Knowledge of God's Existence

Question 1

How can we know God?

Answer 1

Through natural and revealed theology

Question 2

Natural theology

Answer 2

Through observation of the natural world, we can come to an understanding of God’s existence. We can see that it must have been designed (links to William Paley and his idea of the watchmaker)

Question 3

What is Mill’s argument about nature?

Answer 3

He said that ‘nature kills’. This makes us question does the natural world reveal to us a good God?

Question 4

What did Hume say about the God who made the world?

Answer 4

He said that it may not be a Christian God, but a trainee God or a polytheistic belief. Even if a God designed the universe, this doesn’t mean it was a Christian God.

Question 5

What book did John Calvin write?

Answer 5

Institutes of the Christian Religion

Question 6

What did John Calvin argue about religious belief?

Answer 6

He argued that everyone has religious belief and everyone in society has a connection with something greater than them. He said that within us is an innate sense of the divine. His key idea was the Sensus Divinitatis - the idea that we all have within us a sense of God, which is natural to us and part of our human nature.

Question 7

John Calvin quote about the Sensus Divinitatis

Answer 7

‘The sense of divinity is inscribed in the hearts of all people.’

Question 8

The Sensus Divinitatis

Answer 8

The natural capacity of human beings to perceive God. It is an innate, direct perception of God.

Question 9

What 3 components is the Sensus Divinitatis broken down into according to Calvin?

Answer 9

• the conscience
• aesthetics
• intellect

Question 10

The Sensus Divinitatis: the conscience

Answer 10

This is how we can have innate evidence that God exists, that he is communicating with us and we have an openness to receiving his goodness. Idea that you are open to God through the conscience and through knowing God as your creator.

Question 11

The Sensus Divinitatis: aesthetics

Answer 11

Roman Catholic Church was very big on this. Our appreciation of aesthetics (e.g., saying something is pretty) the Catholic Church believes is another example of the Sensus Divinitatis. We are able to appreciate aesthetics in order to appreciate God.

Question 12

The Sensus Divinitatis: the intellect

Answer 12

The intellect is integral to our ability and capacity to understand God

Question 13

Natural knowledge of God’s existence: strengths

Answer 13

• it is a normal way to use human intellect and reasoning. We are used to this method.
• long tradition of using reason to show that God exists. E.g., Natural Law is all about right reason in accordance with nature. The Ancient Greeks also used reason to interpret nature to make conclusions about the universe, human life and what we should be doing.
• you could say that it is reasonable for God to want to communicate with his creation through what he has made.
• idea of God being depicted as the artist - you must be able to say something about the creator through observation of the creation
• so many people around the world are religious, so surely there must be something in what they are seeing or something within them leading them to that belief

Question 14

Natural knowledge of God’s existence: weaknesses

Answer 14

• why doesn’t everybody come to the same conclusion? Some people may think it is an amateur God or many Gods behind creation (idea of Hume), whilst other thinkers, such as J.S. Mill would argue that it may not be a good God, for ‘nature kills’
• the idea of having a sensus divinitatis might come from an insecurity we have, or a need for belonging. It might be our awe at feeling overwhelmed by the universe, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s from God, but we are genuinely overwhelmed by how incredible the world is and want to make sense of that. (Although, you could say that these feelings of awe and wonder must come from somewhere, so it is fair + right to say they’ve come from God)
• we could say that the gap is too great to accept the sensus divinitatis. Karl Barth said that God is ‘radically other’ and we cannot know him. Idea that we are corrupted by the Fall. It is only through revelation that we can know God and can’t base our ideas off reason, because this has been impacted by the Fall.
• very limited and subjective, because when you are talking to different people, they are going to make different conclusions. If there is one sensus divinitatis, why are there so many different ideas of God, and so many different kinds of religious beliefs and expressions?
• what about atheists? Where’s the sensus divinitatis gone in Richard Dawkins, for example?
• we can say that there are other explanations for a sensus divinitatis - e.g., the feeling of being overwhelmed by awe + wonder. There could be explanations for the beauty in the universe other than God. We are making too great of a leap to connect it to being God.

Question 15

Revealed theology

Answer 15

We know God through faith and grace alone

Question 16

What is significant in revelation theology?

Answer 16

The Fall

Question 17

Why does revelation argue that we cannot know God through our nature and use of reasoning?

Answer 17

Because the Fall has corrupted this. Idea that the Fall has tainted the ability to reason, use our intellect and to think.

Question 18

What does revelation theology say we have to use to know God and why?

Answer 18

Revelation theology argues that faith and grace are the key tools that we have to use, because they come from God and are God’s gift to us.

Question 19

Where is revelation shown through?

Answer 19

The Bible

Question 20

Give an example of how God has literally revealed things

Answer 20

Through the 10 Commandments

Question 21

What is the key act of grace by God seen in Christianity?

Answer 21

The coming of Jesus Christ

Question 22

What is the cross seen as?

Answer 22

The source of redemption for human beings

Question 23

Through what event is the revelation complete?

Answer 23

The coming of Jesus Christ

Question 24

What does Jesus’ resurrection on the cross give us?

Answer 24

A reconnection and redemption

Question 25

Why was the coming of Christ important?

Answer 25

Because there is the idea that through the coming of Christ and his teaching, he is restoring some kind of relationship, allowing us some kind of knowledge, insight and understanding between God and his creation, so the creation can once again have knowledge of the creator in the completion of the Christ event.

Question 26

What do Catholics believe about the Church?

Answer 26

That it is a gift from God

Question 27

Quote about the importance of the Church

Answer 27

Jesus said ‘Peter, you are the rock on which I will build my Church’

Question 28

Why is the Church important in revelation theology?

Answer 28

Because there’s the idea that the Church becomes the new voice of God and the new source of revelation for the world today. We are still quite corrupted, because of the Fall, but what we can do is turn to the Church.

Question 29

Revealed knowledge of God’s existence: strengths

Answer 29

• rooted in the idea of the Fall (this is a key doctrine of Original Sin and can be traced back to Augustine)
• it emphasises the importance of faith - distinguishes between religion and science, if we start overlapping the two, lots of religious truths will be undermined (e.g., ideas about walking on water, for example, doesn’t work with science). Using the idea of faith shows that religious knowledge is a very different kind of knowledge to scientific knowledge.
• the concept of grace reminds us of the need to be humble. It recognises the important role of Jesus (can link to the Person of Jesus Christ topic). Revelation theology reinforces the important and unique role of Jesus Christ, which goes to the very core of Christian belief and teaching.
• it also recognises the unique role of the Bible and the idea that you can’t just discard the Bible to use your own reason, because your own reason is corrupted by the Fall

Question 30

Revealed knowledge of God’s existence: weaknesses

Answer 30

• we could say it suggests favouritism on the part of God, because it assumes that Christianity is the only answer. If we are saying that you can only know God through this specific text and person, we are very limiting + exclusivist in our approach.
• it depends on accepting beliefs about Jesus in the Bible
• it’s a very uniquely Christian position. This is very exclusivist, not inclusive. Very narrow-minded in terms of relying solely on Christianity as the source of truth.
• the Fall is not necessarily literally true. You could say that we are wrongly interpreting the Fall by saying that we are tainted and can only find anything out through revelation. Augustine has quite an outdated doctrine, so is it accurate to still talk about us in these terms of being born fallen? What about the sensus divinitatis? We do have a knowledge of the divine and the ability to know God, so lets use this.
• it assumes that Christianity is the only correct answer, what does this mean for the engagement of Christianity with the wider world?
• these ideas about revelation can be seen as quite outdated and conservative ideas

Question 31

What is the Brunner and Barth debate about?

Answer 31

Whether the Fall completely removed all natural human knowledge of God.

Question 32

Did Brunner think it is possible to know God through natural theology?

Answer 32

Yes

Question 33

Did Barth think it is possible to know God through natural theology?

Answer 33

No

Question 34

What did Brunner argue about how we can know God?

Answer 34

Brunner said that it is possible for us to know God through natural theology, the conscience and the sensus divinitatis. Natural theology cannot save people, but it helps us to be aware that there is a God, although there is a limit to what we can know. He said that the Fall damaged us on some levels, but not on a spiritual level, meaning that there is still a way in which we can connect with God.

Question 35

What did Barth argue about how we can know God?

Answer 35

Barth disagreed with Brunner with his view that ‘God is radically other’. Barth said that God is so radically other that we cannot use reason to know God. He said it’s like pouring the Niagara Falls into a milk jug (you can’t do it). Barth argues that human language came about to describe human things, so we can never fully describe God or the human relationship to him. We are so limited, because all we’ve ever experienced are human things and human concepts, so how can we then apply our knowledge to God and to the divine? God is so transcendent from us and the way we use language in our daily lives. He says human reason cannot be fully trusted - we must not put ourselves in a position where we put reason above God. You’re essentially then thinking you are God - only he should have that power. Barth said the Bible contains God’s revelation. He said that human nature was completely corrupted by the Fall, so only through revelation can God interact with humanity.

Question 36

Brunner and Barth similarities

Answer 36

• they both came from the Calvinist, reformed tradition
• both are sceptical and critical to natural theology, because of the event of the Fall, but Brunner is a little bit more open to it

Question 37

Brunner and Barth differences

Answer 37

• Barth = we cannot know anything ourselves, because of the consequences of the Fall / we cannot retain anything from natural theology
• Brunner = the Fall has had an effect, but not wiped it out / we can retain something from natural theology

Question 38

Give a supporter of John Calvin’s idea of the sensus divinitatis

Answer 38

Karl Rahner

Question 39

What does Karl Rahner argue?

Answer 39

That you can be a Christian without knowing it, because we all have an existential approach to grace and God. People have an existential openness to grace and a capacity to know and understand God, to connect with the divine and have this kind of knowledge.

Question 40

How is Karl Rahner different from Karl Barth?

Answer 40

• Rahner = says that we can have an existential openness to grace / he is an inclusivist
• Barth = rejects natural theology and says that it is only through revelation you can know God / he is an exclusivist

Question 41

Quote supporting natural theology (John Calvin)

Answer 41

‘Knowledge of God is revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts.’

Question 42

Quote supporting natural theology (Cicero)

Answer 42

‘There will be one law eternal’ (saying that in natural theology, we can know God)

Question 43

Quote supporting revealed theology (Rudolf Otto)

Answer 43

‘The numinous is wholly other’. (how can we have knowledge of the divine when it’s beyond our reason and capabilities?)

Question 44

What are the two approaches to knowing God?

Answer 44

Natural and revealed theology

Question 45

Natural theology

Answer 45

A way of seeking to understand God through the use of human reason and observation of the universe.

Question 46

Revealed theology

Answer 46

A way of seeking to know God through God’s revelation to human beings. E.g., religious experience, miracles, sacred scriptures

Question 47

Natural knowledge of God Bible quote

Answer 47

‘The heavens declare the glory of God’

Question 48

What did Aquinas think about the relationship between natural and revealed theology?

Answer 48

Aquinas valued both natural and revealed theology and felt that they don’t contradict. He believed that they fit together. He felt that natural theology can take humans to basic knowledge that God exists, but revelation reveals doctrines that human reason could never discover unaided. E.g., God is the Trinity (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)

Question 49

What analogy did Peter Vardy give to explain Aquinas’ ideas about natural and revealed theology?

Answer 49

The train tracks analogy

Question 50

How has the fall impacted humans?

Answer 50

We have become sinners because of it, affecting our ability to reason and to know. Because of the fall, reason is corrupted due to us isolating ourselves from God.

Question 51

Argument for why revealed theology is needed

Answer 51

We need divine revelation, for we can’t get knowledge of God by using our reason as this has become heavily corrupted.

Question 52

How did the views of Brunner and Barth differ?

Answer 52

Brunner argued that nature is a point of contact with God, whereas Barth said that natural theology is a waste of time for the Fall has blocked us from God entirely. Barth said that we need to rely on scriptures for God’s revelation.

Question 53

Did Calvin believe that nature is important in learning about God?

Answer 53

Yes

Question 54

Faith

Answer 54

Commitment to a belief without the need for complete evidence.

Question 55

Why did Aquinas believe that faith and reason are complementary?

Answer 55

Because they are both given to us by God

Question 56

What group believe that religious faith is dangerous?

Answer 56

New Atheists (e.g., because of events like 9/11)

Question 57

Where is faith seen in the Bible?

Answer 57

Abraham and his wife struggle to have children. Abraham finally gets a child (Isaac), but God asks him to sacrifice him and he obeys.

Question 58

Fideism

Answer 58

Faith is independent of reason

Question 59

Why did Barth think that we cannot know God through natural theology?

Answer 59

Because the Fall has destroyed our relationship with God and is in the way of our reasoning.

Question 60

Did Kierkegaard think that Abraham did the right thing?

Answer 60

No, he thought that Abraham’s faith was completely irrational.

Question 61

Who argued that sometimes we have to take a ‘leap of faith’?

Answer 61

Kierkegaard