We cannot see God in nature
In contrast, general revelation (which might be more appropriately termed a general awareness of God), gives us no real, substantial knowledge of God, but only an anticipatory intimation of his love and judgment. Theologians who build on general revelation are also ineluctably led to construct a natural theology, which in my view is always a dead end road. God’s light is invariably misinterpreted and distorted because of human sin, which clouds our cognitive capabilities. I fully agree with Gregory of Nyssa that “we cannot see God in nature, but we can try to see nature in God.”

Karl Barth has been helpful in his conception of “little lights” and “other true words” that the Christian is able to discern in nature and in other religions by virtue of the one great light of Christ that makes these lesser lights and words intelligible and credible. In his later writings Barth alluded to a third circle of witnesses outside the Bible and the Church that magnify the name of Christ and testify to his goodness. But only people of faith by virtue of the opening of their eyes to the revelation of the glory of God in Jesus Christ can validly assess these other words and lights, which always constitute something alien and discordant in the systems and credos of the world of unbelief.

Relationship between Christianity and the great world religions
This brings us to the enigmatic relationship between Christianity and the great world religions. I think we would do well to emphasize today that while Christianity is indeed one of the world religions, it must be sharply differentiated from all other religions in terms of its origin and goal. Biblical Christianity affirms that the Christian religion is founded on a unique revelation of God to humankind in the person of Jesus Christ and that this religion is a sign and witness to God’s self-revelation. Christianity as a revelation must be distinguished from Christianity as an empirical religion, but the former can be perceived only through the eyes of faith. Christianity as an empirical phenomenon can be compared with other religions, but it must be judged theologically on the grounds of its unique foundation, which lies outside the confines of a phenomenological analysis of religion. Thus the world religions should be treated not as ways to salvation but perhaps as pointers to salvation. Then they would not be categorically or uniformly repudiated as agencies of damnation, but regarded as signs of contradiction, for their conceptions of God unfailingly conflict with God’s disclosure of himself in Jesus Christ.

[This article was originally published in Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, Summer 1991. Touchstone is a monthly ecumenical journal which endeavors to promote doctrinal, moral, and devotional orthodoxy among Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. Copyright © 2004 the Fellowship of St. James. Used with permission.].
.