Calvin on Knowledge of God

Created by: Emma
Created on: 06-04-14 20:34

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Knowledge of God
- Natural theology
  - Knowledge of God based on observed facts and experience apart from divine revelation
- Revealed theology
  - Judaism knows God through Torah, Christians through Bible and Jesus, Islam through Qur'an and Mohammed
    - Each religion claims God has let Himself be known in a special way
  - Problem for both: God is uniquely different from any other object
    - Natural theology
      - Knowledge of God based on observed facts and experience apart from divine revelation
    - Attractiveness of natural theology is that it offers rational and reasonable justification for God's existence but it has to acknowledge that God as an infinite lies beyond reason
    - Revealed theology argues what can be known of God is only that which he reveals of himself, harder to offer any rational justification - suggests it is irrational and arbitrary
      - Each religion claims God has let Himself be known in a special way
- True Knowledge
  - Hard facts about the world - associated with scientific knowledge?
    - Describes physical properties of matter but is not knowledge in terms of understanding one's life and skills associated with it
  - Understanding one's life and skills associated with it to make it as worthwhile as possible?
    - Ancient world = wisdom and true knowledge to 'know oneself' meant understanding one's place in society and the world
      - Love of wisdom
  - True knowledge is knowledge of God?
    - Does knowledge of God include or exclude philosophy and science?
      - Does it rely entirely on what God reveals to us?
        CALVIN
        Knowledge of God
        Revealed theology
        Judaism knows God through Torah, Christians through Bible and Jesus, Islam through Qur'an and Mohammed
        
        Problem for both: God is uniquely different from any other object
        Attractiveness of natural theology is that it offers rational and reasonable justification for God's existence but it has to acknowledge that God as an infinite lies beyond reason
        
        Revealed theology argues what can be known of God is only that which he reveals of himself, harder to offer any rational justification - suggests it is irrational and arbitrary
        
        True Knowledge
        Hard facts about the world - associated with scientific knowledge?
        Describes physical properties of matter but is not knowledge in terms of understanding one's life and skills associated with it
        
        Understanding one's life and skills associated with it to make it as worthwhile as possible?
        Ancient world = wisdom and true knowledge to 'know oneself' meant understanding one's place in society and the world
        Love of wisdom
        
        True knowledge is knowledge of God?
        Does knowledge of God include or exclude philosophy and science?
        Does it rely entirely on what God reveals to us?
        CALVIN
        Sensus Divinatis
        'Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God' The Institutes
        All humans have a Sensus Divinatis - there is a natural inbuilt sense of God
        Support for this claim:
        Universal Consent Argument
        Suggested by Cicero - as so many people believe in God then God must exist
        Everyone has a sense of the divine and many come to realise that the object of this sense is God
        Research done into religious experience by scholars shows it is found in every culture
        
        Doesn't provide hard evidence that there is a God, just that people believe in one. Like Santa or Earth is flat
        
        Innate
        Developed from St Paul - all humans have a natural or innate disposition to believe in God
        Letter to Romans: St Paul says that knowledge of God is 'plain to them, because God has shown it to them'
        
        Refers to Acts in Bible which supports natural theology as St Paul argues we all know of God unconsciously as God sustains all natural processes enabling us to live and thrive
        
        Calvin doesn't fully endorse St Paul or Cicero
        Universal belief or experience doesn't demonstrate existence
        
        Innate knowledge of God is not proved because humans believe in God, for Calvin even if nobody believed He would still exist
        
        These types of knowledge don't necessarily lead to true knowledge because true knowledge begins and ends with an encounter with God
        Paul Helm: religious experience of others helps confirm knowledge of God but doesn't provide it
        
        Calvin calls this relationship correlational
        Paul Helm: religious experience of others helps confirm knowledge of God but doesn't provide it
        
        It is not clear whether knowledge of God leads to knowledge of self or vice versa
        Knowledge Calvin has in mind is not scientific or purely rational, but a form of wisdom
        True wisdom means leading a fulfilled life
        
        Conscience
        God-given, created ex nihilo for creatures made in God's image. Part of moral decision making responding to God's will of right and wrong.
        Conscience is correlation
        Literally means 'joint knowledge between ourselves and God as witness whose presence gives moral judgement
        
        Conscience is accommodation
        God has acommodated conscience at various stages by giving moral guidance
        Jesus' teaching and teaching of Apostles developed law for a different stage in human history
        God's eternal will for man
        God has acommodated conscience at various stages by giving moral guidance
        Jesus' teaching and teaching of Apostles developed law for a different stage in human history
        God's eternal will for man
        
        No human power can override conscience
        Luther said all people have duty to obey ruler, Calvin says a ruler or state may represent God's authority but are subject to conscience first
        
        Creation as mirror of God
        We can know God through the creation
        The beauty and awesome nature of the ceation leads us to consider it the work of God
        Unlike Aquinas who was proving existence of God, Calvin is demonstrating what creation tells us about the nature of God
        Includes principle of accommodation - what God reveals through creation is appropriate to finite minds but his essence remains unknown to us
        What we know of God is a mirror of his invisible nature
        The creation is the appearance of God's nature but not his essence
        We can then form some idea of God's being from his 'sparks of glory' imprinted on nature
        
        Scripture
        Sharp distinction between natural and revealed theology
        Calvin's theory of correlation states that because the natural world reveals God's glory, Scripture equally reveals God's glory as experienced at various times by various prophets and writers of Bible according to situations and capabilities
        Scripture offers deeper and 'clearer' knowledge of God than nature
        Problem: humans have finite minds, scripture can't give us comprehensive knowledge of God
        St Paul: we only see God at first in a 'mirror dimly'
        Scripture appears 'obscur' (Calvin), problem lies not with scripture as objective revelation but our own subjective imperfection
        
        Knowing God as Redeemer
        Calvin
        Knowledge of God the creator through sensus divinatis, conscience, creation and scripture could bring humans into relationship with God
        Argument for 'simple knowledge' overlooks a key factor that preoccupied Augustine: corruption of humanity post-Fall
        Calvin says if Adam had remained upright, all would know God and have perfect happiness
        Second aspect of duplex cognitio Domini
        God the Redeemer as mediated by Christ. This knowledge of God brings humans into full and complete relationship with Him
        To know God in this way is to be regenerated (Calvin) True knowledge is salvation in Christ
        
        One thing to feel how God supports and governs us and another to embrace reconciliation offered by Christ
        Second aspect of duplex cognitio Domini
        God the Redeemer as mediated by Christ. This knowledge of God brings humans into full and complete relationship with Him
        To know God in this way is to be regenerated (Calvin) True knowledge is salvation in Christ
        
        Christ the Mediator
        Scripture as special revelation offers knowledge of God the creator but only the final and complete revelation in Christ in NT resolves obscurities of OT
        Bible should be read through Trinitarian view
        Central Christian teaching that God is one but reveals himself as three
        
        Through God as father the prophets and writers bear witness to his revelation
        
        Through Christ as mediator clarity is given to God's promises
        Still cannot tell us what God is in essence
        Principle of Accommodation means Christ is the image or likeness of God and appears to us in way a finite mind can understand
        God becomes human because God accommodates himself to our actual physical condition
        Hence Christ is said to be mirror and mediator of the divine - reflects love, compassion etc of God which would otherwise be hidden from us and as mediator transmits God's essence in an appropriate way for us
        
        Double Grace in Christ
        To know Christ means we are in position to understand God's judgement of sinners as his promise of blessing and hope of redemption
        Duplex gratia Christi - two-fold nature of grace in Christ
        Grace of repentance produced through death and resurrection
        
        Grace of justification in which humans are brought back into right relationship with God
        
        Through the Holy Spirit Christians are inspired, sustained and led in process of interpretation
        
        Sensus Divinatis
        'Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God' The Institutes
        All humans have a Sensus Divinatis - there is a natural inbuilt sense of God
        Support for this claim:
        Universal Consent Argument
        Suggested by Cicero - as so many people believe in God then God must exist
        Everyone has a sense of the divine and many come to realise that the object of this sense is God
        Research done into religious experience by scholars shows it is found in every culture
        
        Doesn't provide hard evidence that there is a God, just that people believe in one. Like Santa or Earth is flat
        
        Innate
        Developed from St Paul - all humans have a natural or innate disposition to believe in God
        Letter to Romans: St Paul says that knowledge of God is 'plain to them, because God has shown it to them'
        
        Refers to Acts in Bible which supports natural theology as St Paul argues we all know of God unconsciously as God sustains all natural processes enabling us to live and thrive
        
        Calvin doesn't fully endorse St Paul or Cicero
        Universal belief or experience doesn't demonstrate existence
        
        Innate knowledge of God is not proved because humans believe in God, for Calvin even if nobody believed He would still exist
        
        These types of knowledge don't necessarily lead to true knowledge because true knowledge begins and ends with an encounter with God
        Calvin calls this relationship correlational
        
        It is not clear whether knowledge of God leads to knowledge of self or vice versa
        Knowledge Calvin has in mind is not scientific or purely rational, but a form of wisdom
        True wisdom means leading a fulfilled life
        
        Conscience
        God-given, created ex nihilo for creatures made in God's image. Part of moral decision making responding to God's will of right and wrong.
        Conscience is correlation
        Literally means 'joint knowledge between ourselves and God as witness whose presence gives moral judgement
        
        Conscience is accommodation
        
        No human power can override conscience
        Luther said all people have duty to obey ruler, Calvin says a ruler or state may represent God's authority but are subject to conscience first
        
        Creation as mirror of God
        We can know God through the creation
        The beauty and awesome nature of the ceation leads us to consider it the work of God
        Unlike Aquinas who was proving existence of God, Calvin is demonstrating what creation tells us about the nature of God
        Includes principle of accommodation - what God reveals through creation is appropriate to finite minds but his essence remains unknown to us
        What we know of God is a mirror of his invisible nature
        The creation is the appearance of God's nature but not his essence
        We can then form some idea of God's being from his 'sparks of glory' imprinted on nature
        
        Scripture
        Sharp distinction between natural and revealed theology
        Calvin's theory of correlation states that because the natural world reveals God's glory, Scripture equally reveals God's glory as experienced at various times by various prophets and writers of Bible according to situations and capabilities
        Scripture offers deeper and 'clearer' knowledge of God than nature
        Problem: humans have finite minds, scripture can't give us comprehensive knowledge of God
        St Paul: we only see God at first in a 'mirror dimly'
        Scripture appears 'obscur' (Calvin), problem lies not with scripture as objective revelation but our own subjective imperfection
- Knowing God as Redeemer
  - Calvin
    - Knowledge of God the creator through sensus divinatis, conscience, creation and scripture could bring humans into relationship with God
      - Argument for 'simple knowledge' overlooks a key factor that preoccupied Augustine: corruption of humanity post-Fall
        Calvin says if Adam had remained upright, all would know God and have perfect happiness
        One thing to feel how God supports and governs us and another to embrace reconciliation offered by Christ
    - Christ the Mediator
      - Scripture as special revelation offers knowledge of God the creator but only the final and complete revelation in Christ in NT resolves obscurities of OT
        Bible should be read through Trinitarian view
        Central Christian teaching that God is one but reveals himself as three
        
        Through God as father the prophets and writers bear witness to his revelation
        
        Through Christ as mediator clarity is given to God's promises
        Still cannot tell us what God is in essence
        Principle of Accommodation means Christ is the image or likeness of God and appears to us in way a finite mind can understand
        God becomes human because God accommodates himself to our actual physical condition
        Hence Christ is said to be mirror and mediator of the divine - reflects love, compassion etc of God which would otherwise be hidden from us and as mediator transmits God's essence in an appropriate way for us
        
        Double Grace in Christ
        To know Christ means we are in position to understand God's judgement of sinners as his promise of blessing and hope of redemption
        Duplex gratia Christi - two-fold nature of grace in Christ
        Grace of repentance produced through death and resurrection
        
        Grace of justification in which humans are brought back into right relationship with God
        
        Through the Holy Spirit Christians are inspired, sustained and led in process of interpretation

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Calvin on Knowledge of God

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