The Two Books that Reveal God
How can anyone know God? At the beginning of the emergence of science in the western world, it was widely believed that knowledge of God could be gained through two books: the book of revelation and the book of nature. Is this still possible today?
It seems inconceivable to a great many that someone could take the Bible seriously as God’s divinely inspired and revealed word and at the same time take science seriously. Taking science seriously means accepting the general scientific consensus as representing our best ideas of what is true and real. Taking the Bible seriously means believing that within the stories, poetry, history and letters we can learn meaningful and true things about God.
I recognize that seems strange to many, but I do believe both books reveal truth and that there is only one truth. Here I will attempt to explain my understanding of the two primary ways we can know God.
Sacred Scripture
Believers of almost any religion hold some written texts to be sacred. By this they mean in some way they are touched by the divine and have a higher status in terms of trustworthiness in revealing the truth than other works not considered sacred. Christians hold the Hebrew Bible plus the New Testament to be the revealed word of God. Jews consider the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible the revealed word. Islam’s…
