Turretin does not give a definition of natural theology other than describing what it consists of, “The natural, occupied with that which may be known of God (to gnōston tou Theou), is both innate (from the common notions implanted in each one) and acquired (which creatures gain discursively).”
The early Reformed scholastic Francis Junius influenced Reformed theology greatly in his work A Treatise of True Theology.
There are two pillars on which Turretin constructs his natural theology, the first being Calvin’s duplex cognition dei.
Natural theology has been confessed throughout the history of the church, it has not been used or understood monolithically. To use the recurring phrase of Turretin, many have “erred in excess” or “erred in defect” in their conception of natural theology.
The historical reality is, the Confession appeals to the Hebrew and Greek textual tradition of Scripture. And as this textual tradition has within it, admitted by all, variations among them; the necessary result demands we engage in textual criticism.
There is much talk of ‘hyper-Calvinism’ – even though one rarely comes across hyper-Calvinists anywhere in the world. It is like the references to those who are ‘dead orthodox’ while, though they exist, meeting one is a rare encounter. So, there is some ignorance of what are the tenets and consequences of ‘hyper-Calvinism.’
After considering the radical distinction between the Reformed and Thomistic/Catholic conception of the image of God, a pertinent question arises for contemporary Reformed Evangelicals. Does Thomism as a system really solve the problem of contemporary theistic mutualism?
What must be true in order for Christians to defend their faith against objections and unbelief?[1] What “first...
“Christians have not been called to proclaim the probable existence of a bare, generic, philosophical conception of a god. Rather, followers of Jesus Christ have been called to make disciples of the one, true, living God throughout every corner of the earth.”
At the center of Old Princeton’s confessional identity was the conviction that the doctrine of God is most important to shaping every other facet of theological speculation, in supplementation to informing one’s ability to accurately understand reality itself.