Knowledge of God's Existence Flashcards
What is natural theology?
The theory that knowledge of God can be gained by the power of the human mind.
What is revealed theology?
The theory that knowledge of God can be gained from God’s revelation to us e.g in Jesus and the Bible. This results in revealed knowledge which is based on faith that what is received is from God. Typically, both Catholics and protestants believe in revealed theology.
What is natural theology through reasoning about the natural world?
God’s revelation is present in his creation and human reason has the ability to discover it. This resulting in knowledge of God based on reason. This is typically a catholic view.
What is natural theology through sensing God?
It is defended by some, including protestant theologians who are sceptical of the power of reason to know God.
What is Aquinas’ natural theology?
Aquinas accepted that human reason could never know or understand God’s infinite divine nature. However, he argued that human reason can gain lesser knowledge of God, including:
1.God’s existence: through the teleological (design) and cosmological arguments.
2. God’s moral law through natural law theory.
3. God’s nature by analogy, through the analogies of attribution and proportion.
Why could reason not be absolute proof of God?
Aquinas thought that reason could not provide an absolute proof that God existed, since that would make faith and revelation useless. He formulated a posteriori teleological and cosmological arguments which are only evidence for the Christian God that therefore support faith in God. The Bible doesn’t contain reasoned arguments for God.
How does natural theology support faith?
Meditating on God’s works in creation leads to us reflecting on God’s wisdom, admiring his power, having reverence for God in our hearts and love for God’s goodness in our souls. This is because if the goodness, beauty and wonder of creation, which represent a tiny proportion of God’s goodness, are so delightful to the human mind, then they will attract us even more strongly to God’s total goodness. So, natural theology can support faith.
What does Karl Barth suggest?
Karl Barth was influenced by Augustine, who claimed that after the Fall our ability to reason become corrupted by original sin. This is a problem for natural theology which wants to make use of reason.
Why is it dangerous to rely on reason, according to Barth?
“The finite has no capacity for the infinite”, meaning our finite minds cannot grasp God’s infinite being. Whatever humans discover through reason is not divine, so to think it is divine is idolatry – putting earthly things on the level of God. After the corruption of the fall, human reason cannot reach God or God’s morality. Only faith in God’s revelation in the bible works.
What does pre-fall human nature contain, according to Aquinas?
- The properties of a human soul, e.g. rationality.
- An inclination towards the good (telos) as a result of being rational.
- Original justice/righteousness; perfect rational control over the soul.
What does Aquinas claim was not destroyed by original sin?
Aquinas argues that our rationality and its accompanying inclination towards the good was not destroyed by original sin.
How does Aquinas compare to Augustine?
Aquinas concludes that original sin has not destroyed our orientation towards the good nor is our reason always corrupted. Original sin can at most diminish our inclination towards goodness by creating a habit of acting against it. Sometimes, with God’s grace, our reason can discover knowledge of God’s existence and natural moral law. So, natural theology is valid.
What quote from Aquinas suggests that our inclination towards God and understanding of God has not been destroyed by original sin?
“Participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law”. – Aquinas
Why is Aquinas adaptation of natural theology a good argument?
Arguably Aquinas has a balanced and realistic view, that our nature contains both good and bad and it is up to us to choose rightly.
Why should be solely rely on faith?
Humanity’s belief that it has the ability to know anything of God is the same arrogance that led Adam and Eve to disobey God. This arrogance of natural theology is evidence of a human inability to be humble enough to solely rely on faith.
Why does Aquinas’ natural theology undermine faith?
If natural theology was valid then humans would be able to know God’s existence or God’s morality through their own efforts. Barth argues that would make revelation unnecessary. Yet, God clearly thought revelation was necessary as he sent Jesus.
Why does Aquinas’ natural theology support faith in God?
Aquinas’ arguments for God’s existence are only intended to show the reasonableness of belief in God. They at most show that there is evidence for some kind of God. This is nowhere near strong enough to actually replace faith. This is partly why Aquinas rejected the Ontological argument, since as an a priori deductive argument it sought to prove God’s existence which Aquinas worried would cause it to replace faith.
What did John Calvin believe?
John Calvin believed that all humans have an innate sense of the divine. Natural theology usually deals with our other senses like sight which enable us to gain knowledge of the natural world but the sense of divinity allows us to sense God’s existence. Since what we sense is not based on faith, the sense of God is natural theology.
What is Calvin’s sensus divinitatis?
All humans have an innate sense of the divine.
How does the spread of atheism disprove the sensus divinitatis?
In the 21st century suggests that this sense of God doesn’t exist. In modern times, since David Hume there has been significant philosophical defence of atheism. In some places like northern Europe atheism is now the majority held view. Many atheists say they have no sense of God.
How does Plantinga defend the sensus divinitatis?
He argues that sin has a noetic quality, meaning it changes someone’s ability to have knowledge and insight, which could block the sense of God.
How does the Romans 1:20 verse support natural theology?
“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”. God’s qualities can be understood from what he has made
How does Barth claim that Romans 1:20 justifies natural theology?
He accepts that the passage shows that creation does indeed allow knowledge of God, but argues humans are too sinful to manage that.
What is Romans 1:25
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator”.
What does Barth interpret from Romans 1:25?
Barth claims that Paul is showing that natural theology leads to idolatry due to overlooking or misunderstanding the ‘qualitative distinction’ between humans and God, God is experienced in natural things, and then in humans and half-spiritual.
How does Grenz and Olson describe Barth’s view
“Any attempt to ground the truth of God’s Word in human reasoning, however devout and sincere, inevitably leads to theology being subverted by human, historical modes of thought and thus to ‘anthropocentric theology’. The evil against which Barth fought so hard.”
What is Calvin’s revealed theology?
Calvin was influenced by Augustine’s views on the fall and original sin. The garden of Eden is God’s intended design for the world as a paradise. The suffering brought into the world by the fall therefore disfigures the world to an extent, which makes it difficult for natural theology to reveal God since his original design is now mixed with disfiguring corruption. This means natural theology can only reveal the truth of God’s existence, but not the full revelation of God.
What does Émile Brunner argue?
Brunner argues that Augustine and Calvin are wrong to think that the fall destroyed the potential of human reason to gain knowledge of God’s existence. Brunner claimed the fall destroyed the material imago dei (Adam and Eve’s relationship with God) but not the formal imago dei, which is what separates us from animals and gives us language, reason and moral responsibility.
What is knowledge of preserving grace, according to Brunner?
God continues to be active in maintaining creation, shielding it from the effects of sin. This can be known through the order in the universe; that the world is still spinning, and humans still existing reveals God’s gracious preservation of us. Brunner still thinks however that natural theology alone will always, due to our sinful state, result in a distorted knowledge of God. We need the special revelation of Christ to achieve full knowledge.
How does Brunner contradict himself according to Barth?
Since Brunner admits every aspect of humanity is corrupted by sin, so it should follow that the formal image, including our reason, is corrupted, in which case arguably it cannot produce knowledge of God. Just because reason was not totally destroyed, it being corrupted still means it cannot be relied on to gain knowledge of God.
