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

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 INDICE: Introduction .1. Natural Theology: Questions of Definition and Scope .The Aim of this Work .A Brief Genealogy of Natural Theology .Natural Theology: Six Approaches .The Natural Theology Project: Thick and Thin Descriptions .In Defence of a Christian Natural Theology Project .The Christian Accommodation of Classic Natural Theology .2. Natural Theology and the Christian Imaginarium .Sensorium and Imaginarium: Christianity and the Re–Imagination of Nature .Modernity and the Suppression of the Imagination .Metanoia: Seeing things as they really are .Imaginative Transformation: The Church as an Interpretive Community .The ria: Imaginative Beholding and Rational Dissection .Nature as logikos: Reflections on the Doctrine of Creation .Metaphors of Beauty and Order: Harmony and the Dance .3. Text, Image, and Sign: On Framing the Natural World .Natural Theology as a Habitus .The Intellectual Challenge of the Ambiguity of the World .Nature as a Text: Natural Theology and the Book of Nature .The Origins of the Notion of the Book of Nature .Mathematics as the Language of Nature? .Framing the Book of Nature: Gérard Genette .A World outside the Text of Nature? Paul Ric ur .Nature as an Image: Natural Theology and Landscapes .Framing a Landscape: On changing the observer s perspective .Seeing a Bigger Picture: An Expanded Context of Interpretation .Nature as a Sign: Natural Theology and Semiotics .C. S. Peirce s Theory of Signs .Natural Theology and the Sign of the Cross .4. Natural Theology: Contexts and Motivations .The Importance of Cultural Location for Natural Theology .A New Vocational Space: Natural Theology as a Religious Calling .The Wasteland: Natural Theology and the Recovery of a Lost Nature .Wonder and Mystery: Transcendent Experiences .Re–Enchantment: Sustaining a Sense of Wonder? .The Rational Transparency of Nature and Faith .Connectedness: The Human Longing for Coherence .Meaning: Nature and Ultimate Questions .Natural Theology as a Natural Quest .5. Natural Theology: Some Concerns and Challenges .Natural Theology: Improper and Redundant? .Ontotheology? Natural Theology and Philosophical First Principles .David Hume: The Intellectual Inadequacy of a Deist Natural Theology .Charles Taylor: Natural Theology and the Immanent Frame .Barth and Brunner: The Debate which discredited Natural Theology? .Fideism: Natural Theology as Self–Referential and Self–Justifying? .6. The Promise of a Christian Natural Theology .The Natural Sciences: Natural Theology and the Subversion of Scientism .The Affective Imagination: Natural Theology and the Spirituality of Nature .Boundaries and Trespass: Natural Theology and Systematic Theology .Apologetics: Natural Theology and Public Engagement .Conclusion .Bibliography .Index

• ISBN: 978-1-119-04630-1
• Editorial: Wiley–Blackwell
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 256
• Fecha Publicación: 03/06/2016
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés