Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Natural theology

The attempt to establish a reasoned knowledge of God — his existence and some attributes — from general revelation, without appeal to Scripture or special revelation.

Latin theologia naturalis, as distinct from theologia revelata.

Grounded in Romans 1:20 ('understood … through the things that have been made'); the reasoning-from-creation pattern of Acts 17 and Wisdom 13.

The classical theistic arguments — cosmological, teleological/design, moral, contingency (Aquinas's 'five ways'; Paley; the modern kalām and fine-tuning arguments). Affirmed and used by Catholic (Vatican I) and much classical Protestant theology; rejected as a method by Barth ('Nein!') and treated cautiously by the Reformed because of sin's effect on reason.

Its proper role, for those who accept it, is real but limited and Scripture-governed — it can point toward a Creator but cannot reach the Trinity, the incarnation, or the gospel.

Whether unaided reason can reach 'certainty' about God (Vatican I) or only a distorted knowledge (Calvin) or nothing reliable (Barth); which apologetic method follows (evidentialism, Reformed epistemology, presuppositionalism).

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.