11:36 PM

A Preview of Coming Attractions

Greetings. Thought I'd explain where the up and coming lines of thought are coming FROM. :) Over the next few weeks I'll be posting alot of stuff about a paper I'm writing for my Philosophy of Religion class on the natural knowledge man can (or cannot) have of God, comparing the perspectives of Karl Barth and John Calvin. Being a die-hard Calvinist who even likes to jam to the famed "Calvinism" song by Where Are My Pants?, I am clearly going to be going to town on this one. :)

Here's where I'm starting from, given my knowledge of Calvin, Scripture, and the readings in Calvin and Barth that we've done for class... (funny how in a Philosophy of Religion class where the primary emphasis is Christianity we have yet to actually read Scripture...)

Barth believes that we can know nothing of God apart from special revelation (i.e. the Word of God, which he breaks down further into the Incarnational Christ, the Holy Scripture and
creeds, and preaching). Incidentally, he also believes that Scripture is not inerrant.

Calvin, on the other hand, believes that the world is, as he calls it, "the theater of His glory." He believes that men know that God is there because they can see Him in creation.

Romans 1 backs Calvin. (Shocker.)

So what I have to do is delve deeply into the minds of these two brilliant men and talk about what they think, comparing each to the other. What I get to do is sneak the Gospel in the back door. (I've been ramming it through the front door all semester in class; now's the time to prove I can pull off subtlety.)

Thoughts?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think if anyone can pull it off, it's you. ;)

I wonder how Barth reaches that conclusion, since it's clearly unbiblical- from "the heavens declare the glory of God...day after day they pour forth speech..." in Psalm 19 to men being "without excuse," as you already mentioned, in Romans 1:20.

Anonymous said...

I definitely just looked at the title of this post again and realized it had to be an allusion to Dr. Lewis. Very clever (and appropriate).

Lauren said...

i try :)