1.3 Knowledge of God

Question 1

what is the ‘innate human sense of the divine’?

Answer 1

• the Roman Catholic Church saus that the ‘desire for God is written in the human heart’
• Calvin said a similar thing in the C16, everyone has an innate sensus divinitas and the semen religionis
• people are not always fully aware of the sensus divinitas due to sin

Question 2

what are three examples of how humans experience the sensus divinitas

Answer 2

1. the conscience - the feeling of guilt we have inside us when we do something wrong, we can understand the goodness of God
2. humans are aware of beauty - the appreciation of aesthetics helps humans understand God’s existence
3. humans ability to reason - what sets us apart from the rest of the world is our intellectual ability which we can use to reflect on the world around us

Question 3

what is Calvin’s mirror analogy?

Answer 3

the beauty of the earth is like a mirror, reflecting God’s nature through the world

Question 4

what are some biblical quotes to support natural knowledge?

Answer 4

• Psalm “the heavens declare the glory of God”
• Paul speaking to the Athenians about the unknown God in Acts

Question 5

what are the two ways in which one can receive revelation?

Answer 5

1. revelation through faith and God’s grace
2. revealed knowledge of God in Jesus Christ

Question 6

what is revelation through faith and God’s grace?

Answer 6

natural theology alone is not enough to gain full knowledge of God because humans are sinful and human intellect is finite

faith
- Aquinas stressed having faith in God, letting go of reason
- for Calvin, faith is accepting Christ as redeemer of the world at a spiritual level

grace
- God’s unconditional and constant giving of goodness to the world
- because of God’s grace humans are given faith and it also causes faith to become a real, personal relationship with God

Question 7

what is revealed knowledge of God in Jesus Christ?

the role of church and bible

Answer 7

Catholics
- the church explores God’s revelation and make it accessible to people
- God is revealed through both the Bible and church tradition
- the actions of the church reveal aspects of God such as through the sacraments

Protestants
- the Bible holds more authority than the church
- the church’s role is to point believers towards revelation in the bible
- Jesus played an important role on the cross in bridging the gap between humans and God

Question 8

what is Brunner’s argument on whether the Fall has completely removed all natural human knowledge of God?

Answer 8

• it is possible for us to know through natural theology, the conscience and the sensus divinitas
• humans recognise the point of contact between God and thenselves and then become aware of their own sinfulness
• natural theology cannot save people but it can create a discussion that points towards the existence of God
• natural theology can help us to be aware that there is a God but there is a limit to what we can know
• the fall damaged people on some levels but could not affect the spiritual level which means there is still a way we can connect with God

Question 9

what is Barth’s argument on whether the Fall has completely removed all natural human knowledge of God?

Answer 9

• God is so ‘radically other’ that we cannot use reason to know God, it is like pouring Niagara Falls into a milk jug
• human language came about to describe human things so we can never fully describe God or the human relationship to him WITTGENSTEIN

Question 10

random wider scholars

Answer 10

James Cone
- argues God reveals himself in the struggle for justice among the oppressed

Hick
- knowledge through natural world and revelations in many religions

Augustine
- grace for knowledge of God, we can infer existence from creation but only knowledge comes from faith/grace