Foundations

19 Knowledge of God’s existence

Essential terminology

Essential terminology

Divine inspiration

Fideism

Inerrant

Infallible

Innate

Magisterium

Non-propositional revelation

Numinous experience

Process theology

Propositional revelation

Revelation

Revelation

Sola gratia

Teleological

Verbal inspiration

Key scholars

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Cicero (106 BCE – 43 BCE)

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

John Calvin (1509–1564)

John Locke (1602–1734)

A.N. Whitehead (1861–1947)

Rudolph Otto (1869–1937)

Karl Barth (1886–1968)

Emil Brunner (1889–1966)

Alvin Plantigna (1923–)

Richard Dawkins (1941–)

What you will learn about in this chapter

The OCR checklist       

Learners should have the opportunity to discuss issues related to Christian ideas on knowledge of God, including:

Suggested scholarly views, academic approaches and sources of wisdom and authority

The earlier chapters on Plato and Aristotle presented ideas which suggest that God is a distant, separate, transcendent being. They both suggest that God is neither part of the universe nor clearly understandable or observable from within our physical universe. This is quite different from the religious understanding of God in faiths, such as Christianity.

‘Knowing’ is a word used in many different ways. It could mean that we ‘know’ that something is true because it has proven facts in support of it. It could mean that we ‘know’ something is true because we believe there is good evidence to support it. On the other hand it can mean that we ‘know’ somebody, such as a friend, or even just that we ‘know’ about someone.

Discussion

Give examples of these four ways of knowing. Discuss which of these might apply to God.

Faith

Philosophy

God

1 This is the view of many believers.

2 It derives from tradition and from holy books, such as the Bible.

1 The understanding of God developed in philosophical argument

2 Emphasises the logical and rational explanation of belief in God

God’s existence

1 It is known through faith, revelation and religious experience.

2 The existence of God is beyond doubt.

1 This is demonstrated through rational argument (natural theology).

2 The cosmological, teleological arguments

Creator

1 Genesis (creation narratives), Psalms, Job and Isaiah

2 God is immanent.

1 God is the final cause (Aristotle), or the Prime Mover (Aquinas).

2 God’s relationship to the world is non-interventionalist.

Goodness of God

1 This is revealed through God’s actions, such as miracles, God’s gifts to the world, such as the Ten Commandments, and people’s experiences of God.

2 God’s actions are described as those of a person acting morally.

1 God is the ultimate source of Good.

2 God is perfect and immutable.

3 God is incapable of lacking goodness.

4 There are links between Plato’s Form of the Good and Christian ideas about God’s goodness.

Language applied to God

1 God is described using anthropomorphic and anthropopathic language.

2 God is love, a warrior, the lord, a king.

3 God is immanent and personal.

1 God is impersonal and transcendent.

2 The language used to describe God is not anthropomorphic or anthropopathic.

Natural knowledge of God’s existence

Natural theology

Natural theology refers to the process of learning about God from the natural world by using reason. Aquinas emphasised the role of propositional revelation and natural theology. In Aquinas’ thought, revelations can be accepted as genuine if they accord with Church teaching because the existence of God, who makes the revelations, may be demonstrated using arguments for God’s existence.

Revealed theology

This is theology based on the idea that all religious truth is derived exclusively from the revelations of God to humans.

Revelation

Refers to any act in which God is revealed to human beings. The characteristic of revelation is that it reveals knowledge of God/God’s nature.

A difficulty here is that God is completely different from any other thing which we might try to explain, define or understand. God is not an object and, therefore, by definition lies beyond reason.

Natural theology attempts to provide a justification but nevertheless has to acknowledge that God is beyond reason.

Revealed theology talks about knowledge derived from revelations for God to humans and is therefore even more difficult to justify.

Greek philosophers spoke about ‘true knowledge’, which was said to be incontrovertible fact. However, true knowledge could also be described as ‘wisdom’, which came from people ‘knowing’ themselves. The word ‘philosophy’ itself comes from the Greek words philos (φιλία; love) and sophos (σοφός; wisdom).

However, true knowledge might indeed be knowledge that comes from God.

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. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §27)

If humans are indeed made ‘in imago Dei’ (in the image of God) (Genesis 1:27) then it might be natural to assume that they have an inclination to know and understand God to some degree. God is the creator of the cosmos and everything in it so therefore it is through creation that humans can come to know God.

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stripped of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God.

(Calvin, Institutes of Religion 1:1)

So the same view was held by the sixteenth-century Protestant reformer as by the Catholic Church today.

Calvin wrote that this knowledge of the divine was innate and so was a ‘sense of the divine’ (sensus divintatis).

However, it is very difficult to support this argument. Various theories have been put forward. Cicero (first century BCE) developed a theory called the universal consent argument. This says that so many people believe in gods that they or it must exist and even if this does not prove their existence, at least it suggests that it is probable.

There is in fact no subject upon which so much difference of opinion exists, not only among the unlearned but also among educated men; and the views entertained are so various and so discrepant, that, while it is no doubt a possible alternative that none of them is true, it is certainly impossible that more than one should be so.

(De Natura Deorum [On the Nature of the Gods] I, 5)

John Locke (1632–1704) dismisses this idea of universal consent being innate. He says the following:

Paul and the unknown god

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) … Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

(Acts 16:17–18, 22–25)

Paul then tries to explain to the Athenians that they are worshipping God at this particular altar. Therefore they have an innate sense of belief.

Finally, the Catholic Church acknowledges a sort of universal consent because prayer, meditation and rituals are so widespread in the world, although they are different:

In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being: From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’ … ‘Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.’ Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, ‘an upright heart’, as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §28, 30)

The passage echoes exactly the continuation of Paul’s teaching in Acts 17.

Numinous experience

Rudolph Otto (1869–1937) pointed out that a central element of direct experiences of God was an ‘apprehension of the wholly other’, which Otto called the ‘numinous’. By ‘numinous’ Otto meant the world that is beyond the physical observable universe in which we live. Hence, Otto refers to direct experiences of God as experiences of the ‘wholly other’ (Otto, The Idea of the Holy).

Beauty and goodness as aspects of God

The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the ‘seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material’, can have its origin only in God.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §33)

Human beings can appreciate the beauty of the world around them and the cosmos as a whole. Rudolf Otto described this is a ‘numinous experience’ – seeing, hearing or feeling something ‘wholly other’.

As can be seen through the teachings of the Catechism, the Catholic Church believes that this awareness can come only directly from God.

A very similar view is found in Calvin’s writings:

It must be acknowledged, therefore, that in each of the works of God, and more especially in the whole of them taken together, the divine perfections are delineated as in a picture, and the whole human race thereby invited and allured to acquire the knowledge of God, and, in consequence of this knowledge, true and complete felicity. Moreover, while his perfections are thus most vividly displayed, the only means of ascertaining their practical operation and tendency is to descend into ourselves, and consider how it is that the Lord there manifests his wisdom, power, and energy, – how he there displays his justice, goodness, and mercy. For although David (Psalm 92:6) justly complains of the extreme infatuation of the ungodly in not pondering the deep counsels of God, as exhibited in the government of the human race, what he elsewhere says (Psalm 40) is most true, that the wonders of the divine wisdom in this respect are more in number than the hairs of our head.

(Calvin, Institutes 5.10)

Teachings about moral goodness are similarly found in Catholic and Calvinist teachings.

The Catholic Church sees natural moral law (see Chapter 10) as demonstrating that the human sense of goodness is innate. Similarly, Calvin regarded conscience as being God-given.

Therefore, lest this prove a stumbling-block to any, let us observe that in man government is twofold: the one spiritual, by which the conscience is trained to piety and divine worship; the other civil, by which the individual is instructed in those duties which, as men and citizens, we are bold to perform (see Book 4, chap. 10, sec. 3–6). To these two forms are commonly given the not inappropriate names of spiritual and temporal jurisdiction, intimating that the former species has reference to the life of the soul, while the latter relates to matters of the present life, not only to food and clothing, but to the enacting of laws which require a man to live among his fellows purely honourably, and modestly. The former has its seat within the soul, the latter only regulates the external conduct. We may call the one the spiritual, the other the civil kingdom … Simple knowledge may exist in man, as it were shut up; therefore this sense, which sits man before the bar of God, is set over him as a kind of sentinel to observe and spy out all his secrets, that nothing may remain buried in darkness. Hence the ancient proverb, Conscience is a thousand witnesses. For the same reason Peter also employs the expression, ‘the answer of a good conscience’ (1 Pet. 3:21), for tranquillity of mind; when persuaded of the grace of Christ, we boldly present ourselves before God. And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, that we have ‘no more conscience of sins’ (Heb. 10:2), that we are held as freed or acquitted, so that sin no longer accuses us.

(Calvin, Institutes 3.19.15)

The order of creation

Arguments for the existence of God have developed particularly in the last millennium. Some centre on the belief that the cosmos could have been brought into existence only by an ‘uncaused causer’ and this causer must inevitably be God.

Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of ‘converging and convincing arguments’, which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These ‘ways’ of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.

The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world’s order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.

As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky … question all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful.’ Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §31–32)

Calvin and God as creator

Calvin taught that God demonstrated his existence to human beings by ‘accommodating’ to their limited minds. The finite cannot understand the infinite and the problem of reason was shown at the beginning of this chapter. Humans cannot experience God directly but can see his ‘appearance’ in the world around them.

John Calvin

Classic Image/Alamy

Since the perfection of blessedness consists in the knowledge of God, he has been pleased, in order that none might be excluded from the means of obtaining felicity, not only to deposit in our minds that seed of religion of which we have already spoken, but so to manifest his perfections in the whole structure of the universe, and daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him. His essence, indeed, is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, so distinct, and so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse. Hence, with perfect truth, the Psalmist exclaims, ‘He covereth himself with light as with a garment’ (Psalm 104:2); as if he had said, that God for the first time was arrayed in visible attire when, in the creation of the world, he displayed those glorious banners, on which, to whatever side we turn, we behold his perfections visibly portrayed. In the same place, the Psalmist aptly compares the expanded heavens to his royal tent, and says, ‘He layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind,’ sending forth the winds and lightnings as his swift messengers. And because the glory of his power and wisdom is more refulgent in the firmament, it is frequently designated as his palace. And, first, wherever you turn your eyes, there is no portion of the world, however minute, that does not exhibit at least some sparks of beauty; while it is impossible to contemplate the vast and beautiful fabric as it extends around, without being overwhelmed by the immense weight of glory. Hence, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews elegantly describes the visible worlds as images of the invisible (Heb. 11:3), the elegant structure of the world serving us as a kind of mirror, in which we may behold God, though otherwise invisible. For the same reason, the Psalmist attributes language to celestial objects, a language which all nations understand (Psalm 19:1), the manifestation of the Godhead being too clear to escape the notice of any people, however obtuse. The apostle Paul, stating this still more clearly, says, ‘That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead’ (Rom. 1:20).

(Calvin, Institutes 1.5.1)

Teleological arguments

The teleological arguments for the existence of God look at the universe and everything in it and attempt to show that it has all been designed for a purpose. Teleological arguments examine if there is a designer of things that appear to have been designed, and whether the designer is God. It looks at the features of the universe and asks whether they can account for their own existence.

Usually teleological arguments infer the existence of God from a particular aspect or character of the world – namely the presence of order, regularity and purpose. Order, regularity and purpose are seen as marks of design, and the arguments conclude that God must be the source of that design. The kind of thing that is usually appealed to as evidence of order in the universe is the solar system, with the planets revolving in their predictable orbits, or the human eye.

Paley’s argument from design (see Chapter 4) starts with the analogy of a watch and says that if someone found a watch by chance they would inevitably infer that someone had designed and made it. This could not have happened by chance and therefore it is logical to say the same thing about the world.

The twentieth century saw the development of process theology.

Process theology was developed by A.N. Whitehead (1861–1947), Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) and J.B. Cobb (1925–).

Whitehead and Hartshorne argued that God affects and is affected by temporal processes. This is therefore different from the view that God is non-temporal (eternal), unchanging (immutable) and unaffected by the world (impassible).

Whitehead’s original principles were as follows:

(Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1978)

This theory argues that God and the world work together and that God therefore reveals himself through every moment in the cosmos.

Revealed knowledge of God’s existence

In Christianity there are two types of revelations:

Propositional revelation

The phrase ‘propositional revelation’ refers to God revealing truths about himself to human beings. It is called ‘propositional’ to show that the revelations are statements of facts. Since these revelations demonstrate facts from God or about God, Christians argue that they are true.

Christians believe that the Ten Commandments revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai were a revelation from God. For most Christians the Ten Commandments are not up for discussion or question; they are simply facts laid down by God. The distinctive feature of propositional revelation is that it reveals knowledge from God, which is without error or need of reinterpretation.

There are many possible types of propositional revelations, such as through holy books like the Bible, visions or other religious experiences of God. In relation to propositional revelation, faith is to accept the revelation from God.

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae) argued that ‘faith’ is about knowledge of God who is transcendent. Therefore, although this is more certain than opinion, it is not certain in the way scientific knowledge is. Aquinas said that even if faith cannot be demonstrated in the same way as science, it is still better than opinions. He believed that faith is based on something which is factual, and opinion is not. Nevertheless, faith cannot be proved true by reason. Propositional revelations cannot be demonstrated using human reason.

People who believe in propositional revelation do not reject the use of reason. They accept that God’s revelations cannot be proved by human reason, but that God can be revealed through using reason in the world. An example of this is the attempts to prove that God exists using the cosmological and teleological arguments.

Aquinas is a good example of a person who emphasised the role of propositional revelation and natural theology. Aquinas said that revelations could be accepted as genuine if they were in accordance with Church teaching because this teaching was also revealed from Jesus and the apostles.

The Magisterium

Within the Roman Catholic Church the teaching authority of the Church is called ‘the Magisterium’.

The genuineness of a revelation could be assessed by referring to previous teaching of the Magisterium.

Criticisms of propositional revelation

Non-propositional revelation

Non-propositional revelation is the idea that God does not reveal facts or truths to people. Rather, the believer recognises where God is acting in human history and human experience. A religious believer may see God in a beautiful natural scene which reveals God to the person observing it. William Paley was famously impressed by the structure of the human eye, while Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes was impressed by the beauty of nature.

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

(Doyle, Sign of Four)

He [Sherlock Holmes] walked past the couch to the open window, and held up the drooping stalk of a moss rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.

‘There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion’, said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. ‘It can be built upon an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of providence seems to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell, its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras so I say again we have much hope from the flowers.’

(Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)

Sherlock Holmes

Baker Street Scans/Alamy

For many people their thoughts are raised to the possibility of God through the beauty that is found in the world around them. For them, nature reveals God to them. However, this revelation is indirect and can be a matter of interpretation. Therefore, this type of revelation is called non-propositional as it is a human being’s recognition of God’s acts in and through the world.

In this view of revelation, religious books, such as the Bible, witness to and record how God’s revelation has been understood in history by believers. God acted in history, and the views of people who witness these acts are what are recorded in the Bible. It could be said that people learn about God through the miracles (signs) that Jesus worked and people who witnessed these acts interpreted what they saw. These non-propositional revelations are indirect experiences of God, which can lead a person to understand something about God. In this sense faith can be seen as how a person experiences God through events in daily life – faith is a way of seeing the world. A Christian may look at a beautiful landscape and come to understand something about God as the Creator, while an atheist may look at the same landscape and gain no understanding of God.

If the Bible is regarded as a non-propositional revelation, then the role of the reader and his or her interpretation is of crucial importance, as the revelation takes place in the reader’s life. The authority given to non-propositional revelation comes from the fact that people are free to respond to God’s revelation or not, as it is not received passively.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

(Romans 1:18–21)

Criticisms of non-propositional revelation

Non-propositional revelation

This refers to the idea that God does not reveal facts or truths to people; instead the religious believer recognises God acting in human history and human experience. For example a religious believer may come to see God in a beautiful natural scene; the scene reveals God to the person observing it.

The spotlight passes but, exhilaratingly, before doing so it gives us time to comprehend something of this place in which we fleetingly find ourselves and the reason that we do so. We are alone among the animals in being able to say before we die: Yes, that is why it was worth coming to life in the first place.

(Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow)

Faith and God’s grace

Humans are sinful and have finite minds. Therefore natural knowledge is not sufficient to gain full knowledge of God; knowledge of God is possible through faith and grace, which is God’s gift of knowledge of himself through the Holy Spirit.

It is possible to argue that knowledge of God which is discovered by the creation of the cosmos and the work of the conscience should be sufficient to enable human beings to enter into a relationship with God. However, this does not take into account the consequences of the Fall.

By the knowledge of God, I understand that by which we not only conceive that there is some God, but also apprehend what it is for our interest, and conducive to his glory, what, in short, it is befitting to know concerning him. For, properly speaking, we cannot say that God is known where there is no religion or piety. I am not now referring to that species of knowledge by which men, in themselves lost and under curse, apprehend God as a Redeemer in Christ the Mediator. I speak only of that simple and primitive knowledge, to which the mere course of nature would have conducted us, had Adam stood upright. For although no man will now, in the present ruin of the human race, perceive God to be either a father, or the author of salvation, or propitious in any respect, until Christ interpose to make our peace; still it is one thing to perceive that God our Maker supports us by his power, rules us by his providence, fosters us by his goodness, and visits us with all kinds of blessings, and another thing to embrace the grace of reconciliation offered to us in Christ. Since, then, the Lord first appears, as well in the creation of the world as in the general doctrine of Scripture, simply as a Creator, and afterwards as a Redeemer in Christ, – a twofold knowledge of him hence arises.

(Calvin, Institutes 1.2.1)

Calvin is saying that without Jesus Christ as Redeemer and the salvation he offered it would not be possible for humans to achieve the knowledge of God which restores the relationship with him.

The consequences of original sin are seen in ignorance, desire and bad behaviour.

But this ‘intimate and vital bond of man to God’ can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §29)

By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation. Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §50)

However strong someone’s faith is it still needs some form of reason behind it. ‘Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence’ (Richard Dawkins, Lecture from ‘The Nullifidian’). Aquinas maintained a distinction between two types of faith:

Special revelation is the belief that knowledge of God and of spiritual matters can be discovered through means such as miracles or the scriptures. It is a way of knowing God’s truth through means other than human reason.

General revelation (natural revelation) is knowledge about God and spiritual matters which are discovered through natural means, such as looking at the physical universe, philosophy and reasoning. Christians use the term to describe knowledge of God which is plainly available to all humans.

Calvin’s teaching about faith is found in the Institutes:

We have also seen, that since the knowledge of the divine goodness cannot be of much importance unless it leads us to confide in it, we must exclude a knowledge mingled with doubt, – a knowledge which, so far from being firm, is continually wavering. But the human mind, when blinded and darkened, is very far from being able to rise to a proper knowledge of the divine will; nor can the heart, fluctuating with perpetual doubt, rest secure in such knowledge. Hence, in order that the word of God may gain full credit, the mind must be enlightened, and the heart confirmed, from some other quarter. We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.

(Calvin, Institutes 3.2.7)

Both the Catholic Church and Calvin state that it is the Holy Spirit which bestows grace on people. Grace is required to mend the relationship with God. This can happen only if it is his will.

The New Testament is said to provide a complete and final revelation of Christ. However, does the knowledge from the Bible explain the essence of God? The answer is made clear by Paul:

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

(2 Corinthians 4:1–4)

The Catholic Church continues by saying,

‘The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §66)

Revelation through the Bible

What is the Bible?

Introduction – holy scripture

People speak of ‘holy scripture’ revealing God or containing revelations from God, but what does this mean?

In religious tradition, some books, such as the Bible, are given the title ‘holy’. ‘Holy’ originally meant ‘separate’ or ‘set apart’ and therefore came to be associated with God. Calling books such as the Bible holy is suggesting a special status linked to God. For religious believers, books such as the Bible are set apart by the fact that they are revelation – they reveal God to the world.

The revelation of God through scripture

What sort of revelation of God is found in the Bible? For some people the Bible is a propositional revelation from God that reveals his divine word; for other people the Bible is a non-propositional revelation in which God is revealed through the writings in the Bible that record the individual authors’ experiences of God.

The Bible is the divinely inspired word of God

A propositional revelation view

People who believe that the Bible is a propositional revelation of God would say that it is the Word of God. The role of the writers of the books of the Bible is limited or non-existent as it is God’s revelation. The Bible is divinely inspired and this is what caused the author to write each book.

Some fundamentalist Christians use the term ‘verbal inspiration’ to indicate the divine origins or authorship of every word in the Bible. In this view God effectively dictated the books of the Bible. Therefore, someone who believed in divine dictation would believe that the Bible is inerrant (without error).

While people may disagree about divine versus verbal inspiration, all Christians who believe that the Bible is, or contains, propositional revelations from God would point out that the Bible reveals propositions about God and God’s wishes for human beings that are true. For example the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, and these reveal basic commands for human beings about how they should live.

Verbal inspiration

Refers to the divine origins or authorship of every word in the Bible. According to this view God effectively dictates the books of the Bible by divine inspiration.

Biblical fundamentalism

The term ‘fundamentalism’ comes from nineteenth-century theologians and biblical scholars who were opposed to liberal approaches to biblical interpretation, which cast doubt on things such as the miracles in the Bible and the Genesis creation stories.

Biblical fundamentalists today believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that it is without errors. The Bible is the authoritative Christian book that reveals God’s will to people. Many of them accept stories such as the Genesis creation accounts as historically true documents.

Limitations of this approach

Thought point

If the Bible and its contents are revealed by God, do you have to obey them?

Read the following passages in the Bible and then answer the questions that follow:

A fundamentalist maintains that the role of the author role is just that of a passive recorder of God’s revelation. Other Christians believe that the Bible reveals true propositions about God but that they have been recorded by human beings in their manner. Therefore a reader has to interpret and understand it in order to know the revelation it contains from God. These approaches are different but both would still claim that the Bible is without errors.

An example of the propositional revelation approach to the Bible

The Catholic Church is one tradition which believes that the Bible is a propositional revelation from God and is therefore the Word of God: God is the author of sacred scripture. ‘The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of sacred scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church §105). The Church also stresses the role of the human authors. God communicates to Christians through the Bible in a human way. Therefore the reader has to try to understand the intentions of the authors.

In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture. The literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §110)

The Catholic Church indicates that while the Bible is a propositional revelation of the Word of God, it still needs to be interpreted if its message is to speak to Christians today. It is important to remember that Roman Catholics do not interpret the Bible literally.

A non-propositional revelation view: the Bible is a record of human experiences of God

Many Christians believe that the Bible is divinely inspired but do not accept the idea that it is a propositional revelation from God. They would consider the Bible to be a record of human beings’ experiences of God. Therefore, the Bible is a non-propositional revelation of God since it reveals God to people indirectly.

This non-propositional view of the Bible sees the scriptures as presenting pictures and images of God’s revelation. However, Jesus’s significance can be understood only through faith, not through statements in the text. Therefore, people read the Bible and then work out what the revelation means to them today.

This non-propositional understanding of revelation in the Bible is often associated with what has been called liberal biblical interpretation. An important person in this movement was Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who said that religious faith is a matter of experience and feeling in the life of the believer. Schleiermacher concluded that the Bible reveals that Jesus’ mission was not about saving people but about raising their awareness of God.

Thought point

Is the non-propositional revelation of Jesus clear?

a Image of Jesus

CBW/Alamy

b

b Image of Jesus

FineArt/Alamy

c

c Image of Jesus

Dorling Kindersley Ltd/Alamy

The authority of scripture

The Church of England

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church

(The 39 Articles, Article 6)

Apostolic authority

The link between the books of the Bible and Jesus is very important to Christians. Jesus gave his authority to the apostles (Mark 16:12–20) and the apostles were witnesses of Jesus’ life and work. Peter was commissioned by Jesus as the leader of the apostles (Matthew 16) and given authority by Jesus on earth in his name. Bishops of the Church are successors to the apostles because the authority of the apostles has been handed on to the bishops.

The authority of the Bible

For an atheist or agnostic the Bible may be a historically important text. It may help to inform people about the society and beliefs of peoples living 2,000 to 3,500 years ago. However, does this mean that the Bible is an authoritative document? For Christians the Bible is a document that is authoritative. Calling the Bible ‘scripture’ implies this point.

Maurice Wiles (‘The Authority of Scripture in a Contemporary Theology’) says that authority may have more than one sense. In a ‘hard’ sense, authority suggests something having the status of a law. Authority in a ‘soft sense’ might be saying someone is an ‘authority’ on politics, for example. This is a statement about the way a person speaks on a subject; it does not necessarily imply that the speaker is always correct.

The Bible has traditionally been seen as an authority similar to the ‘law’ rather than to an authoritative and learned speaker on a subject. Also, if someone believes that the Bible is divinely inspired and reveals the Word of God, then clearly it is authoritative and should be followed.

Sometimes, however, ‘laws’ can need clarification and interpretation to meet new issues. Christians disagree about whether the Bible is a law in this sense. If the Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant, it should not need to be reinterpreted and, unlike human laws, the Bible would be seen as timeless.

So, saying the Bible is authoritative may imply that the Bible requires interpretation, and that what it reveals about God is not always straightforward and clear.

What if the Bible is divinely inspired?

Verbal inspiration

If the Bible is verbally inspired, every word comes from God, and therefore every word should be respected and followed. However, what this might mean is disputed:

Divine inspiration

If Christians believe that the Bible is divinely inspired but is expressed in the language and culture of the times in which the Bible books were written, then the problem for any reader of the Bible is to identify the knowledge revealed about God in the biblical books.

Natural versus revealed theology

Calvin’s theology raises questions about natural and revealed theology: are we looking at the transcendent creator or the immanent redeemer?

The Catholic Church would appear to accept God as known through natural theology.

‘Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.’ Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created ‘in the image of God’.

In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone:

Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the world by his providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church §36–37)

This question was the topic of a famous debate of 1934 between Emil Brunner and Karl Barth.

The heart of the debate is whether one can attain knowledge of God ‘naturally’ or whether, on the other hand, the grace of God is strictly required for that.

Barth is very clear in stating that there is no way to knowledge of God by way of human reason – in other words, there is absolutely no source of authority aside from the Word of God. For Brunner instead, natural theology is the result of the theoretical possibility for humanity to be addressed by God. The actual realisation of this depends on Grace. Therefore, Brunner maintains, the traditional doctrine of sola gratia is not endangered by this conception of natural theology.

Brunner followed Calvin’s idea that the general revelation of God in nature is a means for people to become aware of what God wants and also of their state as a consequence of the Fall.

Sola gratia

By grace alone.

Brunner

Brunner makes a distinction between two questions: the question of the revelation in creation, and the question of man’s natural knowledge of God. He says that a theology which remains true to the Bible cannot deny the reality of revelation in creation. He believes that this distinction between natural theology and revelation is essential: one should be rejected, but one is biblically affirmed.

He points to the sinfulness of humans as proof of a revelation in nature. Since people are sinners and cannot propose a genuine natural theology but nevertheless try, there must be a revelation in creation behind their attempts. He says that God cannot be known through nature but that trying to know shows people’s sin and points to a revelation in creation beyond their understanding.

Human beings, even those who know nothing of the historical revelation, are such that they cannot help forming an idea of God and making pictures of God in their minds. Brunner says that the history of religions is proof of this.

Brunner says that there is a revelation in creation and cited Romans 1:19–20a:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.

He points to the existence of some kind of original revelation in nature, which, because of sin, people cannot understand and will always distort.

Brunner argues that the Apostles had no interest in explaining theoretically how sinful human beings could understand natural theology, but wanted to answer the question, ‘How should we address the man to whom the message of Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed?’ He says that the Fall does not mean that humans are no longer responsible, but that they cease to understand their responsibility properly. He said, ‘It is sin which makes idols out of the revelation in Creation.’

He concludes that philosophy cannot form any true knowledge of God. The gods of philosophy are ultimately ‘intellectual idols’. This is a straightforward rejection of philosophical, natural theology.

He continues that true knowledge of God can be achieved only through the revelation of Christ.

Barth

Barth’s response to Brunner was ‘Nein!’ (No!). Barth believed that human nature was so damaged by the Fall that only God could take the initiative in revealing himself to humanity. He said that Brunner did not take into account the amount of corruption caused by the Fall and that humans are now so corrupted that they cannot know God’s existence unaided. He did not think that nature, the prodding of the conscience or a sense of guilt provided any way of being in contact with God. He continues that these are felt only after someone has received God’s grace.

He said that although people can see order in nature it is not a source of moral guidance or salvation for the fallen state. Again he says that the order of creation can be understood only after the receipt of grace.

Scholars remain divided over which of these two correctly interpreted Calvin’s teachings.

A modern response to the debate

Alvin Platingna (1932–) – working again from Calvin’s argument – argued that natural theology will never give sufficient reason to believe in God. On the other hand he believes that revealed theology is reasonable and can lead to understanding of God.

He argues that Christian revealed truths constitute ‘basic knowledge’.

Atheological

Opposed to theology.

Basic knowledge

A belief which is maintained to be the truth because it makes sense of experiences.

He continues to argue that if God did not exist then people would not claim to know God. Therefore, the knowledge of God can be regarded as basic knowledge. This basic knowledge is available only to Christians because Christ is needed to remove sin and allow the Holy Spirit access to the believer.

He says that there can be no indisputable proof of belief but there can be good reasons to hold to it.

In response to people who reject all theological claims he said,

Upon grasping this argument, perhaps I have a substantial reason for accepting a defeater of theistic belief, namely that X is improbable. But in order to defeat this potential defeater, I need not know or have very good reason to think that it is false that is improbable on Y; it would suffice to show that the atheologian’s argument (for the claim that X is improbable on Y is unsuccessful. To defeat this potential defeater, all I need to do is refute this argument; I am not obliged to go further and produce an argument for the denial of its conclusion.

(Plantinga, ‘Intellectual Sophistication and Basic Belief in God’)

(X= God exists and is omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good; Y= evil)

Objections to Plantinga

Plantinga’s ideas are called ‘reformed epistemology’. Criticism of his theories include the following:

Reformed epistemology is often regarded as fideism.

Fideism

Any doctrine according to which all (or some) knowledge depends upon faith or revelation, and reason or the intellect is to be disregarded.

Fideism was condemned in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, First Vatican Council (1869–1870), which lists among other errors atheism, pantheism, rationalism, fideism, biblicism and traditionalism. These were either utterly wrong – for example atheism – or wrong in emphasising merely one element of the whole truth – for example rationalism.

It is disputed whether natural theology can really be seen as Christian theology as it tends to reduce teachings such as the resurrection as no more than an attempt to conquer despair with hope.

Summary

Natural knowledge of God’s existence

Review questions

Look back over the chapter and check that you can answer the following questions:

  1. 1  What is the main argument of natural theology?
  2. 2  What is the main argument of revealed theology?
  3. 3  Which of these types of theologies do you think is stronger? Justify your answer.
  4. 4  Outline how people can have knowledge of God’s existence through Jesus Christ.

Terminology

Do you know your terminology?

Try to explain the following ideas without looking at your books and notes:

Examination questions practice

Exam mistakes to avoid: it is very important that you are able to explain clearly the different views of theologians and philosophers on the knowledge of God’s existence. In particular, you need to be able to use the terms and theories accurately and not confuse them. In particular you must be able to explain natural and revealed theology.

To help you improve your answers look at the levels of response.

Sample exam-style question

  1. ‘God cannot be known through the natural world.’ Discuss.

AO1 (15 marks)

This question requires you to consider exactly what teachings there are about God as Creator of the world. Consider whether humans have the ability have a natural capacity to experience God. Consider the arguments for God’s existence and whether they help understanding. Imago dei suggests humans have a special relationship with God as part of creation.

AO2 (15 marks)

In evaluation you need to weigh up the ‘evidence’ and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the statement. You might consider teleological arguments and the beauty of nature. On the other hand you could consider whether the human soul is so corrupted by the Fall that nothing can happen without God’s grace.

Further possible questions

Further reading

Manning, R.E.M. 2015. The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology, reprint. Oxford: OUP.

McGrath, A. 2011. Christian Theology (5th ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Schneider, S.M. 1999. The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture (2nd ed.). Wilmington: Michael Glazier.