oa Die Suche nach Gottes Spuren in zwei Büchern

How to read God’s traces in two books, in creation and the Holy Scripture? In search of a resilient faith the article develops the metaphor of the ‘two scriptures’ (Conf. Belg. § 2) in five steps: The first step are methodological considerations on the metaphor of the ‘book’. The second step points to the plurality within both books. They are both libraries with three departments: Old and New Testament and the history of their reception on the one side, the physical, biological and cultural evolution as some kind of a ‘history of reception’ of our prehistory on the other side. The third step underscores the ambiguity of both books: they can be read in modern times as signs with and without God as author. They are comparable to a ‘tilting picture’ open for two interpretations. The fourth step concerns the reader of the books: He or she is crucial to interpret the two books. We must postulate a sensus divinitatis (J. Calvin inst. I,3,1) with a priori and a posteriori aspects. As a last step there is a statement concerning the message of the two books, how they together may establish resilience. The book of creation is not at all a theologia gloriae as Martin Luther stated in the Heidelberger Disputation 1518, on the contrary, the theologia crucis of the Bible opens our eyes for vicarious suffering in the whole creation, the theologia gloriae of the creation supports the praising of God in the Bible.