Some believe that God reveals himself through His Creation, and that at least some truths about Him can be learned by stuying Nature. "The heavens declare the glory of God" type of passages that you see a lot in Psalms and Job, etc.
Regarding the whole Aristotelian thing, there was an interesting controversy in the 14th century between [Barlaam of Calabria]? and [Gregory Palamas]?. I'm about to oversimplify for the sake of brevity, but here goes. Barlaam was an Aristotelian who thought that the philosophers had a better understanding of God than did the prophets to whom God spoke directly. He observed the monks at Mount Athos, Greece, and derided them for spending too much time in contemplative prayer and not enough time studying. One of those monks, Gregory Palamas, was asked to defend them, and he claimed that the prophets had superior knowledge of God because it was more direct. One key issue was whether mortal man could apprehend or comprehend a transcendant God who is far beyond our understanding. Gregory thought that yes, God could give grace to a person and enable that man to see Himself. He also drew a sharp distinction between seeing God in his energies or works, and seeing God in his essence. For Gregory, to see God in his energies was possible through God's grace, to see God in his essence remained impossible because of God's transcendance and complete otherness. The two went back and forth for years; in the end, the West hailed Barlaam as a saint, and the East hailed Gregory Palamas as a saint. It's known as the hesychast controversy, at least in the East, and is probably the East's most recent major theological development.
Hope I haven't bored everyone to tears. --Wesley
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)