The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology

The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology
Author: Russell Re Manning
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 647
Release: 2013-01-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199556938

The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology" explores the diversity and vitality o natural theology, both historically and as an issue of contemporary concern.

Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion

Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion
Author: Rodney Holder
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000205789

This book offers a rationale for a new ‘ramified natural theology’ that is in dialogue with both science and historical-critical study of the Bible. Traditionally, knowledge of God has been seen to come from two sources, nature and revelation. However, a rigid separation between these sources cannot be maintained, since what purports to be revelation cannot be accepted without qualification: rational argument is needed to infer both the existence of God from nature and the particular truth claims of the Christian faith from the Bible. Hence the distinction between ‘bare natural theology’ and ‘ramified natural theology.’ The book begins with bare natural theology as background to its main focus on ramified natural theology. Bayesian confirmation theory is utilised to evaluate competing hypotheses in both cases, in a similar manner to that by which competing hypotheses in science can be evaluated on the basis of empirical data. In this way a case is built up for the rationality of a Christian theist worldview. Addressing issues of science, theology and revelation in a new framework, this book will be of keen interest to scholars working in Religion and Science, Natural Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Biblical Studies, Systematic Theology, and Science and Culture.

In Defense of Natural Theology

In Defense of Natural Theology
Author: James F. Sennett
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2005-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780830827671

James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished array of scholars to examine the Humean legacy with care and make the case for a more robust, if chastened, natural theology after Hume.

God and Natural Order

God and Natural Order
Author: Shaun C. Henson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2013-12-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 131791502X

In God and Natural Order: Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, Shaun Henson brings a theological approach to bear on contemporary scientific and philosophical debates on the ordered or disordered nature of the universe. Henson engages arguments for a unified theory of the laws of nature, a concept with monotheistic metaphysical and theological leanings, alongside the pluralistic viewpoints set out by Nancy Cartwright and other philosophers of science, who contend that the nature of physical reality is intrinsically complex and irreducible to a single unifying theory. Drawing on the work of theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and his conception of the Trinitarian Christian god, the author argues that a theological line of inquiry can provide a useful framework for examining controversies in physics and the philosophy of science. God and Natural Order will raise provocative questions for theologians, Pannenberg scholars, and researchers working in the intersection of science and religion.

The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion

The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion
Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2010-06-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521712513

This book explores the historical relations between science and religion and discusses contemporary issues with perspectives from cosmology, evolutionary biology and bioethics.

Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion

Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion
Author: J. P. F. Wynne
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107070481

Do the gods love you? Cicero gives deep and surprising answers in two philosophical dialogues on traditional Roman religion.

The Failure of Natural Theology

The Failure of Natural Theology
Author: Jeffrey D Johnson
Publisher: New Studies in Theology Series
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2021-09-15
Genre: Natural theology
ISBN: 9781952599378

Aristotle's cosmological argument is the foundation of Aquinas's doctrine of God. For Thomas, the cosmological argument not only speaks of God's existence but also of God's nature. By learning that the unmoved mover is behind all moving objects, we learn something true about the essence of God-principally, that God is immobile. But therein lies the problem for Thomas. The Catholic Church had already condemned Aristotle's unmoved mover because, according to Aristotle, the unmoved mover is unable to be the moving cause (i.e., Creator) and governor of the universe-or else he would cease to be immobile. By seeking to baptize Aristotle into the Catholic Church, however, Thomas gave his life to seeking to explain how God can be both immobile and the moving cause of the universe. Thomas even looked to the pantheistic philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysius for help. But even with Dionysius's aid, Thomas failed to reconcile the god of Aristotle with the Trinitarian God of the Bible. If Thomas would have rejected the natural theology of Aristotle by placing the doctrine of the Trinity, which is known only by divine revelation, at the foundation of his knowledge of God, he would have rid himself of the irresolvable tension that permeates his philosophical theology. Thomas could have realized that the Trinity alone allows for God to be the only self-moving being-because the Trinity is the only being not moved by anything outside himself but freely capable of creating and controlling contingent things in motion.

The Philosophy and Natural Theology of Religion

The Philosophy and Natural Theology of Religion
Author: Anthony Walsh
Publisher: Ethics International Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2024-05-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1804416819

This book is about the philosophy of religion, with strong scientific content from a theistic perspective. It looks at the origin and evolution of the religious impulse, with an emphasis on Plato and Aristotle. After looking at philosophical, ontological, and cosmological arguments for God’s existence, four chapters look at the religious significance of the Big Bang, abiogenesis, the complexity of DNA, and evolution. It draws on social science and historical data in the evaluation of the atheistic alternative to theism, as well as the multiverse explanation as an alternative to the incredible fine-tuning parameters of our universe. The final chapters take on significant theological issues such as the nature of sacred writings, the problem of evil, hell versus universal salvation, miracles, natural theology, the resurrection, and the Shroud of Turin.

Our Knowledge of God

Our Knowledge of God
Author: K.J. Clark
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401125767

Natural theology is the project of articulating, defending and CntlClzmg arguments for the existence and nature of God without the aid of special revelation. Philosophical theology, which employs the rational methods of natural theology, is not restricted to premises that are discernible through observation and reason; it may rightly employ premises that are knowable through special revelation. While the project of natural theology may be construed as an attempt to demonstrate God's existence, one cannot ignore the importance of using reason or experience to understand, determine or assess attributes. One will want to know at the conclusion of a proof in natural God's theology if one has proved the existence of God and not merely the prim urn mobilum, source of moral obligation or a committee of finite designers; while God may be the prime mover and designer of the cosmos, none of these attributes alone is sufficient for making a claim to divinity. It is, therefore, difficult to distinguish sharply the project of natural theology from philosophi cal theology. The project of classical natural theology has been the attempt to prove God's existence and nature with arguments that employ premises that all rational creatures are obliged to accept.

Natural Theology

Natural Theology
Author: William Paley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2008-04-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199535752

William Paley set out to prove the existence of God from the evidence of the beauty and order of the natural world. This edition sets his work in the context of the theological, philosophical, and scientific debates of the nineteenth century.