Re-Imagining Nature: The Promise of a Christian Natural Theology

ISBN-13: 9781119046301 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 256 str.

Alister E. McGrath

Opis

Reimagining 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.

• This text sets out to explore what a properly Christian approach to natural theology might look like and how this relates to alternative interpretations of our experience of the natural world
• Alister McGrath is ideally placed to write the book as one of the world's best known theologians and a chief proponent of natural theology
• This new work offers an account of the development of natural theology throughout history and informs of its likely contribution in the present
• This feeds in current debates about the relationship between science and religion, and religion and the humanities
• Engages in serious theological dialogue, primarily with Augustine, Aquinas, Barth and Brunner, and includes the work of natural scientists, philosophers of science, and poets

Recenzje

"Encounter this book with enormous respect. In this remarkable text, McGrath is judicious, audacious, and perceptive. Setting the entire project of Natural Theology in an historical context, he weaves together an account of natural theology that is innovative, powerful and intriguing. Critics and advocates for Natural Theology alike will have their worldview changed as they encounter this remarkable argument."Ian S. Markham, Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary"This theological book emerges from a deep and integrating vision of creation - the natural world appreciated through the Christian imaginarium. Composed in crystalline prose, McGrath explores the complexity of theologia naturalis in a way that is both insightful and erudite. He enriches the particularities of place with a spiritually always and only historically and culturally localised. In a time of global ecological concerns, this is a much needed labour. Christians need to engage these concerns, rooting them profoundly in a thick account of reality and what it is to be alive. There's a promise of transformation in doing this, and McGrath knows it. This book is an exciting testimony to the imaginative power behind that promised potential."Graham Ward, University of Oxford"In this game-changing book, Alister McGrath develops a thick theology of nature from a distinctly Christian point of view. He expertly tackles topics that are underexplored in traditional natural theology, such as the moral and aesthetic ambiguity of nature, emphasising the importance of both rational and imaginative ways of engaging with nature."Helen de Cruz, Oxford Brookes University"Being informed about natural theology is essential to any substantive understanding of the relationship of science and theology. The present book nicely sums up and carries further his indispensable contributions to the topic."John F Haught, author of Science and Faith: A New introduction"In contemporary theology, the project of natural theology has many opponents. In his latest book, Re-Imagining Nature, McGrath presents an ambitious vision for retrieving a holistic Christian understanding of natural theology that goes beyond the rationalistic proofs of God's existence of the 19th century. By stressing the imaginative powers of human beings and not just rational ones, McGrath defends a thick and contextual but at the same time traditional model of Christian natural theology as a way of seeing the world. A stellar addition to the contemporary literature on natural theology."Aku Visala, University of Helsinki

Spis treści

Introduction 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

O autorze

Alister McGrath is currently Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford; he was previously Professor of Theology and Education at King s College, London. He is regarded as one of the world s leading Protestant theologians and is the author of some of the world s most widely used theological textbooks, including the bestselling Science and Religion (Wiley–Blackwell, 2010), Christianity (Wiley–Blackwell, 2015), Christian Theology (Wiley–Blackwell, 2016), and The Christian Theology Reader, (5th edition, 2016). He is in constant demand as a speaker at conferences throughout the world, especially in Southeast Asia.