Claim. The invisible God’s nature can be inferred from creation, because “everything in the created universe is a substantial manifestation of some quality of the Creator’s invisible, divine nature” — making argument-from-analogy a legitimate epistemic method for theology.
Elaboration. DP grounds its whole metaphysic on 20: “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (1.1. The Dual Characteristics of God).
The analogy DP draws is to artistic creation: “Just as a work of art displays the invisible nature of its maker in a concrete form… we can understand the nature of God by observing the diverse things of creation” (ibid). The universal common element DP identifies — that every entity exists through reciprocal relationships of dual characteristics — is then read back as a property of God.
This commits DP to a strong analogical natural theology: features observable across the entire created order (yang/yin, internal/external, subject/object) are not merely contingent but constitutive of being and therefore reveal God’s structure. The method differs from apophatic theology (which denies positive knowledge of God) and from purely revealed theology (which restricts knowledge to scripture). DP holds that the creation itself is revelation, and that careful observation of created patterns yields true positive claims about the Creator.
See also. dp-internal-nature-external-form-as-fundamental-dual-characteristics