1. Knowledge of God’s existence

2. DEVELOPMENT IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
1. INSIGHT
Augustine’s teaching on human nature
Death and Afterlife
2. FOUNDATIONS
Knowledge of God’s existence
The person of Jesus Christ
3. LIVING
Christian moral principles
Christian moral action

3. Foundations: Knowledge of God’s existence
Natural and revealed theology
Natural knowledge of God’s existence:
Innate human sense
Order of creation
Revealed knowledge of God’s existence
Faith and God’s grace
Jesus Christ
The Natural-Revealed debate
Barth-Bruner Debate
Alvin Platinga
Natural Theology

4. How do you know God exists?
If you are an atheist, what would you need to be convinced of God’s existence?

5. What is the difference between these types of knowing?
I know that =4 I know that Paris is the capital of France I know of Peter Smith I know Peter Smith
a) Logical knowledge based on definitions
b) Factual knowledge based on a well established report or first-hand experience
c) Personal knowledge

6. What does it mean to say “I know God?”
Is it: Logical knowledge? Factual knowledge? Personal knowledge?

7. Southwark Cathedral Trip- Questions!
1. Is there a danger of the world over-reacting to the Paris attacks in the same way they over-reacted to 9/11?
2. How can we resolve what is happening with Paris and Syria? How can we reduce the tension or put a stop to Isis?
3. Should the UK take in more Syrian refugees to take some of the financial pressure off Greece?
4. Do positive discrimination measures create more problems than they solve?
5. What do you believe the verdict of the 2020 election will be for Jeremy Corbyn?
6. What is your opinion on the prospect of the legalisation of all stem cell research?
7. How have social media changed the way in which we view real human interaction?
8. Do you think euthanasia should be legalised in the UK?
9. Should the BBC continue to be funded by the licence fee?
10. Is free swim and gym use a good way to spent public money?

8. Natural Theology vs. Revealed Theology
The idea that God can be known through reason and observation of the natural world.

9. Natural Theology vs. Revealed Theology
Considers that God can only be known when lets himself be known. Revelation might occur through a prophet, scripture, prayer and so on.

10. Knowing God?
A lot of philosophers maintain that it is logical to believe in God- natural theology
However, for many religious believers they talking about knowing God in a much closer way, and would point to scripture or key figures to help them know God
Fundamentally, knowing God is problematic as a topic because God is uniquely different from any other object:
Natural theology has to acknowledge that God must be beyond reason
Revealed theology can seem irrational because knowing God is based on God revealing himself

11. Natural and Revealed Theology
The idea that God can be known through reason and observation of the natural world.
God can only be known when lets himself be known. Revelation might occur through a prophet, scripture, prayer and so on.

12. True Knowledge
At the heart of the debate between Natural and Revealed Theology is the philosophical argument about what counts as true knowledge. What counts as true knowledge?

13. By this we mean things that are unshakably the case Wisdom Knowing God
Scientific
Incorrigible facts
By this we mean things that are unshakably the case
Wisdom
The source for wisdom is oneself because to know ‘oneself’ meant understanding one’s place in society.
For a very long time, this was the aim of philosophy
Greek: philos- love of, sophos-wisdom.
Knowing God
If God is the source of life, then knowledge of God leads to profound understanding of one’s life and purpose.
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, para. 27

14. What is natural theology?
Key Question:
Can God be known through reason alone?
Natural Theology works as follows:
Believes that God is creator of the universe
Humans are conscious elements of that universe
They have a natural predisposition to know God as their creator
The natural world is a point of contact between humans and God.
Point of contact: God’s revelation in the world which provides humans with the first step to knowing him as a redeemer.

15. Natural Theology The arguments we will look at: An innate sense of God
Innate knowledge
unknown God
Universal consent argument
Humans are religious beings
Human sense of beauty and moral goodness
natural law
conscience
Human intellectual ability to reflect on and recognize God’s existence
The order of creation
Order and design
Purpose
Process

16. Natural Knowledge of God’s Existence
Natural Theology is supported by all branches of the Christian Church and is the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, but the validity of this is debated in Protestantism, and influenced by Calvin. Both Catholics and Protestants believe that a sense of God is innate.

17. natural
i) Innate Sense of God
Both Catholics and Protestants believe that human beings are born with an innate sense of God:
that is knowledge of God is inbuilt or imprinted onto human consciousness.
Calvin: “without knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self.”
He calls the innate sense of the divine, the sensus divinitatis, or semen religionis, meaning ‘seed of religion’, referring to the natural human inclination to do religious duties.
“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.” - Cathechism of the Catholic Church para 27. “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined with many bonds, which one precedes and brings the other is not easy to discern. In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplations of God, in whom he ‘lives and moves.’” [acts 17:28] -John Calvin: Institutes I.I.1

18. i) Innate knowledge Key Question:
Natural: innate sense of God: innate knowledge
i) Innate knowledge
Key Question:
Do all humans have an inbuilt sense of God?
How can this innate sense of God be justified? What arguments could support this view?
The unknown God
Universal Consent Argument
Humans are religious beings

19. Natural: innate sense of God: innate knowledge: the unknown God
a) The unknown God
Paul spoke, in Acts 17:16-34, to the Athenians, trying to convince them that they are actually worshipping the true God. He argued that the worship of many gods in Ancient Greek Philosophy was their search for the one true God. This is often viewed as biblical support for an innate sense of God.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?”
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.

20. b) Universal Consent Argument
Natural: innate sense of God: innate knowledge: universal consent arguement
b) Universal Consent Argument
Cicero- Roman philosopher Too many people believe in God (or gods) for God not to exist. Even if this does not prove his existence, it does suggest that it is reasonable to believe in his existence. 84% of the world’s population believe in God in some way or another.

21. c) Humans are religious beings
Natural: innate sense of God: innate knowledge: humans are religious beings
c) Humans are religious beings
The Cathechism also concludes that so widespread are the practices of prayer, sacrifice, ritual, meditation that, ‘despite the ambiguities,’ they are ‘so universal that one may well call man a religious being.’ (Catechism para 28) What other arguments are there to support Natural Theology?

22. ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
Natural: innate sense of God: human sense of beauty and moral goodness
ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
“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.” -(St Paul) Romans 1:19-20 In both Catholic and Protestant Christianity, the human sense of beauty and moral goodness are foundations of knowledge of God.

23. ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
Natural: innate sense of God: human sense of beauty and moral goodness
ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
The human sense of beauty, caused by a variety of things, highlights the human’s openness to truth, beauty and goodness.

24. ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
Natural: innate sense of God: human sense of beauty and moral goodness: natural law, conscience
ii) Human Sense of Beauty and Moral Goodness
A) Natural Law
Catholic Church
Indication of human innate knowledge of God
Rests on supposition that all humans have an innate sense of goodness, fairness, and justice
B) Conscience
Calvin- therefore Protestant
Particularly important in our knowledge of God and moral goodness
Our God-given faculty as creatures made in God’s image
Therefore our moral choices are responsive to God’s will of right and wrong
Literally means ‘joint knowledge”

25. iii) Human Intellectual Ability to reflect on and recognize God’s Existence
Aquinas’ Five Ways He concluded that the finite world could not exist unless there was an uncaused causer who set up all the initial conditions of the world, sustains all material causes and makes it purposeful, so it’s not chaos. The uncaused cause is God. Although it doesn't prove the existence of God, it is generally considered a convincing argument.

26. Natural Theology Key Question:
What sort of knowledge of God are these three?
The arguments we will look at:
An innate sense of God
Innate knowledge
unknown God
Universal consent argument
Humans are religious beings
Human sense of beauty and moral goodness
natural law
conscience
Human intellectual ability to reflect on and recognize God’s existence
The order of creation
Order and design
Purpose
Process

27. Natural: order of creation
b) Order of Creation
Calvin makes a distinction between God as creator and God as redeemer.
As God the Creator, the most powerful indications of his existence and presence in the world are shown through the order and design of nature.
“The Heavens are telling the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”- Psalm 19:1
i) Order and Design
ii) Purpose
Iii) Process
Duplex Cognito Domini:
Latin phrase
Meaning the two fold knowledge of God.

28. Natural: order of creation: order and design
i) Order and Design
This is not so much an argument from design, more of an expression about what can be known about God through creation.
This argument includes Calvin’s principle of accommodation: God shows himself in creation in ways humans can best understand.
What we know of God in nature is a ‘sort of mirror’: a visible reflection of his invisible nature.
“yet, in the first place, where ever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness. The reason why the author of the Letter to the Hebrews elegantly calls the universe the appearance of things invisible is that this skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible.” John Calvin, Institutes I.V.1
Argument from Design:
The idea that the world shows clear signs of organization and purpose, and therefore must have a designer.

29. Natural: order of creation: purpose
ii) Purpose
William Paley: come to be known as a powerful and rational argument for God’s existence.
When we observe the world, we must see signs of order and design, which therefore means it must have a maker.
Arguments against this:
Nature is more brutal than beautiful- therefore God is also cruel.
Since Darwin, it is less accepted that the world is purposeful. It has no purpose but develops, merely to survive. Nature without purpose makes God redundant.

30. iii) Process Process theology:
Natural: order of creation: process
iii) Process
Process theology:
A response to the criticisms of the design argument.
Argue that God and the world act in tandem:
God is not independent from the natural process but works with them to maximise their greatest potentials.
There is no grand ‘end point’ for every moment is an end in itself.
“both experience and history point to a God who acts not by coercing but by evoking the response of his creatures.”-
Ian Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion (1996), p.463

31. Natural: order of creation: process
iii) Process
Process theology therefore doesn’t see a huge distinction between Natural and Revealed theology:
God is not totally unknowable because every moment in creation is a revelation of god’s participation in nature.
“both experience and history point to a God who acts not by coercing but by evoking the response of his creatures.”-
Ian Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion (1996), p.463

32. Natural Theology Key Question:
What sort of knowledge of God are these three?
The arguments we will look at:
An innate sense of God
Innate knowledge
unknown God
Universal consent argument
Humans are religious beings
Human sense of beauty and moral goodness
natural law
conscience
Human intellectual ability to reflect on and recognize God’s existence
The order of creation
Order and design
Purpose
Process

33. Natural Theology:
How can we know God through reason?
Innate sense of God
Order in Creation
Order and design
Process
Purpose
Human sense of beauty and moral goodness
Unknown God- Paul
Innate knowledge
Human intellect to reflect on God’s existence
Universal Consent Argument
Natural Law- Catholic
Humans are religion beings
Conscience- Protestant

34. Is natural theology enough to know God?
Tasks:
Discuss McGrath’s reading:
What are some of the key points of Natural Theology?
Who are some of the key figures discussed?
Are there any questions?
Read Jefferson Bethke’s spoken word:
Highlight anything that speaks of natural theology
Highlight anything that speaks of revealed theology
Is natural theology enough to know God?

35. ‘Without the rewards of heaven, people wouldn’t behave.’ Discuss.
Introduction: tradition Christian view of heaven and hell, Dante’s work (AO1)
Agree: Traditional teaching of heaven/hell- link to KoG punishment and judgement view (A01)
Sheep and the goats (AO1 leading to A02)
The richman and lazarus (AO1 leading to AO2)
Purgatory view: foretaste of heaven and hell- an incentive for those that behave, and a scare factor for those that don’t (A01 leading to A02)
Calvin- God’s already chosen but because we don’t know who he has chosen, so we need to behave well (A01 leading AO2)