NATURAL THEOLOGY:
the effort to construct a doctrine of God without appeal to FAITH or
REVELATION on the basis of REASON and experience alone. Thomas AQUINAS argued that in
principle it is possible for philosophers to prove the EXISTENCE of GOD although certain
truths about His BEING are incapable of discovery by reason alone. LUTHER and CALVIN
argued that every man possesses some sense of DEITY and innumerable traces of God's glory
appear in the created world. Nevertheless, human SIN and stupidity since the FALL make it
necessary for God to move our hearts by a special revelation if we are to know Him.
