The sensus divinitatis: is there a natural knowledge of God, and if so what does it accomplish?

Jean Calvin, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

There is an awareness of divinity in every mind and the world displays its maker on every side, so that no one is ignorant. It suffices to leave every person inexcusable and it suffices for nothing else.123

Sources

  1. But since both ~ the eternity of God's existence and the infinity of his glory would prove a twofold labyrinth, let us content ourselves with modestly desiring to proceed no further in our inquiries than the Lord, by the guidance and instruction of his own works, invites us.
    Commentaries on Genesis Vol 1, p. 62
  2. See Acts xiv. 15; and xvii. 25. 27. Venema, in his note on this passage, shows, that goodness was regarded by many of the heathens as the primary attribute of Deity. Among the Greeks, goodness TO a.y.6o\, was the expression by which the Supreme Being was distinguished. And it appears evident from the context that the Apostle included this idea especially in the word Morns. Ed. CHAP. I. 21. EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
    Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 75
  3. If we seek for ignorance of a Deity, it is nowhere more likely to be found, than among tribes the most stupid and furthest from civilization. But, as the celebrated Cicero observes, there is no nation so barbarous, no race so savage, as not to be firmly persuaded of the being of a God.
    Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 1, p. 52

Where the argument is made

  • Institutes I.iii–v
  • the commentary on Romans 1
  • the commentary on John 1

How the argument was received

Widely appropriated in twentieth-century philosophy of religion, and appropriated for a use the text does not obviously license.