When you stand on a mountain top, feel the force of a thunderstorm, or perhaps find yourself gazing out over the endless sea, you may simply know somewhere deep inside of you that there is a God. To quote the hymn, you see the stars and hear the rolling thunder, and think, “My God how great thou art!” The idea of natural revelation is that God is revealed through God’s creation. After all, since God created the world wouldn’t it be natural for the world to bear the marks of divine handiwork? Just like each artist has their own distinct style for those with discerning eyes, those with the eyes to see God’s creative flair see it in the masterpiece of creation.
But to reveal that there is an artist, does not necessarily mean you know anything about that artist without studying the art in depth. While you may not get to speak to the artist directly, studying their art offers you a glimpse into their lives, hearts, personalities, and beliefs. Yet, getting to know someone in this indirect way never offers a full picture of who that person is, and the same is true about God. Nature or creation only reveals God in part. So what might it reveal?
A good starting place is the beauty of nature. There seems to be something within many of us that responds to the beauty of flowers, the peace of a breeze, or the awe-inspiring storm on a sea. It is this beauty that we find ourselves immersed in that we attempt to name as only possible if it came from a beautiful source. After all, the world could be ugly, desolate, and grey. Yet it is full of color, life, mystery, power, and grandeur. It is beautiful, and while we may have lengthy conversations on what “beauty” is, nonetheless many of us would call much of creation beautiful.
Furthermore, creation seems to have some kind of integrity and order behind it and undergirding it. Somehow it all works together and doesn’t unravel into complete chaos. Scientists have found great ways of describing the orderly way in which the cosmos works and how ants work. And the more science progresses the more it realizes how well thought out and brilliant the design is.
Finally, creation seems to offer up a multitude of lessons for living life. Jesus used natural examples such as consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. The Psalmist describes the Lord as our shepherd, meaning we have something to learn about faith from sheep! Isaiah even describes a time in which the lion will lay down with the lamb pointing to a natural lesson on reconciliation. And there are many many more. We can talk about the life of faith as a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, or describe the Holy Trinity using a three-leaf clover. We can even try to understand infinity by delving into the number pi, or studying the endless unique fractals that fall every winter in the form of snowflake.
Questions arise: Does creation actually reveal a God or an artist behind it all, or is it simply human imagination projecting something on to creation that does not actually exist? Why is it that some can see a storm and experience God and others see it simply as a source of fear? Is a caterpillar really an inspiration for the life of faith or is it simply an animal acting according to its instincts that have been passed down to it genetically for generations? Does it have to be one or the other?
And, natural revelation has been used to harm others. Many have claimed that the order creation seems to have proves a superiority of some over others (often this argument is made by those wanting to maintain their power and superiority). Some interpretations of the natural order of creation have been used to make false and oppressive arguments about women being the lesser sex, white people being the best, or humans as a whole being able to use the non-human creation to whatever ends they desire in the name of God. It seems that creation can reveal something to us, but we must thoughtfully think through what it is we are receiving and discern if it is from God.
Natural revelation cannot stand on its own, it points us in the direction of God, but we need other sources of revelation to help us understand what we are experiencing in nature. And so we turn to reason and ask how it might reveal to us even more about God.
2 comments:
in this natural revelation, is God above nature or a part of nature? or both-- can we distinguish?
I love this question...it both touches on the importance of semantics in theology and at the same time uses the very words we have to illuminate an issue further.
Prepositions are key in theological language, but they also point to the inaccuracy of our language. Is God "above" nature could mean is God higher in the order of things, or does God transcend nature, or does God have authority/rule over nature? And the same is true with the question of is God a "part" of nature? This could mean: Is there something divine in nature, or is there a part of God in God's creation much like an artist might have a part of themselves in a sculpture, or perhaps God is a part of nature as in God is part of the community, like I am a part of Bethesda Covenant Church, maybe (and this is what the last question hints at), the two are so closely fused together we can intellectually distinguish between the two, but experientially we find them to be indistinguishable. This would present us with another Christian mystery, much like the Trinity being three in one, three distinguishable persons one God, or Jesus being both God and human...
What if, Mr. Derrida, in answer to all of your questions, I simply said "yes." (and then right away added another "yes.")
peace,
Pastor Adam
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