Natural Revelation in Sacred Scripture and Tradition

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes covering Natural Revelation in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Church Fathers.

Natural Revelation

The process by which God makes himself known to human reason through the created world.

Fathers of the Church (Church Fathers)

During the early centuries of the Church, those teachers whose writings extended the Tradition of the Apostles and who continue to be important for the Church's teachings.

Book of Genesis

An Old Testament book containing the account of Creation over seven days, demonstrating how all created things point to God as the first cause, final end, and Supreme Good.

Book of Wisdom

An Old Testament book containing a passage that describes as foolish those who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is (13:1).

Acts of the Apostles

A New Testament book detailing the growth of the early Church under the direction of the Holy Spirit, including Saint Paul's description of a God who fixed the ordered seasons and boundaries of human regions.

Letter to the Romans

A New Testament letter in which Saint Paul writes that God's invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been understood and perceived in what he has made ever since the creation of the world.

Saint Augustine

An influential Father of the Church who invited believers to open the book of creation and proclaimed that creation is a great book set before human eyes by God.

Original Sin

A condition whose consequences, along with historical conditions, diminish our ability to fully know God's truth through natural revelation alone, making Divine Revelation necessary.