Knowlege of God’s existence

Question 1

Natural Theology

Answer 1

The theory that knowledge can be gained by the power of the human mind (reasoning).

Question 2

What are the two main forms of natural theology?

Answer 2

1. Natural theology through reasoning about the natural world, Gods revelation is present in his creation, human reasoning has the ability to discover it.
2. Natural theology through sensing God.

Question 3

Revealed theology

Answer 3

Knowledge can be gained from Gods revelation to us, eg, in Jesus and the bible.
This is based on faith.

Question 4

Aquinas’ natural theology

Answer 4

Natural theology could support faith in God.
Aquinas thought that reason could not provide an absolute proof that God exists as this would make faith and revelation pointless.

Question 5

Aquinas’ natural theology and creation

Answer 5

Aquinas argued that meditating on Gods work in creation leads us to reflect on Gods wisdom.
Goodness, beauty and wonder of creation, which represent a tiny proportion of Gods goodness, are so delightful to the human mind, they will attract us even more strongly to Gods total goodness.
Catholic view.

Question 6

According to Augustine what happened after the fall?

Answer 6

After The Fall, our ability to reason became corrupted by original sin.

Question 7

Karl Barth and natural theology

Answer 7

“the finite has no capacity for the infinite”, our finite minds cannot grasp Gods infinite nature.

Question 8

The Fall and natural theology

Answer 8

After the corruption of The Fall, human reason cannot reach God, only faith in Gods revelation in the Bible can.

Question 9

Aquinas’ defence against Barth and Augustine

Answer 9

Pre-Fall human nature contained three ‘goods’:
1. The properties of the human soul, eg, rationality
2. An inclination towards the good (telos) as a result of being rational
3. Original justice: perfect rational control over the soul

Question 10

Barths response to Natural Law

Answer 10

Even if there is a natural law, we are unable to discover it reliably.
Aquinas’ natural theology undermines faith by making revelation pointless.
If natural theology was valid then humans would be able to know Gods existence of Gods morality through their own efforts, making revelation unnecessary.

Question 11

Aquinas’ defence against Karl Barth

Answer 11

Arguments for Gods existence are only intended to show the reasonableness of belief in God
There is evidence for some kind of God, we need faith to know if the Christian God in particular exists.

Question 12

What do all humans have an innate sense of according to Calvin?

Answer 12

All humans have an innate sense of the divine (sense of divinity).

Question 13

Anthropological study (against sensus divinitas)

Answer 13

Studied the religion of tribal people remote from civilisation, they believe in magical spirits of animals and ancestors.

Question 14

How does modern society prove people don’t have a natural sense of God?

Answer 14

In calvin’s time it would have been unimaginable to be atheist, however in some places like northern Europe atheism is now the majority held view. Many atheists say they have no sense of God.

Question 15

plantingas defence of sensus divinitas

Answer 15

Sin has noetic quality and changes someones ability to have knowledge and insight, blocking a sense of God.

Question 16

St Paul Romans 1:20

Answer 16

‘His eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen, being understood from what he has made’
Paul seems to suggest that Gods qualities can be understood from what he has made.

Question 17

How did Augustine influence Calvin?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Calvin’s revealed theology

Answer 18

We only truly know God when we know how to glorify God through worship and following God’s moral commands. Natural theology cannot achieve that knowledge.

Question 19

What does Calvin and Barths argument rely on?

Answer 19

Calvin and Barth rely on the classic protestant argument that we should not rely on reason to understand anything about God or God’s morality because original sin has corrupted our reason.

Question 20

Who argues against The falls corruption on knowledge of God?

Answer 20

Liberal Christians would argue that the scientific evidence suggests that we cannot take the genesis story of creation, including the fall, as literal events. In that case, Augustine cannot be correct in claiming that humanity was cursed by original sin.

Question 21

How does Pelagius argue against original sin?

Answer 21

Pelagius argues that could simply be because of the way we are raised and it only appears to be our nature because of how thoroughly corrupted we are by our upbringing, which Pelagius refers to as being “educated in evil”.

Question 22

Brunners argument against original sin

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Burners argument for the falls corruption.

Answer 23

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.