Description
Book SynopsisReimagining Nature is a new introduction to the fast developing area of natural theology, written by one of the world s leading theologians. The text engages in serious theological dialogue whilst looking at how past developments might illuminate and inform theory and practice in the present.
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
1 Natural Theology: Questions of Definition and Scope 6
The Aim of This Work 8
A Brief Genealogy of Natural Theology 11
Natural Theology: Six Approaches 18
The Natural Theology Project: Thick and Thin Descriptions 22
In Defense of a “Christian” Natural Theology Project 25
The Christian Accommodation of Classic Natural Theology 35
2 Natural Theology and the Christian Imaginarium 41
Sensorium and Imaginarium: Christianity and the Re-Imagination of Nature 42
Modernity and the Suppression of the Imagination 47
Metanoia: Seeing Things as They Really Are 50
Imaginative Transformation: The Church as an Interpretive Community 55
Theoria: Imaginative Beholding and Rational Dissection 57
Nature as logikos: Reflections on the Doctrine of Creation 61
Metaphors of Beauty and Order: Harmony and the Dance 66
3 Text, Image, and Sign: On Framing the Natural World 69
Natural Theology as a Habitus 69
The Intellectual Challenge of the Ambiguity of the World 73
Nature as a Text: Natural Theology and the Book of Nature 78
Nature as Image: Natural Theology and Landscapes 87
Nature as a Sign: Natural Theology and Semiotics 93
4 Natural Theology: Contexts and Motivations 101
The Importance of Cultural Location for Natural Theology 101
A New Vocational Space: Natural Theology as a Religious Calling 105
The Wasteland: Natural Theology and the Recovery of a Lost Nature 107
Wonder and Mystery: Transcendent Experiences 110
Re-Enchantment: Sustaining a Sense of Wonder 113
The Rational Transparency of Nature and Faith 116
Connectedness: The Human Longing for Coherence 120
Meaning: Nature and Ultimate Questions 122
Natural Theology as a “Natural” Quest 124
5 Natural Theology: Some Concerns and Challenges 128
Natural Theology: Improper and Redundant? 128
Ontotheology? Natural Theology and Philosophical “First Principles” 133
David Hume: The Intellectual Inadequacy of a Deist Natural Theology 135
Charles Taylor: Natural Theology and the “Immanent Frame” 138
Barth and Brunner: The Debate which Discredited Natural Theology? 144
Fideism: Natural Theology as Self-Referential and Self-Justifying? 149
6 The Promise of a Christian Natural Theology 154
The Natural Sciences: Natural Theology and the Subversion of Scientism 156
The Affective Imagination: Natural Theology and the Spirituality of Nature 163
Boundaries and Trespass: Natural Theology and Systematic Theology 168
Apologetics: Natural Theology and Public Engagement 173
Conclusion 181
Bibliography 184
Index 240
