuchlin, was wrong in teaching that man cannot receive true knowledge of the universe, but that man can attain knowledge through faith and the Holy Spirit in the knowledge of God. Although Augustine believed that human knowledge is limited, Reuchlin believed that human knowledge of the universe is unlimited. Reuchlin believed that with the help of reason, a person can receive a clear revelation about God and the universe.
Reuchlin was the first to suggest that human intelligence has unlimited potential. However, Reuchlin believed that a person’s ability to know is limited and that he can achieve knowledge of God only through faith and through the Holy Spirit.
Augustine believed that God is perfect, just, and good. Reuchlin believed that God was good and perfect, but the attributes of perfection were of such a nature that man could not achieve them. Reuchlin believed that the knowledge of God can be obtained through faith.
Reuchlin’s followers adhered to a form of Calvinism known as systematic theology.
Augustine, like Calvin, believed that human knowledge of God and the universe is limited. John Calvin, however, believed that man’s knowledge of the Universe is not limited, and believed that man is able to understand the Universe.