A Call to Theology of Nature

Looking for a place to insert this reply since my other comments were moved/split to a new thread. NT Wright’s perspective that the whole creation is a demonstration of the love of God is spot on. It is how we know from nature/creation that God exists, is powerful, and aspects of his character. To claim that he is primarily hidden denies this abundant revelation that God has intentionally infused in creation… because it is at the heart of his purpose for it all.

I am not willing to concede to as much of a paradox as @Guy_Coe Coe implies in nature’s revelation of God. Nor am I willing to throw my hands up and say God is usually hidden @swamidass and we must ask why. I contend that he is not hidden and our roles as scientists and theologians as natural theologians must tackle this head on.

Wisdom is not the same as knowledge of God. The latter is a requirement for the former but the two should not be conflated. To say God is usually hidden raises the question Josh raises, why? But to say he is in effect usually hidden (because of the failure to see or look or acknowledge or proclaim it) does not mean that nature/creation fails to constantly and consistently show God’s existence, power and character. I think this is where we as Christian scientists need to embrace a role as natural theologians… whether we are OEC or EC (or even YEC or none of the above). It is what @Eddie and @jongarvey are getting at in their critique of many in the BioLogos camp who are claiming mystery without working out the nitty gritty details of how Bios and Logos fit together and not just lay side by side.

This quest for integration is exactly how I find myself at RTB. And I’m not saying we’ve got it all right or that one can’t be an EC and pursue integration. But if it’s not at a fundamental level of teleology and revelation that God infuses into all of creation and in the secondary causal events that we study in science, I don’t know where it is and I don’t know how anyone can call a perspective that denies God’s action in revelation in the created order “Christian” or biblical.

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