Can we Know God?

Divine Action

In this course, Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie (University of Edinburgh) explores knowledge of God and divine action. In the first module, we critically examine traditional sources of knowledge of God in light of modern science and sociology. In the second module, we come to look at the idea of order in the universe as general revelation, and critique arguments from ‘fine tuning’ and ‘irreducible complexity’. In the third module, we turn to another aspect of general revelation, an innate sense of the divine; and examine whether naturalistic explanations for belief formation challenge or support the existence of God. In the fourth module, we shift focus to special revelation and look at religious experience, before examining miracles in a modern context in the fifth module. In the sixth and final module, we pull all of our knowledge together to consider the relationship between divine action and human agency.

Can we Know God?

In this module, we examine traditional arguments for the sources of knowledge of God, and criticisms of these arguments from science and sociology, focusing in particular on (i) general revelation through experience of the natural world (ii) reason as a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for knowledge of God (iii) special revelation through receptive theological encounters (iv) the sources of special revelation (v) challenges to general and special revelation from science and pluralism.