Natural theology Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... theology . Knowledge of God obtainable by human reason alone without the aid of revelation . Exponents of such theology claim that God's existence and at least some of his attributes can be known through reason (e.g. by philosophical argument). The traditional arguments for God's existence are a central part of such theology ( see COSMOLOGICAL ; MORAL ; ONTOLOGICAL ; PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL ; and TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS ). Natural theology continues to be an important part of the philosophy of religion; and the traditional theistic arguments are still...
Natural Theology Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... Theology . The body of knowledge about God which may be obtained by human reason alone without the aid of revelation . Reformation theologians generally rejected the competence of fallen human reason to engage in Natural Theology; this incompetence was reasserted by K. Barth and the Dialectical School . See also philosophy of religion...
natural theology Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
... theology ( natural religion ) Doctrines concerning God that are allegedly attainable by natural processes of reasoning, as opposed to those that require the assistance of revelation. Atheists and agnostics deny that there are such doctrines, as do some Protestant theologians who emphasize the limitations of fallen human faculties, stressing instead the special need for divine grace. Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is the classical sceptical attack on the arguments of natural theology. See also deism...
natural theology Quick reference
A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences (5 ed.)
... theology ( physico-theology ) A philosophy which tries to link the study of natural phenomena with the notion of divine providence, stressing that harmony and order in nature are evidence of God’s design. It became important in 18th-century England, being associated with the work of John Ray , William Paley , and many others. The 19th-century Bridgewater Treatises were the last major exposition of natural theology. See buckland...
natural theology Reference library
Stephen Priest
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
... theology . The acquisition of truths about God through the natural human capacity to know, rather than by revelation . The study of God through the exercise of human reason, especially as legitimated by Romans 1: 18ff. Natural theology includes the study of God through his works and the drawing of conclusions about God from premisses about creation. All putative proofs of the existence and nature of God belong to natural theology. Kant and the Logical Positivists think natural theology impossible, Kant on the ground that the transcendent misuse of the...
Natural Theology Reference library
The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy
... Theology Natural theology attempts to prove the existence of God , and to establish at least some of his attributes, by studying his creation, the natural world. In many respects it coincides with the teleological argument, which was included in Thomas Aquinas's five ways of proving God's existence and therefore has a long history. The phrase ‘natural theology’ only came into use in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however, and perhaps should be restricted to refer to the movement which began at that time – a movement which...
natural theology Reference library
Richard Swinburne
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
...Subsequent Catholic theology continued to support the project of natural theology, and the First Vatican Council (De fid. cath., cap. 2) defined it to be an article of faith that ‘God, the source and end of all things, can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things, by the natural power of human reason’. Classical Reformation theology generally asserted the incompetence of fallen human reason to engage in theology, but it was only in the 20th cent., with Barth , that this incompetence was extended to natural theology. In contrast, more...
natural theology Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science
...concomitants of a creative process, and that, by extending the domain of natural laws, it would reinforce respect for moral laws. Even today there are calls for the revival of natural theology based on the fineness of tuning in the earliest moments of the Big Bang , seemingly a precondition of the possibility of intelligent life. Robert Hurlbutt , Hume, Newton and the Design Argument (1965). Dov Ospovat , The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection (1981). John Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor , Reconstructing...
Natural Theology and Natural Law Reference library
Knut Alfsvåg
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther
... Theology and Natural Law For Luther, the understanding of the world is determined by his theology of creation, according to which the world is created as an expression of the creative love of the eternal God. Natural theology, then, is the ability to interpret all created phenomena as gifts of the Creator, and natural law is the ability to align one’s life with this principle of lovingly serving everything created. However, in a sinful world afflictions and anxiety makes it impossible to maintain an attitude of unconditional trust toward God based on...
Christianity (7h) – Natural Theology Reference library
The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature
...– Natural Theology Natural theology in its most general sense refers to the study of God and God's attributes as these can be interpreted from the study of God's “works.” Natural theology emerges from the medieval theological distinction between “nature” and “revelation” (including revealed scripture) as the two primary means of knowledge of the divine. In Catholic thought, this distinction is preserved in the “natural law” tradition, which is understood to be complementary to, but not to be separate from, the tradition of revelation. Natural theology in its...
natural theology
Natural Philosophy (Science) Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
...this relationship between natural philosophy, orthodox *religion [10] , and maintenance of the social order was more frequently challenged by those who linked the former with materialism and radical causes. Natural philosophy became a contested intellectual space in which opposing political and theological notions were associated with rival theories of the natural world. Yet these developments are only part of the story of natural philosophy in the period of revolution and *Romanticism . When the alliance with Anglican theology was challenged in the late...
Islam: The Religion of Reason and Nature Reference library
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khān
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...the mind of the doubter, to say simply that in Islam this has been taught in this way and has to be accepted. [Need for a new theology] In the same way there are many other reasons for which in our time Muslims need to adopt new methods in controversy. The person who considers Islam to be true and believes firmly in it, his heart will testify that Islam alone is true—whatever changes may occur in logic, philosophy and natural science, and however much the doctrines of Islam seem to be in contradiction with them. This attitude is sufficient for those who...
Islam and the Challenge of the Modern World Reference library
Shabbir Akhtar
Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
...not the presumption of a dogmatic temper. Wherever we may begin, we must end with God. Modern Protestant thought, of a reductionist and revisionist vintage, has sometimes lost God in the intricate procedures of theology. Fortunately the supernatural emphasis remains integral to Islam; the human and natural remain tributary and derivative. A due recognition of the importance of man is likely to be misunderstood in many ways. For example, to say, with Christian thinkers like the Reverend Kenneth Cragg, “Let God be God,” is to...
Text in Context Reference library
Oxford Bible Atlas (4 ed.)
...awareness of the actual geography enables the reader to appreciate the significance of the theological claim being made here. God's Temple in Jerusalem will be at the heart of God's land and be a source of life in the most remarkable way. Theological Geography The clear theological significance of Ezekiel's presentation of a restored Israel raises the fact that there are a...
1700 to the Present Reference library
Ronald Clements
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bible
...Theology itself became historically oriented to such an extent that historical reconstructions shaped the form of theological enquiry. Central among such questions were those relating to the life and person of Jesus of Nazareth. In line with this the preparation in the Old Testament for the advent of the Messiah became increasingly focused on its historical, rather than its theological, character. Instead of messianic prophecies the idea of a historical preparation—a ‘salvation history’—became the central theme. The Bible and the Natural...
Islam and Modernity Reference library
Fazlur Rahman
Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
...linked with a process through which law ceased to maintain any organic relation to morality. Nor is Islamic theology, for that matter, a case of pure intellectualism, unaffective and ineffective, a pure artificial construct that tries to vie with philosophy, which at least claims to start from assumptions of natural reason rather than from given dogmatic beliefs that it claims “to prove.” Islamic theology is certainly an intellectual endeavor, but it is so in the sense that it gives a coherent and faithful account of what is there in...
