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Psychopannychia or, The Soul's Imaginary Sleep
Originally Published in 1851
The title of PSYCHOPANNYCHIA derived from Greek words which signify "the sleep of the soul;" the object of the Tract being to show, partly from reason, but more especially from Scripture, that there is no such sleep. It was published in 1534, when CALVIN was twenty-five years of age, and is, consequently, with the exception of the Commentary on the Clementia of Seneca, published in 1532, the earliest of all his writings, and two years earlier than the Institutes, the first known edition of which appeared in 1536. It thus possesses, especially to those who delight to trace the progress of a master mind, an interest additional to that which its merit gives it.
The figment which it refutes is said by CALVIN to be of Arabian origin, but was first brought prominently into notice by some of the wildest fanatics among the ANABAPTISTS, for whom everything new and monstrous appears to have had an irresistible attraction. In more modern times, attempts have been made to give it a philosophical shape, as a necessary corollary from the dogma of Materialism advocated by Priestley and others.
It would seem that the figment, wild and irrational though it is, had made considerable progress at an early period of the Reformation, and counted numerous converts, not merely among the fanatics who had revived it, but in more respectable quarters, where better things might have been expected.
The title of PSYCHOPANNYCHIA derived from Greek words which signify "the sleep of the soul;" the object of the Tract being to show, partly from reason, but more especially from Scripture, that there is no such sleep. It was published in 1534, when CALVIN was twenty-five years of age, and is, consequently, with the exception of the Commentary on the Clementia of Seneca, published in 1532, the earliest of all his writings, and two years earlier than the Institutes, the first known edition of which appeared in 1536. It thus possesses, especially to those who delight to trace the progress of a master mind, an interest additional to that which its merit gives it.
The figment which it refutes is said by CALVIN to be of Arabian origin, but was first brought prominently into notice by some of the wildest fanatics among the ANABAPTISTS, for whom everything new and monstrous appears to have had an irresistible attraction. In more modern times, attempts have been made to give it a philosophical shape, as a necessary corollary from the dogma of Materialism advocated by Priestley and others.
It would seem that the figment, wild and irrational though it is, had made considerable progress at an early period of the Reformation, and counted numerous converts, not merely among the fanatics who had revived it, but in more respectable quarters, where better things might have been expected.
- GenresTheology
81 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 11, 2011
8 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
John Calvin
1,697 books540 followersFrench-Swiss theologian John Calvin broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 and as Protestant set forth his tenets, known today, in
Institutes of the Christian Religion
(1536).
The religious doctrines of John Calvin emphasize the omnipotence of God, whose grace alone saves the elect.
* Jehan Cauvin
* Iohannes Calvinus (Latin)
* Jean Calvin (French)
Originally trained as a humanist lawyer around 1530, he went on to serve as a principal figure in the Reformation. He developed the system later called Calvinism.
After tensions provoked a violent uprising, Calvin fled to Basel and published the first edition of his seminal work. In that year of 1536, William Farel invited Calvin to help reform in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of ideas of Calvin and Farel and expelled both men. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg as the minister of refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and people eventually invited him back to lead. Following return, he introduced new forms of government and liturgy. Following an influx of supportive refugees, new elections to the city council forced out opponents of Calvin. Calvin spent his final years, promoting the Reformation in Geneva and throughout Europe.
Calvin tirelessly wrote polemics and apologia. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as treatises and confessional documents and regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva. The Augustinian tradition influenced and led Calvin to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation.
Calvin's writing and preaching provided the seeds for the branch of Protestantism that bears his name. His views live on chiefly in Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, which have spread throughout the world. Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major figures and entire movements, such as Puritanism, and some scholars argue that his ideas contributed to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the west.
The religious doctrines of John Calvin emphasize the omnipotence of God, whose grace alone saves the elect.
* Jehan Cauvin
* Iohannes Calvinus (Latin)
* Jean Calvin (French)
Originally trained as a humanist lawyer around 1530, he went on to serve as a principal figure in the Reformation. He developed the system later called Calvinism.
After tensions provoked a violent uprising, Calvin fled to Basel and published the first edition of his seminal work. In that year of 1536, William Farel invited Calvin to help reform in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of ideas of Calvin and Farel and expelled both men. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg as the minister of refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and people eventually invited him back to lead. Following return, he introduced new forms of government and liturgy. Following an influx of supportive refugees, new elections to the city council forced out opponents of Calvin. Calvin spent his final years, promoting the Reformation in Geneva and throughout Europe.
Calvin tirelessly wrote polemics and apologia. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as treatises and confessional documents and regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva. The Augustinian tradition influenced and led Calvin to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation.
Calvin's writing and preaching provided the seeds for the branch of Protestantism that bears his name. His views live on chiefly in Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, which have spread throughout the world. Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major figures and entire movements, such as Puritanism, and some scholars argue that his ideas contributed to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the west.
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June 30, 2024
THE REFORMER CRITIQUES THE ANABAPTIST NOTION OF “SOUL SLEEP”
John Calvin (1509–1564) published this short book in 1534 (several years before his Institutes of the Christian Religion), and it was one of his earliest writings.
He wrote in the Preface, “Long ago, when certain pious persons invited, and even urged me, to publish something for the purpose of repressing the extravagance of those who… maintain that the soul dies or sleeps. I could not be induced by all their urgency, so averse did I feel to engage in that kind of dispute… The result, however, has been different from what I hoped. These babblers have so actively exerted themselves, that they have already drawn thousands into their insanity… but it is not so easy to persuade others of this without openly refuting their vanity, and exposing it, so to speak, to their face… I feel that I could not well defend myself from the charge of being a traitor to the Truth were I, in such urgent circumstances, to keep back and remain silent!” (Pg. 5-6)
In his note “To the Reader,” he states, “whenever I use some freedom of speech, I am referring to the nefarious herd of Anabaptists… And yet against them I have not given immoderate vent to my bile, having constantly refrained from all pertness and petulance of speech… It was certainly much more my intention to bring all back into the right way, than to provoke them to anger.” (Pg. 8)
He explains, “Our controversy, then, relapses to The Human Soul. Some, while admitting it to have a real existence, imagine that it sleeps in a state of insensibility from Death to The Judgment Day, when it will awake from sleep; while others… maintaining that it is merely a vital power which is derived from arterial spirit on the action of the lungs, and being unable to exist without the body, perishes along with the body… We, on the other hand, maintain both that it is a substance, and after the death of the body truly lives, being endued both with sense and understanding. Both these points we undertake to prove by clear passages of Scripture… Here, too, let Philosophers give place… [although] you will scarcely find two of them agreed on any single point… it is vain to ask at them… though they certainly thought more purely and wisely on the subject than some amongst ourselves, who boast that they are the disciples of Christ.” (Pg. 12-13)
He asserts, “the spirit or soul of man is a substance distinct from the body… the soul, after the death of the body, still survives, endued with sense and intellect. And it is a mistake to suppose that I am here affirming anything else than the immortality of the soul… Let us now learn this immortality from Scripture. When Christ exhorts his followers not to fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but to fear him who, after he hath killed the body, is able to cast the soul into Gehenna (Mt 10:28), does he not intimate that the soul survives death?” (Pg. 20-21)
He asks, “Now, O dreamy sleepers, commune with your own hearts, and consider how Christ died. Did He sleep when he was working for your salvation?” (Pg. 32) He quotes Revelation 6:10-11, and notes, “The souls of the dead cry aloud, and white robes are given unto them! O sleeping spirits! What are white robes to you? Are they pillows on which you are to lie down and sleep? You see that white robes are not at all adapted for sleep, and therefore, when thus clothed, they must be awake. If this is true, these white robes undoubtedly designate the commencement of glory, which the Divine liberality bestows upon martyrs while waiting for the day of judgment.” (Pg. 43)
He acknowledges, “I admit that ‘a living soul’ is repeatedly attributed to the brutes, because they, too, have their own life; but they live after one way, man after another. Man has a living soul by which he knows and understands; they have a living soul which gives their body sense and motion. Seeing, then, that the soul of man possesses reason, intellect and will---qualities which are not annexed to the body---is it not wonderful that it subsists without the body, and does not perish like the brutes, which have nothing more than their bodily senses…. Let them, then, if they will, make a living soul common to man and to the brutes, since in so far as the body is concerned they have all the same life, but let them not employ this as an argument for confounding the soul of man with the brutes.” (Pg. 49)
Citing Romans 6:23 [“the wages of sin is death”], he comments, “I ask… Whether or not there is to be any end to that death? If none, as we must certainly acknowledge, then, although dead, they must still feel eternal fire and the worm which dieth not. These things make it manifest that the immortality of the soul… exists even when it is dead, and that that death is something else than the annihilation to which they would reduce it.” (Pg. 51-52)
He asks, “what hinders us from adopting the view taken by some sensible Expositors, who understand [1 Cor 15:19] to be spoken of not only the final Resurrection, by which we shall recover our bodies from corruption, incorruptible, but of the life which remains to us after our mortal life is over, and which is frequently designated in Scripture by the name of Resurrection? For when it is said that the Sadducees deny the Resurrection, it is not the body that is referred to, but the simple meaning is, according to their opinion, nothing of man survives death.” (Pg. 73)
This “historical” work will be of interest to students of Calvin, or those looking into the history of Christian interpretations of the afterlife.
John Calvin (1509–1564) published this short book in 1534 (several years before his Institutes of the Christian Religion), and it was one of his earliest writings.
He wrote in the Preface, “Long ago, when certain pious persons invited, and even urged me, to publish something for the purpose of repressing the extravagance of those who… maintain that the soul dies or sleeps. I could not be induced by all their urgency, so averse did I feel to engage in that kind of dispute… The result, however, has been different from what I hoped. These babblers have so actively exerted themselves, that they have already drawn thousands into their insanity… but it is not so easy to persuade others of this without openly refuting their vanity, and exposing it, so to speak, to their face… I feel that I could not well defend myself from the charge of being a traitor to the Truth were I, in such urgent circumstances, to keep back and remain silent!” (Pg. 5-6)
In his note “To the Reader,” he states, “whenever I use some freedom of speech, I am referring to the nefarious herd of Anabaptists… And yet against them I have not given immoderate vent to my bile, having constantly refrained from all pertness and petulance of speech… It was certainly much more my intention to bring all back into the right way, than to provoke them to anger.” (Pg. 8)
He explains, “Our controversy, then, relapses to The Human Soul. Some, while admitting it to have a real existence, imagine that it sleeps in a state of insensibility from Death to The Judgment Day, when it will awake from sleep; while others… maintaining that it is merely a vital power which is derived from arterial spirit on the action of the lungs, and being unable to exist without the body, perishes along with the body… We, on the other hand, maintain both that it is a substance, and after the death of the body truly lives, being endued both with sense and understanding. Both these points we undertake to prove by clear passages of Scripture… Here, too, let Philosophers give place… [although] you will scarcely find two of them agreed on any single point… it is vain to ask at them… though they certainly thought more purely and wisely on the subject than some amongst ourselves, who boast that they are the disciples of Christ.” (Pg. 12-13)
He asserts, “the spirit or soul of man is a substance distinct from the body… the soul, after the death of the body, still survives, endued with sense and intellect. And it is a mistake to suppose that I am here affirming anything else than the immortality of the soul… Let us now learn this immortality from Scripture. When Christ exhorts his followers not to fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but to fear him who, after he hath killed the body, is able to cast the soul into Gehenna (Mt 10:28), does he not intimate that the soul survives death?” (Pg. 20-21)
He asks, “Now, O dreamy sleepers, commune with your own hearts, and consider how Christ died. Did He sleep when he was working for your salvation?” (Pg. 32) He quotes Revelation 6:10-11, and notes, “The souls of the dead cry aloud, and white robes are given unto them! O sleeping spirits! What are white robes to you? Are they pillows on which you are to lie down and sleep? You see that white robes are not at all adapted for sleep, and therefore, when thus clothed, they must be awake. If this is true, these white robes undoubtedly designate the commencement of glory, which the Divine liberality bestows upon martyrs while waiting for the day of judgment.” (Pg. 43)
He acknowledges, “I admit that ‘a living soul’ is repeatedly attributed to the brutes, because they, too, have their own life; but they live after one way, man after another. Man has a living soul by which he knows and understands; they have a living soul which gives their body sense and motion. Seeing, then, that the soul of man possesses reason, intellect and will---qualities which are not annexed to the body---is it not wonderful that it subsists without the body, and does not perish like the brutes, which have nothing more than their bodily senses…. Let them, then, if they will, make a living soul common to man and to the brutes, since in so far as the body is concerned they have all the same life, but let them not employ this as an argument for confounding the soul of man with the brutes.” (Pg. 49)
Citing Romans 6:23 [“the wages of sin is death”], he comments, “I ask… Whether or not there is to be any end to that death? If none, as we must certainly acknowledge, then, although dead, they must still feel eternal fire and the worm which dieth not. These things make it manifest that the immortality of the soul… exists even when it is dead, and that that death is something else than the annihilation to which they would reduce it.” (Pg. 51-52)
He asks, “what hinders us from adopting the view taken by some sensible Expositors, who understand [1 Cor 15:19] to be spoken of not only the final Resurrection, by which we shall recover our bodies from corruption, incorruptible, but of the life which remains to us after our mortal life is over, and which is frequently designated in Scripture by the name of Resurrection? For when it is said that the Sadducees deny the Resurrection, it is not the body that is referred to, but the simple meaning is, according to their opinion, nothing of man survives death.” (Pg. 73)
This “historical” work will be of interest to students of Calvin, or those looking into the history of Christian interpretations of the afterlife.
October 22, 2025
In his first published theological work (1534), John Calvin presents a polemical treatise against those who were advocating for “soul sleep” or even the destruction of the soul immediately after death. Calvin identifies his interlocutors as the Catabaptists (Anabaptists), and seeks to contend for what has been acknowledged to be the traditional view of the intermediate state, wherein the souls of the righteous enjoy immediate blessing in communion with God upon death while the souls of the wicked experience immediate judgment upon death.
This short treatise is valuable in demonstrating that this debate concerning the afterlife has not changed much; many of the central passages and lines of reasoning have remained the same for centuries. As for the content of this work, most of it is suitable for its original context, which was a pamphlet to be handed out rather than a book to be thoroughly studied. Calvin works through numerous passages that the Anabaptists appealed to in support of soul sleep or soul destruction, demonstrating the faults of their interpretations to various degrees of persuasion.
One of the most encouraging elements of Calvin’s argument is seen in his emphasis on union with God. For Calvin, this is the ultimate reward for the righteous in Christ: “that kingdom, to the possession of which is elsewhere denominated ‘salvation,’ and ‘reward,’ and ‘glory,’ is nothing else than union with God by which they are fully in God, are filled by God, in their turn cleave to God, completely possess God — in short, are ‘one with God.’l
Perhaps the greatest drawback to Calvin’s own anthropology that is definitely influenced by a Platonic conception of the soul. Even though Calvin is always quick to affirm the necessity and significance of the resurrection, there are a few sections in this piece that leave the reader with the impression that the body is nothing but a prison house for the soul, and once this cage of flesh is cast off, then finally we can enjoy God in perfect bliss. Not only does Calvin explicitly use language like this, but it also influences his exegesis of passages like 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; while most commentators recognize that the first half of this passage is Paul’s exposition of the resurrection, Calvin finds that Paul is speaking entirely about the intermediate state.
Overall, this is a very interesting piece in historical theology if one wants to both further understand Calvin and his world, and the arguments surrounding the intermediate state.
This short treatise is valuable in demonstrating that this debate concerning the afterlife has not changed much; many of the central passages and lines of reasoning have remained the same for centuries. As for the content of this work, most of it is suitable for its original context, which was a pamphlet to be handed out rather than a book to be thoroughly studied. Calvin works through numerous passages that the Anabaptists appealed to in support of soul sleep or soul destruction, demonstrating the faults of their interpretations to various degrees of persuasion.
One of the most encouraging elements of Calvin’s argument is seen in his emphasis on union with God. For Calvin, this is the ultimate reward for the righteous in Christ: “that kingdom, to the possession of which is elsewhere denominated ‘salvation,’ and ‘reward,’ and ‘glory,’ is nothing else than union with God by which they are fully in God, are filled by God, in their turn cleave to God, completely possess God — in short, are ‘one with God.’l
Perhaps the greatest drawback to Calvin’s own anthropology that is definitely influenced by a Platonic conception of the soul. Even though Calvin is always quick to affirm the necessity and significance of the resurrection, there are a few sections in this piece that leave the reader with the impression that the body is nothing but a prison house for the soul, and once this cage of flesh is cast off, then finally we can enjoy God in perfect bliss. Not only does Calvin explicitly use language like this, but it also influences his exegesis of passages like 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; while most commentators recognize that the first half of this passage is Paul’s exposition of the resurrection, Calvin finds that Paul is speaking entirely about the intermediate state.
Overall, this is a very interesting piece in historical theology if one wants to both further understand Calvin and his world, and the arguments surrounding the intermediate state.
May 2, 2023
I learned of this book while researching conditional immortality. Calvin purports to refute the arguments for conditional immortality. For me, most of these scriptures Calvin and the anabaptists are arguing over are pretty ambiguous. Nevertheless one can see Calvin's brilliance shine in this early book and it’s easy to see why he became a towering influence in Protestantism.
January 3, 2024
Calvin banging on about Soul Sleep.
Is it an important doctrine?
Not convinced it is but he argues his case well.
Is it an important doctrine?
Not convinced it is but he argues his case well.
December 28, 2024
Refutes the Annihilationist position of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Christadelphians, Muggletonians and others.
Those are all theological cults that teach 1) Monism of personhood (there is no soul that is separated at death). Thus 2) there is no intermediate state. Therefore they teach 3) the doctrine of "soul sleep" (which is a misnomer and linguistic trickery because of their Monism) and 4) the Doctrine of complete annihilation of everybody (believer and unbeliever) at death. Thus 5) the definition of 'Death' is changed from the biblical definition of separation to a cultish & simplistic (and wrong) definition of "ceasing to exist". Therefore a later "resurrection" after everybody is "annihilated" is laughable but also categorically 6) a total "re-creation" and therefore not a biblical resurrection.
Furthermore, they teach that some wicked people will finally later be annihilated (Adventist teaching) or that the wicked will not be resurrected (JW's) is ironic because you've already used up the claim of annihilation at the first death of EVERYBODY due to Monism. Therefore they teach 6) There is no final hell, because 7) you dont believe that you or anyone else deserves punishment in hell. Which is the same motive for rejecting Penal Substitutionary Atonement (the Gospel).
Those are all theological cults that teach 1) Monism of personhood (there is no soul that is separated at death). Thus 2) there is no intermediate state. Therefore they teach 3) the doctrine of "soul sleep" (which is a misnomer and linguistic trickery because of their Monism) and 4) the Doctrine of complete annihilation of everybody (believer and unbeliever) at death. Thus 5) the definition of 'Death' is changed from the biblical definition of separation to a cultish & simplistic (and wrong) definition of "ceasing to exist". Therefore a later "resurrection" after everybody is "annihilated" is laughable but also categorically 6) a total "re-creation" and therefore not a biblical resurrection.
Furthermore, they teach that some wicked people will finally later be annihilated (Adventist teaching) or that the wicked will not be resurrected (JW's) is ironic because you've already used up the claim of annihilation at the first death of EVERYBODY due to Monism. Therefore they teach 6) There is no final hell, because 7) you dont believe that you or anyone else deserves punishment in hell. Which is the same motive for rejecting Penal Substitutionary Atonement (the Gospel).
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