Geht die Physikotheologie der Ethikotheologie vorher? Ein Blick auf Kants Prioritätsthese

Kant-Studien ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Kravitz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Priority Thesis ◽  
The Way

Abstract:Two kinds of natural theology discussed by Kant have thus far been intensively investigated: physicotheology and ethicotheology. However, the question concerning their precise relation to each other has been ignored. As I argue, understanding the way in which Kant conceived of this relation is crucial for understanding his approach to natural theology as a whole. In this paper I illuminate this relation in light of Kant’s priority thesis, according to which physicotheology precedes ethicotheology, and I show that the prevalent view, according to which physicotheology and ethicotheology are two separate kinds of theologies, must be revised.

John Ray, physico-theology and afterwards

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
John Ray ◽  
The Way

Ray's most widely read book was his Wisdom of God manifested in the works of creation (1691), probably based on addresses given in the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge 20 years previously. In it he forswore the use of allegory in biblical interpretation, just as he had done in his (and Francis Willughby's) Ornithology (1678). His discipline seeped into theology, complementing the influence of the Reformers and weakening Enlightenment assumptions about teleology, thus softening the hammer-blows of Darwinism on Deism. The physico-theology of the eighteenth century and the popularity of Gilbert White and the like survived the squeezing of natural theology by Paley and the Bridgewater Treatises a century after Wisdom … , and contributed to a peculiarly British understanding of natural theology. This undergirded the subsequent impact of the results of the voyagers and geologists and prepared the way for a modern reading of God's “Book of Works” (“Darwinism … under the disguise of a foe, did the work of a friend”). Natural theology is often assumed to have been completely discredited by Darwin (as well as condemned by Barth and ridiculed by Dawkins). Notwithstanding, and despite the vapours of vitalism (ironically urged – among others – by Ray's biographer, Charles Raven) and the current fashion for “intelligent design”, the attitudes encouraged by Wisdom … still seem to be robust, albeit needing constant re-tuning (as in all understandings influenced by science).

Historical Origins

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-45
Author(s):  
J. Arvid Ågren
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Group Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Living World ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historical Origins ◽  
The Way

This chapter traces the origins of the gene’s-eye view through three sections of evolutionary biology. The first is adaptationism, the tradition that takes the appearance of design in living world to be the cardinal problem a theory of evolution needs to explain. The chapter shows how this view has been especially prominent in British biology, owing the strong standing of natural theology and the writings of William Paley. The second is the emergence of population genetics during the modern synthesis. Here, the work of R.A. Fisher was particularly important. The third and final section was the levels selection debate and the rejection of group selection. G.C. Williams led the way the way and the origin of the gene’s-eye view culminated with the publication of The Selfish Gene.

Een wandelgids bij het leven: Een analytische evaluatie van de Christelijke Dogmatiek

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Rik Peels
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
The Core ◽  
General Perspective ◽  
The Way

This article provides a critical analysis and evaluation of Gijsbert van den Brink and Kees van der Kooi’s Christian Dogmatics, a lucid and welcome presentation of the core ideas that can be found in the Christian faith. First, the book is characterized, both from a more general perspective and from a specifically theological point of view. Next, it is argued that there is a discrepancy between the way the authors characterize systematic theology and the way they practice systematic theology themselves. After that, their assessment of natural theology is criticized and several problems in the Christian Dogmatics are highlighted, such as the fact that the authors’ anthropology fails to take holistic dualism seriously. Finally, it is argued that in some places, the authors ask important questions, but then provide answers to different questions without addressing the original issues.

Montaigne, Translator of Raymond Sebond

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireille Habert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Patient Study ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Cutting Out ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

Published in 1569, eleven years before the Essays came out, Natural Theology is the first printed work signed by the hand of Montaigne. It is not his own creation but a translation into French of a lengthy volume written in Latin around 1430 at the University of Toulouse by theologian Raymond Sebond. This translation was, for a long time, considered to be a simple stylistic exercise. Montaigne himself never professed to have done more than gain the satisfaction of succeeding at “cutting out and setting forth with [his] hand a French costume for the Spanish theologian and philosopher.” However, Montaigne’s patient study of Sebond’s thick volume was more than just an opportunity for his formal enrichment. Through questions regarding the way faith and reason engage with each other, the translator takes the first steps of a personal reflection on the human mind’s capacity to access the truth.

The Theodicy

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-205
Author(s):  
Paul Lodge
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Face ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides an overview of one of Leibniz’s longest and most important works, the Theodicy. It is argued that the Theodicy is best understood against a careful reading of the Preface, where Leibniz outlines the primary aim of the book, i.e. to provide the means by which natural theology and Leibniz’s conception of God as a being deserving of love may be maintained in the face of objections that stem from considering the nature of freedom and the so-called “problem of evil”. Due to space constraints, the chapter presents the main issues by focusing mainly on their presentation in Part1 rather than on the way in which Leibniz contrasts his views with those of with Pierre Bayle in Parts 2 and 3. It also includes a detailed discussion of the Preliminary Dissertation on the Conformity of Faith with Reason, in which Leibniz spells out his conception of the relationship between these notions.

scholarly journals Some Barthian perspectives on the present science-religion debate: What is the place of “natural theology” today?

2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornel W. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Current Science ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

As an example of the context-relatedness of Barth’s work, this article compares his crisis theology with Heidegger’s philosophy of Being. Further examples are Barth’s reaction to the modernism of his time, with its accent on rationalism (see his critique of Kant), and the influence of subjective theology. In spite of his condemnation of natural theology, Barth could make a unique contribution to the current science-theology debate. His reading of the creation story and the way he views (transcends) the literal text in order to experience the Word of God as an event through that text, is a case in point. This approach, too, is comparable with certain aspects of Heidegger’s work. Barth’s reaction to the natural theology of his day was equally tied to that context. His particular target was the theology of that era which he interpreted as “natural theology”. To Barth, natural theology is metaphor for self-assertive, autonomous human beings who, via reason, manipulate the church, the Word and tradition.

John Macmurray: Theology as Philosophy

1973 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leland J. White
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Dimension ◽  
John Macmurray ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

The philosopher John Macmurray's specifically theological intent, contribution, and method stand strangely neglected. In the past decade theologians have argued that his philosophic work might suggest a new natural theology. Such is the case in appreciative comments by John A. T. Robinson and Thomas A. Langford. Both focus on the primacy that Macmurray accords the ‘personal’, and the bearing that this might have on an apologetic for the ‘religious dimension of life’. That Macmurray, however, might be more adequately interpreted as theologian than as philosopher only, that his philosophy itself might legitimately be considered the development of a theological position, and that finally his work might point the way toward reorientation of the relationship between theology and other human sciences will be argued in this article.

scholarly journals Doing natural theology consistently with theism and why one might stop trying

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-351
Author(s):  
T. J. MAWSON
Keyword(s):  
Actual World ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

AbstractTheists such as Swinburne who seek to use natural theological arguments to move from observations about the world to conclusions about the existence (or probable existence) of God seem to need premises concerning what the world would have been like were Theism to have been false, viz. premises to the effect that it would have been (or would probably have been) different from the way we observe the actual world to be. Surely only that way could observations of the actual world be taken to be evidence that Theism is true.1 And surely for such arguments to be dialectically powerful in discussions with Atheists, these premises need to be acceptable to Theists and Atheists alike.2 In this article, I call these claims into question.

scholarly journals Brewer and Flagg’s Insect Choirs

Le Simplegadi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (21) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Jan Marten Ivo Klaver
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
The Way

The second half of the nineteenth century saw two partly competing, partly overlapping explanations for the intricate relations of organisms to the environment. Starting from William Paley’s idea of Natural Theology and Ernst Haeckel’s concept of ecology, and how these two strands of looking at nature come together in Pope Francis’s both teleological and Wordsworthian ecological approach in Laudato si’, this essay concentrates on the way two successful naturalist writers, Cobham Brewer in England and Wilson Flagg in America, express their enchantment with the ‘music’ produced by insect choirs through their respective religious and ecological ideas of nature

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