本文討論宗教改革者加爾文（John Calvin, 1509-1564）詮釋「信」所採用的「以知釋信」，以澄清知與信之間的關係，亦即理性與信仰之間的關係，並藉此釐清人文主義與宗教信仰之間的關係。人文主義的精神可以以蘇格拉底（Socrates, 469-399 B.C.E.）的「認識自己」為代表，他認為真正的智慧使人認識自己的無知，這開啟了一條通往宗教信仰之路，而且他認為這樣的智慧本身是帶著神性的，如此「對自己的認識」就可能通往「對上帝的認識」。加爾文認為，「對自己的認識」與「對上帝的認識」二者息息相關，亦即知人知天與知天知人交織並行。他以「認識」為信仰的基調而以「知」釋「信」，甚至把信心定義為一種「知識」。本文從其親身經歷、思想方法追問信的知識之條件、特性、源頭與挑戰。表面看來，加爾文對信的詮釋帶有
濃厚的知性色彩而傾向知性主義（Intellectualism），本文藉由帶有濃厚唯信主義（Fideism）色彩的存在主義思想家齊克果（Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, 1813-1855）對信仰的反思作為其對照而探討如何分辨天人之際，從而觀察加爾文如何在知性主義與唯信主義當中取捨並如何在理性與信仰之間界定人文主義與宗教信仰的分際。

This essay analyzes the interpretation of faith by the Reformer John
Calvin (1509-1564), who has adopted a rationalistic way of interpreting
faith by knowledge. The goal of such a research is to clarify the relationship between knowledge and faith, namely reason and faith, and thereby to discern the line between humanism and the religions. In Calvin’s writing we fnd not only the spirit of the Reformation, but also the spirit of humanism.
The spirit of humanism can be grown from the late medieval revial of
Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.) and other classical thinkers and the ideal to
“Know thyself.” Socrates argued that true wisdom allows people to realize
their own ignorance leading them to the pass of religious faith. That is to say, the knowledge of self refers to the knowledge God. Calvin thinks that the knowledge of self and the knowledge of God are interconnected, so he claims that without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God and without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self. He interprets faith by knowledge and defines faith as a certain kind of knowledge. We will trace the religious experience and the way of thinking of Calvin in order to explore the conditions, characters, source and challenge of the knowledge of faith. In its outlook, the thought of Calvin tends to be intellectualistic. We will study the refection on faith by the existentialistic thinker Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) as a contrast between fdeism and intellectualism in order to see how to defne the line between the Divine and the human.
By the case of Kierkegaard we can see how Calvin makes his own decision
between intellectualism and fdeism, and between reason and faith, which is the basis of the difference between humanism and religion.