Physico-Theology

Physico-theology describes the view that evidence for God’s existence can be found by studying the natural world. The term physico-theology refers to the idea first mentioned by Thomas Aquinas in his “Summa Theologica” (p. 1273), stating the teleological argument that the existence of God is given by the physico-theological proof, a posteriori by the design of nature, beyond human interference.

The idea of physico-theology was dominated by the public attention that this idea reached in taking the design argument into account rather than a philosophical reasoning for the construction of the natural world through God.

Natural Theology

Physico-theology is a subcategory of natural theology, a branch of theology dealing with reason and experience. As opposed to revealed theology, which is based on scripture and the a priori reasoning of transcendental theology. It is thus a theology based on the view that the existence of God, or in polytheism Gods, can be described in an entirely philosophical way, without reference to any supernatural revelation.

History

Historically physico-theology was intended to give religious meaning and significance to the successes of the scientific revolution in the course of the 15th to the 18th century.

The influential work on physico-theology by John Ray (1627-1705) offered a way of combining new scientific findings with a culture largely shaped by theological concerns. This concern is best described by quoting the self-explanatory title of his work “The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation” (p.1691).

The philosopher William Derham is usually claimed to be the founder of physicotheology and its greatest contributor.

William Derham (1657–1735), contemporary of John Ray, has a great impact on natural theology in Stuart England. Derham himself continued with Ray’s work on natural theology with his two books on “Physico-Theology” (p. 1713) and “Astro-Theology” (p. 1714). He later published his third work concerning the teleological approach towards the existence of God, “Christ-Theology” (p.1730).

The complete content of his physico-theological work becomes evident when looking at the full title of his first book which is as follows: “Physico-theology or, a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from his Works of Creation”

Sources

Brooke, John Hedley. Science and Religion. Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: CUP, 1991.

Craig, William Lane and J.P. Moreland, eds. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2012.

Derham, William. Physico-Theology. (1713). Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1976.

Dunes, Dagobert D, ed. Dictionary of Philosophy. 15th ed. Paterson: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1964.

Evans, Stephen C. Natural Signs and Knowledge of God. A New Look at Theistic Arguments. Oxford: OUP, 2010.

Glacken, Clarence J. Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought From Ancient Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.