'Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along in the groun.' So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.'

due ot this biblical verse, Catholics often used the Latin term to describe the relationship between God and humans

this includes human openness to beauty and goodness as aspects of God

'That there exists in the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, some sense Deity [sensus divinitatis], we hold to be behind dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead ... this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget' (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion)

this means humans have an intellectual ability to reflect on and recognise God's existence

this shoes our human openers to beauty and goodness as aspects of God

argues every human being is born with a knowledge that God exists and the we are accountable to him

learned the concept of innate knowledge of God from St Paul especially from the first 2 chapters of Romans

if Paley came across a mechanical watch on the ground, he would assume that its complex parts fitted together for a purpose

the watch had not come into existence by chance, there must be a watchmaker

for eg look at the design of the cells of a leaf, the fin of a fish, photosynthesis

only God can be the designer of the world as He is seen to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent

looks at the chain of cause and effect in the world (in particular he looked as seen in the order of creation)

concluded that natural theology was important in demonstrating reasonability in Christian belief

because the universe exists, something must have cause it ti exist ->. Aquinas argued that God created existence

offers the view that natural world demonstrates truths about God

in the book of Psalms, the writer looks up at night sky and sees clear evidence of the existence of god and God's relationship with humanity

'When I consider your heave, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angles and crowned them with glory and honour

' You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and t he animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!' (Psalm 8:3-9)

Grace is God's gift of knowledge of himself through the Holy Spirit

so natural knowledge is insufficient to gain full knowledge of God

wrote about faith and the ways in which it complements and differs from other kinds of knowledge

in 'Summa Theologica', he explores how empirical and logical knowledge 'sciential' is certain

he sees this as certain because we can see. the evidence right in front of us, either through our sense or by using reason

'an act o the intellect assenting to the truth at the command of the will'

faith is about this things where certainty is not readily available

science is about those things we can test and confirm for ourselves

this is because the evidence is not clear in supporting one view or another

but opinion is open to change as people might be persuaded to change their opinions

faith has a certain solid commitment that does not have elements of doubt

immediate revelation is when someone is given direct knowledge about God

mediate revelation is learning about God but less directly - could be via someone else who has experienced God

full and perfect knowledge of God is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and through life of the Church and Bible

It is Christian belief that Jesus was the incarnation of God, ending God in human form

for this reason, Jesus' words are believed to be very words of God - his actions and sacrifice on the cross are believed to be the actions and sacrifice of God, revealing God's omnibenevolent nature

Jesus calming the storm reveals God's omnipotence over the laws of nature

Jesus healing of people from leprosy, blindness, and paralysis reveals God's grace in restoring people

Jesus feeding of the 5,000 shows God is the giver of everything people need for their lives

Jesus raising Lazarus reveals God as the giver of life after death

he did accept the impact of the Fall on humanity but not to the drastic degree of Barth. he said that 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. the Fall has not ruined us completley

thought human nature had been completely corrupted by the Fall and that there was no authoritative source of knowledge of God apart from God's revelation. thus all of natural theology is rejected and there are no points of contact between God and humans. the only way for us to know anything about God is through God's loving loving, free choice to reveal something to us

felt that Falln had corrupted us on all levels, inc spiritual level. it is not possible for humans on their own to have a spiritual relationship with God - the start must always come from God's grace/ if a person sees the beauty of nature and then knows something about God, it is because they have already had something revealed to them

his response was absolute. essay was entitled 'Nein!' - German for No!

we have seen that the Fall made Calvin question whether it was possible for humans to use their sensus divinitatis to gain knowledge of gpd. If our human nature is in some way corrupted by the fall then perhaps we could not use our basic abilities to come to know God and thus rely only ob what God gives us through revelation

Barth and Brunner were both Swiss theologians and min sister sin. the Calvinist tradition. while Barth rejected natural theology (perhaps because ehe lived through the Nazi era and was worried Nazism was showing human reason could achieve), Brunner was still influenced by the thinking of Aquinas and the idea that reason came be used to identify aspects of God

are the census divinities and semen religions points of contact that we need reason to understand or are they actually ways of God revealing himself?

what impact ads the Fall actually had on humanity's ability to know God?

is natural theology to be seen as equal or inferior to revealed theology?

how can God's grace be recognised if there are no points of contact between humans and God?

points of contact between God and and humans - the beauty of nature, the consicence and the senses divintatis. they give a basic understanding of god and nature of humanity (their fallen nature).

yet this is only basic understanding, if a person wants to fully know God, then they need to accept and have faith in Jesus Christ ad the redemption he brought only comes through revelation thus natural theology exists to gives the ability to begin the conversation about what we may know about God but not give full knowledge