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Series:   Elements in Christian Doctrine

A Sense of the Divine

An Affective Model of General Revelation from the Reformed Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2025

N. Gray Sutanto
N. Gray Sutanto
Affiliation:
Reformed Theological Seminary

Summary

How should one make sense of the Christian confession that God has instilled a 'sense of divinity' in every person? While other approaches have identified the sense with a perceptual or cognitive faculty or with the empirical reports of theistic belief, this Element advances an affective model of general revelation, which draws from the writings of the neo-Calvinist branch of the Reformed tradition. The author argues that the sense of divinity refers to an implanted 'feeling of divinity', a sensus numinis, and that this model makes better sense of the Christian witness, theologically re-orients the empirical findings from the cognitive science of religion, and eludes influential objections against the doctrine of general revelation.
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Keywords

general revelationHerman BavinckMartin HeideggerReformed theologyAlvin Plantinga
Type
Element
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Series: Elements in Christian Doctrine
Online ISBN: 9781009527910
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 22 May 2025

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A Sense of the Divine
  • N. Gray Sutanto, Reformed Theological Seminary
  • Online ISBN: 9781009527910
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A Sense of the Divine
  • N. Gray Sutanto, Reformed Theological Seminary
  • Online ISBN: 9781009527910
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A Sense of the Divine
  • N. Gray Sutanto, Reformed Theological Seminary
  • Online ISBN: 9781009527910
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