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The Origin [and Demise] of [a] Species [of Natural Theology]

The Origin [and Demise] of [a] Species [of Natural Theology] The Origin [and Demise] of [a] Species [of Natural Theology] David E. Schrader, Washington & Jefferson College Ever since the encounter of Christian thought with Aristotle’s non-logical works in the thirteenth century, Christian theologians have been powerfully tempted to draw on the acknowledged epistemic security of natural science to provide a similar epistemic security for theology. The hope has been to show that, even apart from divine revelation, anyone who has good reason to accept scien- tific knowledge of nature also has similarly good reason to accept at least the beginning point of theology, namely that a God exists. As scientific views have changed, the outlines of natural theology have changed as well. (I should add, by the way, that I am using the term ‘natural theology’ here in the narrow sense of arguments to prove theological truth from human knowledge of nature. This narrow sense of “natural theology,” then, leaves wholly out of consideration the venerable ontological argument for God’s existence.) The difficulty for natural theology, of course, is that, as fundamental scientific frameworks have changed, the foundations have been removed from the natural theologies based on the older scientific frameworks. This has almost invariably brought on religious http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis Brill

The Origin [and Demise] of [a] Species [of Natural Theology]

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
2666-4283
eISSN
2666-4275
DOI
10.30965/26664275-00701009
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Abstract

The Origin [and Demise] of [a] Species [of Natural Theology] David E. Schrader, Washington & Jefferson College Ever since the encounter of Christian thought with Aristotle’s non-logical works in the thirteenth century, Christian theologians have been powerfully tempted to draw on the acknowledged epistemic security of natural science to provide a similar epistemic security for theology. The hope has been to show that, even apart from divine revelation, anyone who has good reason to accept scien- tific knowledge of nature also has similarly good reason to accept at least the beginning point of theology, namely that a God exists. As scientific views have changed, the outlines of natural theology have changed as well. (I should add, by the way, that I am using the term ‘natural theology’ here in the narrow sense of arguments to prove theological truth from human knowledge of nature. This narrow sense of “natural theology,” then, leaves wholly out of consideration the venerable ontological argument for God’s existence.) The difficulty for natural theology, of course, is that, as fundamental scientific frameworks have changed, the foundations have been removed from the natural theologies based on the older scientific frameworks. This has almost invariably brought on religious

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History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis – Brill

Published: Apr 5, 2004

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