The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology

In The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology, Michael Sudduth examines prominent objections to natural theology that have emerged in the Reformed streams of the Protestant theological tradition. Sudduth shows that the flexibility of the project of developing rational arguments for the existence and nature of God has produced a diversity of models of natural theology within the tradition. When viewed over against this background, Reformed objections to natural theology are best construed as objections to particular models of natural theology. While some of these models are vulnerable to various theological and philosophical criticisms, Sudduth argues for a philosophically plausible model of natural theology that is consistent with the internal logic of Reformed theology. According to this model of natural theology, rational theistic arguments represent the reflective reconstruction of the natural knowledge of God by the Christian in the context of dogmatic theology.There continues to be substantial discussion in contemporary philosophy of religion concerning the compatibility of and relationship between immediate and inferential modes of knowing God. By examining different ways in which immediacy and inference can make complementary and mutually supportive contributions to the knowledge of God, the book makes an important contribution to the epistemology of belief in God.

Michael Sudduth is Lecturer in Philosophy at San Francisco State University, USA.