Kingdom Of God Flashcards
What are the two types of ways to know God?
Natural theology
Revealed theology
What scholars are mentioned in this topic?
Thomas Aquinas
William Paley
Richard Swinbourne
John Calvin
Karl Barth
Bonaventure
What is natural theology?
Attempts to discover truths about the existence of God by using human experience and reason
What is revealed knowledge of God?
Christian ideas about God which God has revealed to people
What did Bonaventure believe?
The human mind has at least three different ways of knowing
What is Bonaventure’s ‘analogous of the eye’?
Eye of the flesh: gain knowledge about the physical world
Eye of reason: lets us work out mathematical and philosophical truths
Ey of contemplation: way of knowing which allows us to come to a knowledge of God
What did John Polkinghorne say?
Binocular vision:
He sees science through one eye which shows him the physical world and physical truths through another eye
Where in the Bible is natural theology mentioned?
Psalms 8:3-9
Romans 1:18-21
What does Psalms 8:3-9 reveal about natural theology?
The wonders of the passage are presented as clear evidence of God. Humanity has to simply look at the natural world in order to realise the power and wisdom of God
What does Romans 1:18-21 reveal about natural theology?
People have made God angry because they have ignored the obvious fact of God’s existence
What does Romans 1:18-21 reveal about natural theology?
People have made God angry because they have ignored the obvious fact of God’s existence
What was Thomas Aquinas trying to demonstrate?
Reason and observation could be employed in support of Christian belief
What was one of Thomas Aquinas’ examples in proving the existence of God?
The world is in a constant change of cause and effect. There must be an uncaused causer. Everything in the universe depends on something else for existence, there must be some being that depends on nothing
What did Cicero state?
In all cultures and all times in history, people have had a sense that there is an infinite being who is in control of the universe. They all look at an invisible, powerful spiritual being to worship. Perhaps we are born with a sense of God
Where in the Bible does it support that people have a sense of God?
Genesis 1:27
Genesis 2:7
What did John Calvin state about sensus divinitas?
There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity
What is epistemic distance?
God deliberately makes himself obscure to people in order to preserve their free will and allow them to choose to have a relationship with him
What does Calvin believe about the epistemic distance?
It is created by humans. God has made it impossible for people to ignore him unless they quite deliberately choose to do so
What do other writers state about natural theology?
The inner voice of conscience is evidently not only of the existence of God but of a God who makes moral demands of his people
What does Calvin write about the order of creation?
The natural beauty of the world is a sort of mirror of God. The creation reflects a nature of God
What is immediate revelation?
God makes himself directly known to people
What are examples of immediate revelation?
Moses and the burning bush
The prophets
Everyone who met Jesus
What is mediate revelation?
People learn about God and gain knowledge about him less directly
Examples of mediate revelation?
Those who listened to Moses and trusted him
Those who heard the words of the Prophets
The Bible- the words of those who had immediate revelation
What if formed faith?
Willing to believe that the evidence of those who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection is trustworthy
What is unformed faith?
My find intellectual reasons why a person may believe that the afterlife is possible but cannot accept it is true
What does Calvin teach about faith?
Firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence towards us. Faith is also an emotional and spiritual experience of assurance, ‘sealed upon our hearts’
