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Natural and Revealed Knowledge - Coggle Diagram
Natural and Revealed Knowledge
Can God be known through reason alone?
Key words
Innate - something that is simply in us that we do not develop or aquire in some way
Conscience - the inner sense of right and wrong in a person
Natural Theology - the idea that God can be known through reason and observation of the natural world
Natural knowledge relies on us noticing a 'point of contact' between us and God and using our reason to understand it and to find out ideas from God from it
Natural theologians would argue this process is enough to develop a deep knowledge of God and to form a relationship with him
'the desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself' (para 27 - Catechism of the Catholic Church)
Calvin, protestant, talks of the sensus divinitatus and the semen religionis. His belief that there is a sense within that gives humans a knowledge of God
Sensus divinitatus - 'sense of divinity'
Semen religionis - 'seed of religion'
Humans have an innate sense of aesthetics
Some christians link this to the innate sense of God because when we appreciate beauty, we can use our reason to recognise God in it
He thought that the fall made humans unable to always access their innate sense - it has created a gap - the 'epistemic distance' (as Hick called it) - between God and humans
Is faith sufficient reason for belief in God's existence?
Key words
Revealed theology - the idea that God gives knowledge of himself directly to people
Revelation - God's deliberate showing of aspecets of himself to the world
Many protestants emphasise the need for revealed knowledge because humans are fallen creatures and need God's intervention to gain full knowlege of him
Catholics, however, believe revealed knowlege is required simply because of the huge differences between God and humanity
Continue branch after exam
Has the fall completely removed all natural knowlege of God?
The fall made Calvin question whether it was possible for humans to use their sensus divinitatis
Maybe we should rely only on what God gives to us through revelation
Barth rejected natural theology (perhaps because he lived through nazism), brunner was still influenced by the thinking of aquinas and that reason can be used to know God
Karl Barth (1886 - 1968) and Emil Brunner (1889 - 1966) were both Swiss theologians and ministers in the Calvinist tradition
They debated due to aspects of Calvin's thinking that were unclear
How can God's grace be recognised if there are no points of contact between humans and God?
Are the sensus divinitatis and semen religionis points of contact we need reason to understand or are they revelation?
What impact has the fall had on humanity's ability to know God?
Is natural theology to be seen as equal or inferior to revealed knowledge?
The debate between the two was very much a debate about what calvin's theology meant and their essays were published together in 1946
Brunner's essay came first
His starting point was the points of contact between god and humans - beauty of nature, conscience, and the sensus divinitatis. These give a basic understanding of God and human nature (fallen)
Yet this is only basic. If a person wishes for full knowledge (and therefore relationship) with God they need to accept and have faith in Jesus (revelation)
Therefore, natural theology exists as a foundation
Brunner did accept the impact of the fall but not to the drastic degree of Barth.
He said at one level we are still fallen but at a spiritual level we still remain the pinnacle of God's creation and are able to have a relationship with him
Barth's response was absolute
His essay was entitled Nein!
He thought human nature was completely corrupted by the fall and that there is no authoritative source of knowledge of God other than revelation
Thus, all of natural theology is rejected and there are no points of contact
Fall had corrupted humans on all levels, including spiritual. Start of relationship with God must always come from his grace
If someone sees the beauty of nature and then knows something about God it is because they already had something revealed to them
Is natural knowledge the same as revealed?