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Knowledge of God Flashcards

1
Q

What is rationalism?

A

•It is knowledge we gain through reason
- This is supported by Plato

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2
Q

What is empiricism?

A

•It is knowledge we gain through our senses
- This is supported by Aristotle

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3
Q

Why might some scholars argue we cannot gain any knowledge of God through rationalism and empiricism?

A
  • Rationalism = our reason is too limited to comprehend God
  • Empiricism = God is not a physical being so we cannot know him through our senses
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4
Q

Who uses an analogy of an eye to support 3 different ways we can know God?

A

•Bonaventura

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5
Q

What 3 different ways can we know God according to Bonaventura?

A
  1. The “eye of flesh” = knowledge of God through empiricism (science and experience)
  2. The “eye of reason” = knowledge of God through rationalism (logic and reasoning)
  3. The “eye of contemplation” = knowledge of God through faith
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6
Q

How does Polkinghorne believe we can gain knowledge of God?

A

•He believes we know God through “binocular vision”
- Through the 1st eye we see scientific truths
- Through the 2nd eye we see spiritual truths
* He believes we need both of these to have true knowledge of God

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7
Q

What is a another way religious people believe we can gain knowledge of God?

A

•They believe we can know God in a personal sense
- This is similar to how we can know other people

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8
Q

What are the 2 different types of theologies that religious people believe we can gain knowledge of God from?

A
  1. Natural Theology = understanding God through our reasons and observations of the natural world
  2. Revealed Theology = understanding God through the ways he has decided to reveal or show himself
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9
Q

How does Aquinas believe we gain knowledge of God?

A

•He believes we gain knowledge of God from God revealing the truth to us through reason
* This displays how there is no difference between revealed and natural theology
- This is also supported by the fact that God created nature so any knowledge we gain through nature has also been revealed by God

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10
Q

What are 3 examples of Natural Theology?

A
  1. Our reason (it is within our human nature)
  2. An innate knowledge of God which we are born with
  3. Through observations of nature and the world around us
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11
Q

What is an innate sense of the divine?

A

•It is the belief that all humans have been made in God’s image which has caused us to have an inbuilt capacity to know God

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12
Q

What re 2 examples of an innate sense of the divine?

A
  1. An openness to beauty and goodness (aspects of God)
  2. An intellectual ability to reflect on and recognise God’s existence
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13
Q

How does Genesis support an innate sense of the divine?

A

•It displays how God made us in his image and how God breathed his own breath into Adam
- This highlights how there is something within humans that is connected to and seeks out God

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14
Q

Who argues about the impact of The Fall on the material and spiritual levels of humans?

A

•Brunner
- He argues that The Fall destroyed the image of God within us on the material level (physical and emotional)
- However, the image of God still exists within us on the spiritual level

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15
Q

How does Calvin support an innate sense of the divine?

A

•He establishes “sensus divinitatis”
- This is the belief that all humans have a sense of the divine that is a part of our human nature
- This means everyone has an awareness of God which means there is no excuse for people not being aware of God
* Calvin argues that the lack of clarity about God in the world is as a result of human sin

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16
Q

Who argues that our capacity and ability to appreciate beauty allows us to know God?

A

•Tennant
- He argues that we have an inbuilt capacity to appreciate beauty (this allows us to know God better as we can study beauty in the natural world)
- He also argues that our ability to appreciate beauty acts as evidence for the existence of God due to our ability to appreciate beauty not being needed for survival

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17
Q

How does Newman use the conscience to show that we can know God?

A

•He believes that the feelings of guilt we experience when we do something wrong acts as evidence that we are aware of God (this is because God always sees our guilty actions, even if
no-one else does)
- He also argues that our conscience acts as evidence for the existence of God while also showing what God is like (due to the moral demands he makes of us)

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18
Q

How does Hick oppose Calvin’s view of our knowledge of God through “sensus divinitatis”

A

•He opposes it due to his belief in an epistemic distance between God and humans
- This means we cannot fully know God
- Hick also argues it is necessary as it maintains our freewill and causes us to become better people
* This opposes Calvin as he believed an epistemic distance was caused due to human sin

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19
Q

Who argues our human nature is completely corrupted and that we can only know God through his grace?

A

•Augustine
* This means we cannot know God through our human nature

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20
Q

Who directly critiques Brunner?

A

•Barth
- He argues that the image of God on our spiritual level can tell us nothing about God due to the material level being so corrupted
- This means an innate knowledge of God is useless as we can only know God through faith & grace

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21
Q

How can a universally accepted innate sense of the divine be disproven?

A

•Because of different religious and non-religious beliefs
- This means all humans do not share the same innate sense of the divine

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22
Q

How does the order of creation support Natural Theology?

A

•It can display knowledge of God through the design and purpose in nature
- This means we can know God exists and what he is like through the natural world

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23
Q

Who questions “what can be more obvious, when we have lifted our eyes to the sky…that there exists some divine power”?

A

•Cicero

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24
Q

How does Calvin support Natural Theology through the order of creation?

A

•He argues that the beauty and order in the universe acts as “a sort of mirror” that allows us to see what God is like

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25
Q

What does Calvin’s principle of accommodation explain?

A

•It explains how finite and limited humans can understand God
- This is because he believes that God shows himself to us in ways we can understand (through “sparks of glory”)

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26
Q

What does Brunner argue about nature?

A

•He argues that it provides a point of contact between God and humans
- However, he believes this contact is limited due to our corrupted human nature
* This means he believes we can only truly know God through his grace

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27
Q

Who argues that people can understand God’s power and his divine nature through “what has been made”?

A

•St. Paul

28
Q

What argument supports Natural Theology?

A

•The Cosmological Argument
- This argument tries to prove God’s existence through nature
* Aquinas does this through causation and motion
* Paley does this through the complexity of the world

29
Q

Who argues that nature cannot tell us about God due to the fact we have experienced nature but not God?

A

•Hume
- He does this through Hume’s Law (“is” does not mean “ought”)
- This is supported by the fact that God is immaterial, perfect and eternal while nature is none of those things

30
Q

What is the belief that God and the universe are one and the same?

A

•Pantheism
- Despite scholars such as Calvin trying to avoid this, the danger is still there

31
Q

How does Darwin’s theory of natural selection oppose Natural Theology?

A

•It display how order and purpose is an illusion
- It also displays how beauty can be for survival which critiques Tennant (birds use colourful plumage to attract mates and reproduce)

32
Q

Who directly criticises Brunner’s belief that nature provides contact between God and humans?

A

•Barth
- He argues there are no points of contact between God and humans
- This is because we can only know God through his grace and revelations
* However, Barth does suggest that Calvin meant that nature can tell us about God if God reveals himself through nature

33
Q

Why may Barth’s understanding of Natural Theology be skewed?

A

•He lived under the Nazis
- They tried to justify their mass exterminations through natural order which made him reluctant to accept that we could gain knowledge of God through nature

34
Q

What Latin word does revelation derive from?

A

•Revelatio
- It means to uncover something that was once hidden
* This supports Revealed Theology as it displays how we cannot know anything about God until he shows himself to us

35
Q

What are the 2 types of revelation?

A
  1. Immediate Revelation = when God makes himself directly known to people
  2. Mediate Revelation = when people learn about God through a mediator
36
Q

What are 2 examples of Immediate Revelation?

A
  1. When God spoke to Adam/Eve
  2. Jesus
37
Q

What are 2 examples of Mediate Revelation?

A
  1. When Jewish people listened to Moses after he spoke to God
  2. When people read the Bible
38
Q

What is faith?

A

•The belief held in spite of a lack of evidence
- This means God’s existence cannot be proven and we can only have faith

39
Q

How does the Bible describe faith?

A

•It describes faith as an “assurance about what we do not see”
- It also states that “we live by faith, not by sight”

40
Q

How does faith display Revealed Theology?

A

•It displays revealed theology as it is necessary to gain knowledge of God but also because the human mind is fallible which means we cannot know God through reason alone

41
Q

How does Aquinas support faith as a form of revealed theology?

A

•He argues that faith complements and differs from other types of knowledge
- This is because scientific knowledge uses evidence while faith uses no evidence

42
Q

How does Aquinas refer to faith?

A

•He refers to faith as an “intellectual ascent” that is a voluntary choice
- He also believes it’s not irrational, just a different type of knowledge

43
Q

Who argues that faith is a “firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence towards us”?

A

•Calvin
- He argues this through Jesus being the direct object of faith
- This means we must believe in Jesus to be saved
* He also argues that faith (as Jesus) is different from Aquinas’ view of faith as an “intellectual ascent” as Calvin believes true belief is also needed to have faith to be saved

44
Q

What does Brunner argue about Jesus?

A

•He argues that it is Jesus who opens our eyes so we can see God in nature
* He also believes that revelation of God through Jesus surpasses revelation of God through nature

45
Q

How does Augustine support faith as a form of Revealed Theology?

A

•He believes that human nature was so corrupted by The Fall that we can only gain faith and knowledge of God through God’s grace

46
Q

How does Barth support Augustine?

A

•He argues that our material level was so corrupted by The Fall that we can no longer know God, even through our spiritual level, as the image of God was destroyed within us
- This means he believes that innate knowledge of God is useless as we can only know God through faith and God’s grace

47
Q

What is an example of God’s grace?

A

•The Holy Spirit
- This developed when Jesus ascended to Heaven after his resurrection and sent a helper for his disciples
- Jesus did this as the Holy Spirit gives believers strength to have faith and to followers God’s word

48
Q

What is an example of the Holy Spirit?

A

•The Pentecost
- This was when Jesus’ disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and it enabled them to talk with confidence and knowledge about God and his will

49
Q

How does Dawkins critique faith?

A

•He argues that faith is a cop-out
- This is because he believes faith is not actually knowledge due to the only forms of knowledge being scientific and rational

50
Q

How can Augustine’s beliefs be criticised?

A

•He argues that we need to have God’s grace to have faith which makes humans entirely dependent on who God gives his grace to due to it being impossible to earn grace
- This means that knowledge of God becomes arbitrary as God does not give his grace to everyone which means not everyone will have the faith to be able to gain knowledge of God

51
Q

What is the concept of Fideism?

A

•It is the belief that too much emphasis can be put on faith over reason
- This causes faith to become independent of reason and possibly in opposition to reason

52
Q

Who is strongly against fideism?

A

•The Catholic Church
- This is because they emphasise the importance of reason and faith in knowledge of God

53
Q

What example supports the Catholic Church being against fideism?

A

•John Paul 2
- He declared a war against fideism due to the fact that it “fails to recognise the importance of rational knowledge for the understanding of faith [and] the belief in God”

54
Q

Who argues that Jesus is the final and complete revelation of God?

A

•Calvin
- He believes this is true through the principle of accommodation due to God being completely transcendent which meant he created a way to communicate with us so we could understand and respond (Jesus)

55
Q

Who supports Calvin’s belief that Jesus is the final and complete revelation of God?

A

•The Catholic Church

56
Q

What example does Calvin use to support Jesus as the final and complete revelation of God?

A

•He declares Jesus as the mirror and mediator of the divine
- This is because Jesus reflects God’s nature while meditating between humans and God
* He establishes that this does not make Jesus less than God, just a form of God we can understand

57
Q

What is another form of Revealed Theology?

A

•The Bible

58
Q

What are 3 examples of how the Bible is a form of Revealed Theology?

A
  1. It displays God’s role in creation and human history
  2. It conveys God’s laws
  3. It illustrates God’s divine attributes
59
Q

What do the majority of Christians believe about the Bible?

A

•They believe it is an important way to understand God

60
Q

What are the 2 types of revelation relating to the Bible?

A
  1. Propositional Revelation = a series of statements made by God about who he is and what he is like
  2. Non-propositional Revelation = a series of stories about people’s experiences with God
61
Q

What do non-propositional revelations emphasise the importance of?

A

•They emphasise the importance of personal faith and personal relationships with God as a way to know him
- This means they believe that actual encounters with God are a more important form of revelation

62
Q

Why are church teachings also a form of Revealed Theology?

A

•Because the Bible was shaped and interpreted by the Church
- This means church teachings are also an important way to know God

63
Q

How did God also reveal himself through church teachings?

A

•God revealed himself through the debates of the Church and its theologians

64
Q

What is an example of God revealing himself through debates of the Church?

A

•The Council of Chalcedon
- They debated whether Jesus was the Son of God and concluded that Jesus was “truly God and truly man”

65
Q

Who argues that religious experiences are at the heart of all religions?

A

•James
- This means the Bible is not as important as seems due to it just being an interpretation of a religious experience
* This means James believes that Church Teachings and the Bible are less important than religious experiences

66
Q

What makes the Bible and Church Teachings fallible methods of knowing God?

A

•This is because they were created by humans
* This means Natural Theology gives more accurate knowledge of God due to it being his direct creation

67
Q

Why do some scholars argue that we cannot judge revelations without reason?

A

•This is because all religions claim revelatory knowledge about God through their own prophets, scriptures and teachings
* This means Revealed Theology is not as reliable due to the fact reason may be needed to figure out the correct revelations from all the different religions

Christianity (11 decks)

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