Nature as the second Revelation

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleПрирода как второе Откровение
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Saprykin, Dmitry
5. lemma category Complementarity - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Biblical interpretation
6. Publication date 11-05-2017
7. lemma work Гоманьков Алексей [Author]. Nature as the second Revelation
8. lemma manifestations Богослов.ру
9. Keywords science-religion relationship - Hexameron
10. Citations
    1. http://www.bogoslov.ru/text/5350478.html
11. Lemma body

    1. The author of the article invites us to look at the world created by God as to a part of the Divine Revelation; he acquaints the reader with the "Book of Nature" concept, explaining its origin in detail, and also meditates upon the possibility of the natural science influence on theology.

       Since “the book of Nature" is written by God then, as the author states, we must read it, "and woe to us if we do not do this! we consciously reject the Word of God addressed to us, falling into the sin of apostasy. Natural science can tell us a lot about Him, what He is, and how He created the world in the past, and now interacts with it and manages it. "

       The author gives a number of examples of the natural science influence on Christian theological discourse. In particular, concerning the question of death existence before the fall, Gomankov states the following: "Paleontology data shows that the death of animals should also be considered as an element of God's creation and in this capacity it was good as common to the Divine. Throughout the world, only man was created immortal but has lost this god-like property as a result of the fall. The recognition of animal death as evil appeared after Adam and Eve 'tasted the fruit from the tree of good and evil knowledge,' that is, they began to form their own ideas about what is good and what is bad different from the Divine (and therefore inadequate). "

       Thus, the author concludes, recognition of Nature as the second Revelation brings Christians an enduring task of hermeneutical nature: the development of such an interpretation of the Holy Scripture on the one hand and of the "Nature Book" on the other, which would minimize the contradictions between these texts. The absence (or at least insignificance) of such contradictions can serve as a criterion of truth for interpretations of both types of Revelation. Theology and natural science go together to a common goal which is Truth, that is, God.