Natural Theology | Dictionary of Moral Apologetics

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This entry is part of a series on the definitions of terms related to moral apologetics. Each entry consists of a word, its “jargon-buster“ definition in plain English, its technical definition, practical application to daily life and the moral argument, related terms, and resources to learn more.

Word

natural theology

Jargon-Buster

Experiencing God, all around. 

Have you ever looked at a mountain, ocean, intricate plant, or captivating creature, and felt such a sense of wonder, peace, or delight that your thoughts turned toward the divine? If so, then you have experienced what scholars call “natural theology;” that is, things we can know and learn about God through nature.  

Sound like something practiced by tree-hugging hippies, with no defensible place in Christianity? Natural theology is actually a form of philosophical study that aspires to the same standards of rational investigation and critical evaluation as any other scientific enterprise. The idea of natural theology begins to unfold as far back as the ancient Greeks, and scores of great minds since have studied it. Natural theology is not the same as “revealed theology,” a term that encompasses special revelation such as miracles, direct supernatural communication from the Divine, and creeds. 

Christians turn to natural theology not only to confirm that God exists but to learn about the character of God through his works. Natural theology is a powerful apologetic tool because it is experiential, and therefore well suited to break past communication barriers. 

Technical Definition

Natural theology is distinguished from revealed theology. The former derives what can be known about God by reason (empirical and rational faculties) alone. The latter derives what can be known about God by information communicated directly by God, unmediated by nature and reflection. In this sense, natural and revealed theology have an analog with general revelation—truths God has revealed through patterns in natural and human history—and special revelation—miracles, prophets, prayer, and constellations of events.

Natural theology, however, is a branch of philosophy of religion, whereas general revelation is a branch of Christian theology. These two subjects may intersect most widely in what is called ramified natural theology, which uses reason to derive what can be known about particular views of God (as in God as a Trinity, Tawhid, or Brahman). Relatedly, doubly ramified natural theology uses reason to derive what can be known about theological distinctives within those particular views of God (as in Calvinist, Arminian, Molinist, and Thomist schools of thought within Christianity).

Though the project of natural theology arose among medieval theologians (notably Thomas Aquinas with his Five Ways), it was generally rejected by Reformers, then returned as a movement in the 17th and 18th centuries among deists and Christian philosophers, such as William Paley (whose work Natural Theology had considerable influence). John Cobb Jr.’s A Christian Natural Theology argued for a ramified process theology in the late modern period.

Arguments in natural theology infer God from a priori (before experience) and a posterior (after experience) knowledge. Ontological arguments infer God from the nature of being. Cosmological arguments infer God from the contingency of the universe. Teleological arguments infer God from purpose found in the natural order. Moral arguments infer God from moral phenomena. The current renaissance of Christian philosophy among the Anglo-American world has brought with it a revitalization of traditional a priori and a posteriori arguments for God’s existence.

Anselm’s ontological argument has been reformulated using possible world semantics in Alvin Plantinga’s modal ontological argument. Arguments from Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas, and others have been revived in Edward Feser’s Five Proofs. The cosmological argument has gained mathematical and scientific rigor with William Lane Craig’s kalam cosmological argument. Paley’s teleological argument has likewise found new depth with the discoveries of irreducible and specified complexity in biology (cf. Michael Behe and Stephen C. Meyer) and the low likelihood of embodied rational agents existing given fine-tuning in astrophysics (cf. Robin Collins and Luke Barnes). Kant’s moral argument has been expanded by David Baggett to include moral facts, knowledge, transformation, and moral rationality.

On the ramified level, the Christian has the upper hand in accounting for the evidential problem of evil and arbitrariness objections against greatest possible being theology. It does so by including, in its hypothesis, fine grain explicatives such as the Trinity, imago Dei, and crucifixion. These three essential Christian doctrines convey an essentially loving God (participating in a perichoretic relationship sans creation), human beings with the relational property necessary to be loved, and an omnibenevolent being who would become incarnate and die for the sins of the world. Love, as the grounding attribute for God’s relationship to us in Christian theism, expiates the moral facts where generic theism misses the mark. Further, on the doubly ramified level, such a God gives us reason to renounce the doctrine of limited atonement. David Baggett and Ronnie Campbell point out that for those whom Jesus did not die for, God has not shown his love for them in any ultimately significant way. As such, an abductive approach to natural theology shows that at least one point of Calvinism is deficient.

Practical Application

Moral arguments are prime examples of natural theology. Insofar as thoughts, behaviors, objects, or events contain a moral (or even an immoral) component, such thoughts, behaviors, objects, or events provide evidence for God. Wherever there are values, duties, responsibilities, character development, and so on, there is an argument for God to be articulated. From popular culture to our professional and private lives, we can find intimations of God’s goodness.

Related Terms

general revelation; special revelation; revealed theology; natural theology, ramified; natural theology, doubly ramified; God, conceptions of; moral arguments, history of; moral arguments for God’s existence; evil, problem of

Learn More

  • Brunner, Emil and Karl Barth. Natural Theology: Comprising “Nature and Grace” by Professor Dr. Emil Brunner and the reply “No!” by Dr. Karl Barth. Wipf and Stock. 2002.

  • Collins, Francis S. Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Free Press. 2007.

  • Craig, William Lane and J. P. Moreland. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Wiley. 2009.

  • Evans, C. Stephen. Natural Signs and Knowledge of God: A New Look at Theistic Arguments. Oxford University Press. 2012.

  • McGrath, Alister E. Re-Imagining Nature: The Promise of a Christian Natural Theology. Wiley. Kindle Edition. 2017.

  • Sennett, James F. and Douglas Groothuis. In Defense of Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment. IVP Academic. 2005.

  • Walls, Jerry L. and Trent Dougherty. Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. Oxford University Press. 2018.