Knowledge of God's Existence (2) Flashcards
What is the Trinitarian View of God?
God is one but reveals himself as three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit
1) God as Father, prophets and writers bear witness to this revelation
2) Christ as mediator, clarity is given to Gods promises
3) Holy Spirit inspires Christians, sustains and leads them in the process of interpretation
How does Christ show the Principle of Accommodation?
- Christ is the image or likeness of the invisible God so our finite minds can understand
- Christ acts as a mirror and mediator of the divine as he accommodates himself to our material and physical state
Explain Calvins notion of Christ being ‘mirror and mediator’?
- Mirror: He reflects God’s qualities, e.g love, forgiveness which would have otherwise been hidden
- Mediator: The means by which sinful humans are reconciled and brought to knowledge and love of God
What does the Catechism argue about the bible?
Believe that Christianity should not be reduced to the bible as it is ‘not a religion of the book’
What do Natural Theologians believe about the Bible?
- That it is a source of knowledge of God
- A diverse collection of experiences of God from the early days of Hebrew people
- Psalms covers every kind of existential experience from knowledge of God who judges everyone to one who is a refuge and a friend
What is the Natural-Revealed Theology Debate?
- Calvin was ambiguous in stating whether he believed in Natural or Revealed Theology
- God is the creator (detached from the world) but also a redeemer who is immanently involved with the world
What is Brunners view?
- Believes that God’s general revelation (sensus divinitatus and conscience) act a s point of contact to know God’s command and their sinful state
- Not enough to achieve redemption, natural theology is about pointing towards evidence of Gods existence
What is Imago Dei (Brunner)
- The image of God in humans after the Fall is only destroyed at the material physical and emotional level
- Formal and spiritual level of the humans image of God is uncorrupted allowing us to be addressed by God
What is General Revelation (Brunner)
- God communicates through nature but due to sin humans are incapable of receiving the communication of grace
- All we know is God exists and nature provides the point of contact
What is Conscience (Brunner)
- Conscience and guilt makes us aware of Gods laws
What is True Knowledge (Brunner)
- Grace and renewal of the material self, true knowledge of God is only available to those who have faith in Christ
- Revelation of Christ ‘far surpasses’ general revelation of God in nature
What is Barths view?
NEIN - disagreed with Brunner
- Human Nature is completely corrupted by The Fall and no points of contact exist
- Only God can choose to reveal himself to man
Formal Self cannot inform the material self (Barth)
- The Fall blotted out the material selfs ability to know God and thus the material self cannot be informed by the formal spiritual self
- Brunner has not accounted for the sheer corruption of the material self and its inability to be informed
No Points of Contact (Barth)
- Nature, conscience and guilt are not points of contact
- Conscience and guilt are experienced after receiving Gods grace not before or independently
- Brunners ‘points of contacts’ are a result of Gods grace and mercy, not a point of contact
Order of Creation (Barth)
- Order in nature is not the bassi for morality or salvation
- Gods moral command in the bible is much different to natural law humans can perceive
- Brunner undermines uniqueness of faith with too much emphasis on reason