Topic 3 - Knowledge of God Flashcards

1
Q

what is the innate sense of god ?

A

both calvin and ‘catechism of the catholic church’ believe in innate sense of god

calvin called this “the sensus divinitatis”

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2
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 1

natural theology point of contact/reason (aquinas/paley)

A
  • Reasoning about nature – For Aquinas there exists a “fundamental likeness (similitude) to God” within the created order, as a consequence of God being the cause. Aquinas developed his cosmological argument in his Five Ways, using Aristotelian notions of causation: if God made the world, God’s “signature” (so to speak) may be found within its created order “we are able to infer God’s wisdom from reflection upon God’s works” (Summa contra Gentiles)
  • Catholic believes humans have an “openness to truth and beauty”; sense of moral goodness within humans is evidence of the divine creator.
  • The same idea is posed by William Paley’s design argument: clear signs of organisation or purpose lead one to infer there is a designer/ creator.
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3
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 1

natural theology point of contact/reason (aquinas/paley)

A
  • Reasoning about nature – For Aquinas there exists a “fundamental likeness (similitude) to God” within the created order, as a consequence of God being the cause. Aquinas developed his cosmological argument in his Five Ways, using Aristotelian notions of causation: if God made the world, God’s “signature” (so to speak) may be found within its created order “we are able to infer God’s wisdom from reflection upon God’s works” (Summa contra Gentiles)
  • Catholic believes humans have an “openness to truth and beauty”; sense of moral goodness within humans is evidence of the divine creator.
  • The same idea is posed by William Paley’s design argument: clear signs of organisation or purpose lead one to infer there is a designer/ creator.
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4
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 1 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

the fall (calvin/st paul)

A
  • Calvin argues the epistemic distance between God and humanity has been magnified by the Fall – natural knowledge of God is imperfect and confused and thus requires clarification through scripture/ Christ
  • St Paul speaks to the Athenians about the “unknown God” – arguably highlights human beings wounded ability to know God…
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5
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 1 - COUNTER RESPONSE

innate sense of the divine (calvin semen religionis)

A

• Innate sense of the divine - 16th century Protestant Reformer Calvin’s semen religionis (seed of religion, predisposes humans towards religious activity), sensus divinitas (innate divine awareness of God, a priori belief) 3 consequences of inbuilt awareness of divinity: universality of religion, a troubled conscience, servile fear of God. Calvin argues that anyone, by intelligent or rational reflection upon the order of creation, is able to arrive at the idea of God. (Institutes)

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6
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 1 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

wrong interpretations

A
  • Nonetheless the fallen nature prevents further knowledge of God through nature
  • People come to radically different conclusions about God from use of reason; evidently reason cannot lead to truth if truth varies
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7
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 2

reason reduces god’s divinity (luther)

A

• Martin Luther – “reason is a whore” in the sense that it reduces God to the finite level of the human mind, allowing anyone to access him. His ideas were emphasised during the Reformation in the 16th century when human reason justified the break from the authority of the Pope in Rome… One should develop faith from scripture, and totally surrender to the promise of God.

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8
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 2 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

need experience, bible is limited (martin buber)

A
  • Although the Catholic Church argues for the importance of scripture in coming learn about Christ, the Catechism warns “Christian religion is not a religion of the book” – also need personal encounter
  • Martin Buber “I-Thou” – religion is a personal experience of God, which cannot be attained through reading but through experience.
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9
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 2 - COUNTER RESPONSE

specific truths can’t be found through reason, bible only, principle of accommodation (Calvin)

A
  • Principle of accommodation; Calvin argues the infinite being reveals himself to finite beings through nature, does not reveal his essence but is a “sort of mirror” – there is no spot in the universe where you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory” (Institutes of the Christian Religion) yet not specific truths, just aware of his existence
  • For Calvin, knowledge of God is mediated through Christ, who may in turn be known through scripture, however the created order provides important points of contact for coming to knowledge of God’s existence. “Mirror and mediator of the divine”; God’s essence adapted to human finite understanding, allows us to understand God in human form.
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10
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 2 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

biblical criticism (codex sinaiticus, tischendorf)

A

• If Protestants rely only on faith based on scripture, but scripture is proven to be inaccurate, then one loses access to God. 35,000 corrections found in the Codex Sinaiticus (350AD) – evidently not the unchangeable Word of God, but instead human communication of experience of God (Tischendorf)

codex siniaticus = greek bible

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11
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 3

assent to faith/ god’s grace. Reason about revelation (locke)

A

• Locke – faith is a matter of being guided by reason, faith is rational belief. Life starts as a Tabula Rasa (blank slate) and we must use our reason (as a gift from God) and experiences to come to belief in God.

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12
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 3 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

reason opposes faith (planting +dawkins)

A
  • Alvin Plantinga – key proponent of Reformed epistemology, which holds belief in God may be “properly basic” and not need to be inferred from others truths rationally warranted. Fideism – “the exclusive reliance upon faith alone, accompanied by a consequent disparagement of reason” ERROR OF FIDEISM, ATHEOLOGICAL OBJECTOR
  • Dawkins, in ‘The God Delusion’ argues that, “faith is… the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, or perhaps because of, lack of evidence” “dies the death of a thousand qualifications”
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13
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - NATURAL VS REVEALED THEOLOGY

POINT 3 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

god’s grace requires leap of faith (aquinas)

A

• Aquinas – faith is stronger than rational knowledge and it is volitional (a choice to believe and therefore has personal meaning). Also, faith is supported by God’s grace and therefore connects us to God, whereas reason cannot. HOWEVER, we need reason to make the assent to faith; rational belief props up faith. Reason is proof e.g. cosmological argument, faith is truth; faith may be less certain than reason, but it is certainly more powerful.

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14
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 1

faith alone, basic belief (plantinga)

A

• Alvin Plantinga – key proponent of Reformed epistemology, which holds belief in God may be “properly basic” and not need to be inferred from others truths rationally warranted. Fideism – “the exclusive reliance upon faith alone, accompanied by a consequent disparagement of reason” ERROR OF FIDEISM, ATHEOLOGICAL OBJECTOR

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15
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 1 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

atheological objector (dawkins) then counter with created order in nature (aquinas)

A
  • Can faith be justified without reason? Leads to the atheological objector, or, the “Great Pumpkin Objection” – “If belief in God can be properly basic, why cannot just any belief be properly basic?”
  • Dawkins, in ‘The God Delusion’ argues that, “faith is… the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, or perhaps because of, lack of evidence” “dies the death of a thousand qualifications”
  • Reasoning about nature – For Aquinas there exists a “fundamental likeness (similitude) to God” within the created order, as a consequence of God being the cause. Aquinas developed his cosmological argument in his Five Ways, using Aristotelian notions of causation: if God made the world, God’s “signature” (so to speak) may be found within its created order “we are able to infer God’s wisdom from reflection upon God’s works” (Summa contra Gentiles)
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16
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 1 - COUNTER RESPONSE

the fall (Calvin + ST PAUL)

A
  • Calvin argues the epistemic distance between God and humanity has been magnified by the Fall – natural knowledge of God is imperfect and confused and thus requires clarification through scripture/ Christ
  • St Paul speaks to the Athenians about the “unknown God” – arguably highlights human beings wounded ability to know God…
17
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 1 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

innate sense of the divine (Calvin)

A

• Innate sense of the divine - 16th century Protestant Reformer Calvin’s semen religionis (seed of religion, predisposes humans towards religious activity), sensus divinitas (innate divine awareness of God, a priori belief) 3 consequences of inbuilt awareness of divinity: universality of religion, a troubled conscience, servile fear of God. Calvin argues that anyone, by intelligent or rational reflection upon the order of creation, is able to arrive at the idea of God. (Institutes)

18
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 2

revealed theology, reason reduces god’s divinity (luther)

A

• Martin Luther – “reason is a whore” in the sense that it reduces God to the finite level of the human mind, allowing anyone to access him. His ideas were emphasised during the Reformation in the 16th century when human reason justified the break from the authority of the Pope in Rome… One should develop faith from scripture, and totally surrender to the promise of God.

19
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 2 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

need experience, bible is limited (buber)

A
  • Although the Catholic Church argues for the importance of scripture in coming learn about Christ, the Catechism warns “Christian religion is not a religion of the book” – also need personal encounter
  • Martin Buber “I-Thou” – religion is a personal experience of God, which cannot be attained through reading but through experience.
20
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 2 - COUNTER RESPONSE

specific truths cannot be found through reason, bible only (calvin)

A
  • Principle of accommodation; Calvin argues the infinite being reveals himself to finite beings through nature, does not reveal his essence but is a “sort of mirror” – there is no spot in the universe where you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory” (Institutes of the Christian Religion) yet not specific truths, just aware of his existence
  • For Calvin, knowledge of God is mediated through Christ, who may in turn be known through scripture, however the created order provides important points of contact for coming to knowledge of God’s existence. “Mirror and mediator of the divine”; God’s essence adapted to human finite understanding, allows us to understand God in human form.
21
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 2 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

biblical criticism (codex sinaiticus +tischendorf)

A

• If Protestants rely only on faith based on scripture, but scripture is proven to be inaccurate, then one loses access to God. 35,000 corrections found in the Codex Sinaiticus (350AD) – evidently not the unchangeable Word of God, but instead human communication of experience of God (Tischendorf)

22
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 3

assent to faith/god’s grace. reason about revelation (locke)

A

• Locke – faith is a matter of being guided by reason, faith is rational belief. Life starts as a Tabula Rasa (blank slate) and we must use our reason (as a gift from God) and experiences to come to belief in God.

23
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 3 - COUNTER ARGUMENT

reason opposes faith (plantinga + dawkins)

A
  • Alvin Plantinga – key proponent of Reformed epistemology, which holds belief in God may be “properly basic” and not need to be inferred from others truths rationally warranted. Fideism – “the exclusive reliance upon faith alone, accompanied by a consequent disparagement of reason” ERROR OF FIDEISM, ATHEOLOGICAL OBJECTOR
  • Dawkins, in ‘The God Delusion’ argues that, “faith is… the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, or perhaps because of, lack of evidence” “dies the death of a thousand qualifications”
24
Q

ESSAY PLAN - KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - FAITH VS REASON

POINT 3 - CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE

god’s grace, leap of faith (aquinas)

A

• Aquinas – faith is stronger than rational knowledge and it is volitional (a choice to believe and therefore has personal meaning). Also, faith is supported by God’s grace and therefore connects us to God, whereas reason cannot. HOWEVER, we need reason to make the assent to faith; rational belief props up faith. Reason is proof e.g. cosmological argument, faith is truth; faith may be less certain than reason, but it is certainly more powerful.

25
Q

what is natural theology?

A

considers that god can be known through reason and observation in the natural world

26
Q

what is revealed theology?

A

considers that god can only be known when he lets himself be known. Revelation might occur through a prophet, scripture, prayer and so on.

27
Q

what is true knowledge?

A

facts that cannot be altered or disputed (science)

28
Q

what is the human sense of beauty and moral goodness?

A

ST PAUL - “for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”

CONSCIENCE - Calvin considered our conscience important when considering moral goodness. He argued the conscience is a God-given faculty as creatures made in the image of God

29
Q

what is the order of creation?

A

In the ‘Institutes’, Calvin makes a distinction between knowledge of God as Creator and God as Redeemer, it is known as ‘the two fold knowledge of God’. As God the creator, the most powerful indications of his existence and presence in the world are in the ordering and design of nature.

30
Q

what does order and design mean?

A

CALVIN - “there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory”

this is calvin saying what can be known about God from the beauty and awesome nature of creation. The argument includes Calvin’s principle of accommodation. This is the principle which states that because human minds are finite and God is infinite then humans will never be able to know God through their own powers of reason. Using the principle Calvin explains how God reveals himself through nature as a sort of mirror.

31
Q

what disproves natural theology?

A

darwin theory of evolution

32
Q

what is process theology?

A

response to theory of evolution. process theologians argue that God and the world act in tandem; God is not independent from the natural processess but works with them to maximise their greatest potentials at any moment of time.

33
Q

what do they mean by faith?

A

belief in god does not just require reason but faith.

UNFORMED FAITH - faith which may find intellectual reasons why, for example, a person may believe that the afterlife is possible but cannot accept it is true.

FORMED FAITH - faith which wills to accept or ‘assent’ what it can believe through the intellect.

34
Q

what does calvin mean by faith?

A

FIRM AND CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE - calvin defines faith along similar lines to Aquinas as the ‘firm and certain knowledge of God’s omnibenevolence towards us’. But Calvin criticises Aquinas because he has not made Christ the direct object of faith, says this is only revealed through Christ

WILLINGNESS TO BELIEVE - faith ‘is given to anyone who is willing to accept it’. It is, according to calvin, a cognitive process when a person is willing to believe in the certain knowledge of redemption and salvation in Christ. It is not just a cerebral moment but an emotional and spiritual experience of assurance

35
Q

what is brunner’s proposal regarding calvin?

A

follows calvin’s notion that God’s general revelation in nature (As experienced through conscience and senses divinitatis) as a point of contact enables humans to become aware of God’s commands and sinful state.

IMAGO DEI - image of god in humans after the fall has been destroyed but only at the material physical and emotional level. At the formal level the image of god is uncorrupted

GENERAL REVELATION - God communicates through nature, humans are sinful and can’t see this

CONSCIENCE - experiencing guilt makes humans aware of god

36
Q

how does barth response to brumner?

A

barth’s view is that human nature is completely corrupted by the fall and that there are no points of contact in nature of any kind which would allow humans to know, only God can choose to reveal himself to a sinful man.

THE FORMAL SELF CANNOT INFORM THE MATERIAL SELF OF GOD’S EXISTENCE - barth argues that humans may be uniquely different from animals, but the Fall has so utterly blotted out the material self’s ability to know anything about God that it is impossible for the spiritual self to inform the material self of God in any way.