Reversing the Quest

God Is the Epicenter Communicating to the Creature

A clue to resolving the tension of a right God-world relation is precisely where Natural Theology and a new Natural Theology diverge. The underlying basis for Natural Theology was grounded in man’s pursuit of the knowledge of God, and proof of the existence of God grounded in the methods and findings of natural science. This placed humankind at the epicenter of the pursuit of science as a method for humankind to discover God. It was an anthropocentric view permitting humankind independent access to the Divine in and through humankind’s own ability. Alternatively, a new Natural Theology would need to overcome this error by first acknowledging that there is no way for humans to cross the gap between the finite and the infinite by one’s own efforts through science, or any other means. This raises the question of finitum non capax infinitum, or, can the finite comprehend the infinite? It is only God who can bridge the gap. Through divine revelation, God can reveal the infinite to the finite, who are thereby made capable of receiving by God’s Spirit alone. It can never be the reverse. Unlike Natural Theology, which was anthropocentric, a new form of Natural Theology places God’s own revelation at the center, and is theocentric—overcoming the tension of finitum non capax infinitum with infinitum capax finitum. That is, claiming God’s supremacy and intentional condescension to humanity.

Science, then, in a new Natural Theology, rather than being at the epicenter, becomes the vehicle for human reception of God’s communication of divine things through his works. In this way, we may concur with Thomas Torrance in that, “natural science and theological science are not opponents but partners before God, in the service of God.” This reversal of the God-world relation, by rightly placing God at its epicenter, is paramount because it consequentially shifts the function of science from being man’s active conduit to the divine, to God’s way of disclosing to the creature. This becomes a fully theocentric construct in that God reaches to the creature in revelation of himself through what has been made, rather than the creature’s efforts through rational enquiry. It is God who communicates himself in and through the natural world. This notion is supported in Scripture by the claim made by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:20,

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Italics mine)

In this reversal, God is rightly placed at the epicenter of a God-world relation in which only God can reveal knowledge of his works and knowledge of his divine attributes. However, movement from an anthropocentric to a theocentric starting point is only important if we see the profound theological significance of such a vantage point. The operating premise here is that there is only one underlying reality, and only one way for the one true God to be found; ultimately, when God reaches to the creature. Molnar encapsulates Torrance’s position nicely here by affirming again exactly how Torrance stands apart from theologians such as Schleiermacher, Bultmann, and even Tillich in that, “All of Torrance’s thinking, including his approach to the Bible, as already mentioned, depended on this scientific understanding of theology which refused to allow creatures to set the agenda for the truth of theology precisely because God alone was the one who set that agenda by his own actions as Lord, Creator, Reconciler and Redeemer.” This designates an essential core that Torrance, in his understanding of God’s communication and self-disclosure, relies upon a recurring theme expressed throughout Scripture; only that it is God who sets the agenda, reaching to out his people in order to speak to them, to draw them, to heal them, to love them, and to save them. This is a fully “above to below” theology, beginning with God, and God’s Self-revelation to the creatures, who have the capacity to receive, all in order to give glory to God.

Affirming an “above to below” theology, a new Natural Theology abandons an anthropocentric “below to above” starting point which positions intellect and apprehension as the initiation of knowledge of God, as if it originated in man’s intellect, and was brought “up” to God to be revealed. As Keith Johnson says of Barth’s understanding of “above to below,”

When he read Blumhardt, Barth believed that he finally had found a thinker who ‘starts out from God’ rather than climbing upwards to Him by means of contemplation and deliberation’. This ‘above to below’ movement was new to Barth.

And again,

This work of God, Barth says, is something that ‘breaks forth’ and ‘prevails’ upon the earth from heaven--from above to below—but, even so, it manifests itself primarily within and through the human will.

In this way, knowledge of God is illuminated revelation, originating in God, through the use of human intellect, which God himself fashioned to be tuned to such understanding, as Rodney Holder states, “Because created rationality is contingent and not self-subsistent, it points beyond itself to God.”

Having God at the epicenter, communicating and reaching to his creatures is significant in that it opens an entirely new way of understanding the natural world and all of creation as a communication of God: everything that exists testifies to the Creator who creates by performative and effective speech—through an activity that is communicative of God’s glory . . . God’s work has to be understood as communicative action, even when it is not expressed as divine speech. In a new and expansive way of understanding just how God reaches to the creature, we see nature itself as God’s “communicative action.” This begs the question of what God is communicating through his “performative” works? Scripture gives us the answer in Romans 1:20, that is, God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. There is an underlying assumption in the two phrases found in Romans 1:20; “have been clearly seen” and “being understood.” Both phrases imply a communication of God’s self in and through the creation, in which the creature has been given a divinely ordained capacity to understand. “Have been clearly seen,” καθορᾶται (kathoratai) implies to discern clearly. This word, interestingly, is only used in Romans 1:20 where its meaning also holds the idea of one looking down, investigating from a higher vantage point. This seems to be indicating a deep, discerning insight into the knowledge of God. Likewise, “being understood,” vοούμενα (nooumena), holds the connotation to conceive, apprehend in order to make a final conclusion. John G. Cook, in his article, “The Logic and Language of Romans 1:20,” shows that Paul’s use of the word vοούμενα in this passage was a deliberate use of a word typically employed by philosophers in the Hellenistic culture of that time. He states, “vοούμενα was a word almost exclusively used by philosophers, and could appear in context where mind processes perception.” The Latin word

numen is derived from this word carrying the connotation of spiritual, mysterious, or awe-inspiring understanding. This implies that the creature, being made in the Imago Dei, has the capacity for this spiritual discernment and understanding about God, an apprehension of God, from what has been made, ποιήμασιν (poiēmasin). So, perhaps we can say it this way: Since the beginning of creation, from the ποιήμασιν (poiēmasin), or that which has been made in the creation (referring in the Greek to God’s workmanship), God has given humankind the capacity to (1) καθορᾶται (kathoratai) clearly discern, and (2) vοούμενα (nooumena) spiritually apprehended in order to make a final conclusion about God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature.

The foundational premise of Natural Theology was correct in one respect that God can be known from the creation, but the epicenter of that knowledge was reversed. Only God can make the infinite known to the finite. The finite, in its own capability, cannot know the infinite. We shall see in a later chapter that the original Greek in Romans 1:19 also verifies that knowledge of the divine which is clearly discerned (kathoratai) and being understood (nooumena) is revelation of God, and not humankind’s quest to find and discern. This reading of Romans 1:20 also implies that God, who is at the epicenter of all creation communicating the divine qualities, power and nature, has an intent for this communication, “so that people are without excuse.” Such a communication does not amount to mere propositional knowledge, but rather, a life-changing experience of God’s unfailing, faithful love; an encounter with the living God. Christoph Schwöbel summarizes this concept as, “The whole of creation is an ordered network of communicative relationships in which being and meaning are intrinsically connected.”

Karl Barth would weigh in here with an alternative read of this all-important passage. In his commentary on the Book of Romans, Barth takes the position in Romans 1:18–20 that the works of God, that is—the creation itself, distinguishes God from ‘No-God.’ The attitudes of this world have posited a ‘No-God’ stance denying or diminishing the everlasting power to which the creation rightly attests. Barth says, “The clearly seen works of God speak of his everlasting power and they have already risen up in protest against the ‘No-God’ . . . of this world.” Barth sees the preeminent message of this passage to be to deny one’s arrogance in thinking one can know anything of God, thus putting ourselves on the same level as the Creator. He says, “Rather than see in his light . . . we allow him to become a light . . . seeking to find in things their own light.” I would agree with Barth on this point, that indeed creation itself is not the light, but rather contains the knowledge of the Light pointing to the One who illuminates it for what it actually is.

Toward this end, knowledge of God in the creation, known as the “created light,” functions to illuminate and communicate the essence of God to the creatures. However, the creation itself, autonomously, cannot reveal, only God speaks of God, as Hunsinger states, “Who can reveal God except God himself”? In much the same way as the human creature is made capable by God of apprehending, so the creation is made capable by God of serving as a way of divine speaking. In other words, the created light can be made capable of revealing the Uncreated Light only by the Uncreated Light. In this way, we see a relation between God making the creation capable of revealing knowledge of Himself, and the creature being made capable by God to receive this revelation. We can draw an analogy here to God’s self-disclosure in Scripture, in which the book itself, technically understood, and for all intents and purposes, is only ink on a page (finite), yet is illuminated and made meaningful by God’s Spirit (infinite) to the human heart and intellect (finite). Perhaps, we can draw a similar understanding of God’s free self-disclosure through the natural world. Nature, taken technically, is composed of multi-layered coordinated structures of matter and energy (finite), yet is illuminated by God’s Spirit (infinite) to the creature (finite). Thought of in this way, nature is internally an illumination of God, just as we find in Scripture; an act of divine speaking made known through revelation to the creature.

Rodney Holder suggests that what is uncovered in scientific discovery can become a means within which the Uncreated Light imparts revelatory self-disclosure in the created light. Human understanding of the invisible attributes of the divine through the natural world, then, does not originate in man’s intellectual capacity, but fully and solely in divine love. In the infinite goodness of God, whose disposition it is to disseminate his glory and goodness, comes forth the emanation of divine knowledge, as Holder continues, “a certain knowledge of God is available to all, whether members of the Christian community or not, through God’s revelation of himself in nature.”

This posits God fully at the epicenter of his creation, revealing his own truths to the creature. Torrance also affirms the idea that God is at the epicenter of revealing himself in that nature is “made to talk,” by the act of the living, active God who lovingly communicates his own self-disclosure to us, and in so doing “He gives Himself to us.” Here again, emphasis falls on the idea that it is God who is Self-disclosing through the act of nature. Such a construct proposes a new species of knowing; an exploration of discovery, through the rigors of basic scientific and biological mechanisms in the natural world, as a “language of God.” In this way, nature as revelation is put forth in a language placed in the creation by God, to be revealed by God, and received by human creatures. All for the glory of God.

. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 67.

. Molnar, Thomas Torrance: Theologian of the Trinity, 30.

. The overarching theme of Scripture is the God who reaches to His creation. He reaches to create in Genesis; in Exodus 3 God appears to Moses in the burning bush; Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me beside the still waters . . .” God speaks to His people through the prophets, God comes to His people in the incarnation of Christ. New Testament Scriptures affirm God’s calling, God’s drawing, and God’s leading: John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” First John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God is constantly reaching and revealing himself to the creatures He loves. Throughout Psalms and throughout Scripture as a whole, we see humans crying out to God in laments, supplications, and prayers, but it is only when God answers, when God reveals himself that people can know him. We do not see humankind finding God by their own measures in Scripture. It is only by God’s Self-disclosure in revelation of His-being-in-essence to the creatures, when God deems the timing and circumstances are so, that creatures experience the Divine.

. Johnson, Karl Barth and the Analogia Entis, 17.

. Johnson, Karl Barth and the Analogia Entis, 19.

. Holder, The Heavens Declare, 180.

. Schwöbel, “We Are All God’s Vocabulary,” 51.

. Cook, “The Logic and Language of Romans 1:20,” 495.

. Tobin in his article “Controversy and Continuity in Romans 1:18—3:20,” argues that Paul also uses specific rhetoric in this passage that would appeal to his Roman readers. He says, “Paul also developed his arguments in a way familiar to his Roman readers so that they would be persuaded that Paul’s position was in continuity with Jewish scriptures and tradition,” 302.

. Schwöbel, “We Are All God’s Vocabulary,” 51.

. Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 47.

. Hunsinger, Evangelical, Catholic and Reformed, 14.

. Hunsinger, Evangelical, Catholic and Reformed, 14. For an excellent exposition on the Uncreated and created light see Chapter 4 “Uncreated Light: From Irenaeus and Torrance to Aquinas and Barth.” In this chapter, Hunsinger describes the creation as the “created light” and God as the “Uncreated light,” taken from Barth and Torrance. He expounds the metaphor of “light” to indicate the luminous property of light to luminous revelation in the knowledge of God. In this Chapter, he correlated how this relation is dependent on God’s non-composite simplicity as affirmed in the historical tradition from Irenaeus to the twentieth century in Karl Barth.

. Holder, The Heavens Declare, 59.

. Holder, The Heavens Declare, 28. Unbelievers may not realize that God reveals himself through the visible creation, and therefore draw false conclusions from this Self-revelation of God by worshipping things created by God. They bring the glory–which is due the Creator alone–to created things, and thereby make them into idols. For this reason, idolatry is also criticized in the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon: “[God] the first author of beauty hath created them [the powers of nature]. But if they [the unbelievers] were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier He is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures, proportionably the maker of them is seen” (Wisdom of Solomon 13: 3–5).

. Torrance, Theological Science, 29.

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