Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature
Description
pp. 343-363 (PDF pp. 360-380): Feser's article "Natural & Supernatural"; cf. Garrigou-Lagrange, D e revelatione vol. 1 on this topic.
13 Natural and Supernatural
01/12/2613 Natural and Supernatural : 375
Once we know by reason, independently of faith, that something has in fact been revealed by God, faith is a matter of afrming it because it has been revealed by him.
01/12/2613 Natural and Supernatural : 376
natural powers. What our natural powers yield is knowledge of a proposition such as: God has revealed the doctrine of the Trinity. But this (naturally knowable) proposition is not the object of faith. Rather, the doctrine of the Trinity itself (which is not naturally knowable) is the object of faith. And it is afrmed because God has revealed it, not because our natural powers tell us that God has revealed it. The latter is merely a precondition of faith and not itself the object of faith. It is also the judgement that God has revealed a doctrine that grounds the frmness of faith; it is not the judgement that our natural powers tell us that God has revealed it that grounds it.
This book explores the relationship between a scientifically updated Aristotelian philosophy of nature and a scientifically engaged theology of nature. It features original contributions by some of the best scholars engaging with Aristotelianism in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophical theology.
Despite the growing interest in Aristotelian approaches to contemporary philosophy of science, few metaphysicians have engaged directly with the question of how a neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of nature might change the landscape for theological discussion concerning theology and naturalism, the place of human beings within nature, or the problem of divine causality. The chapters in this volume are collected into three thematic sections: Naturalism and Nature, Mind and Nature, and God and Nature. By pushing the current boundaries of neo-Aristotelian metaphysics to recover the traditional notion of substantial forms in physics, reframe the principle of proportionality in biology, and restore the hierarchy of being familiar to ancient philosophy, this book advances a metaphysically unified framework that accommodates both scientific and theological knowledge, enriching the interaction between science, philosophy and theology.
Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of science, natural theology, philosophical theology, and analytic theology.
Chapters 1, 2, and 7 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- Introduction: Reflections on Science, Theology, and the New Aristotelianism
- Part 1 Naturalism and Nature
- 1 From Quantum Physics to Classical Metaphysics
- 2 Essential Thermochemical and Biological Powers
- 3 Restoring the Hierarchy of Being
- 4 Evolution and the Principle of Proportionality
- Part 2 Mind and Nature
- 5 Free Will in a Network of Interacting Causes
- 6 Animal Powers and Human Agency
- 7 The Power to Perform Experiments
- 8 Logical and Mathematical Powers
- 9 Persons, Souls, and Life After Death
- 10 Angels, Principalities, and Powers
- Part 3 God and Nature
- 11 Grounding and Participation in God
- 12 God and Hylomorphism
- 13 Natural and Supernatural
- 14 God, Chance and Evolution: In Memory of Benjamin Arbour
- 15 Teleology, Providence, and Powers
- 16 Divine Lawmaking: Powers and Kinds
- Epilogue
- About the Contributors
- Index