This study aims to present an effort for an encounter between Christian faith and science in Alister E. McGrath’s thinking. The process of encountering both Christian faith and science is mediated by Christian natural theology. Christian natural theology is the result of rethinking conventional natural theology by McGrath. This is carried out because the meaning of conventional natural theology as an interface of Christian faith and science is not in accordance with Christian faith. The efforts to encounter Christian faith and science through conventional natural theology are something that is not possible, because conventional natural theology is denoted as pure theology centred on the rationality of scientific thought alone. In this article, we will show how Christian natural theology as a result of thinking by McGrath can be a medium for an encounter between Christian faith and science. The analysis of this article is generally based on the writings of McGrath, which are only partially reconciled with the views of several other theologies. Data collection was carried out through a literature study and described descriptively. The result of the research is a description of the encounter between Christian faith and science mediated by Christian natural theology. McGrath established Christian natural theology on observations in critical reality, Christian history and the word of God (Gn 1 and 2), allowing the human intellect to have a strong relationship with the order and beauty of nature that God created. This is the reason why the encounter between Christian faith and science based on McGrath’s concept of thought is more likely to reveal the truth in the reality of the Christian faith’s life.
This study recommends that efforts be made to identify faith, science and natural theology in the work of Alister E. McGrath. This article has contributed to highlighting natural theology, which is still under long discussion, especially in the context of the Christian faith and the ambiguity of nature, which is also important in various disciplines, including theology, natural science and science.
God, man and nature have become an endless discussion, started by Jeremiah in the Old Testament era (50sM). The existence and characteristics of God form the subject of natural theology, which seeks divine knowledge based on reason and world experience. The discussion of natural theology is primarily based on intuition and reasoning that looks natural to us and occurs spontaneously. Perhaps even for non-philosophy, seeing beautiful landscapes or being amazed by the complexity of the universe. However, a few Christians do not comment, they remain silent because they do not have adequate knowledge about science, understanding of natural theology, Christian theology and Christian faith relations and science. But the problem is what is the magnitude of natural theology like? So as to mediate the encounter between Christian faith and science.
In the Age of Enlightenment, where truth was centred on the rationality of science, natural theology was understood as something autonomous with pure science, without the need for the word of God (McGrath
Efforts to encounter Christian faith and science become something that is impossible if it is based on conventional natural theology because the understanding of conventional natural theology is not in accordance with Christian faith. Conventional natural theology (Belgic Confession
Natural Christian theology was built by McGrath based on observations in critical reality, Christian history, God’s word (Gn 1 and 2) and Jesus Christ who was incarnated in human nature. God created man in the image of God, so that allows the human mind to have a strong relationship with the order and beauty of nature that God has created. This is the reason why the encounter between Christian faith and science based on the concept of McGrath’s thinking is considered to reveal things that are true in the reality of the Christian faith life. This is something that is relevant to understand in our current era, given that so many natural events have occurred in both past and present, including in Indonesia.
This article will explore Alister E. McGrath’s writings, which the authors consider the most adequate in discussing McGrath’s natural theology itself in discussing efforts to encounter Christian faith and science. Data were collected through literature study and described descriptively. The stages of the discussion are as follows: (1) Briefly describe McGrath’s identity and scientific work. (2) What conventional natural theology assumes of enlightenment looks like? (3) What is the natural theology according to McGrath? (4) What is Christianity’s approach to natural theology? (5) How is Christian natural theology concerned with the Christian God? (6) How is the Christian faith in the ambiguity of nature? (7) Draw conclusions.
British theologian Alister McGrath began his academic studies in 1971 with a double PhD from Oxford University, both in Molecular Biophysics and Theology. He continued his scientific research at Oxford under the supervision of Professor Sir George Radda, working on the biophysical properties of biological membranes. Simultaneously, he began studying Christian theology, and in 1978, he was granted the Denyer and Johnson Prize by the University of Oxford for highest achievement in the Final Honours School of Theology. McGrath was then transferred to the University of Cambridge, where he researched historical theology, in preparation for a further engagement in more detail with the fields of science and religion. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1983 and remained there until 2008. After a series of publications related to the development of Christian doctrine, particularly in the 16th century, McGrath became involved in the fields of science and religion. His first publication in this area,
McGrath argues that the parable of Jesus from Nazareth insists that nature, when interpreted correctly, has the capacity to express God. The parable is truly a completely critical perception for natural theology, for it appears to mean that nature holds the important thing to God’s knowledge. However, the myth of Jesus of Nazareth additionally shows that despite a fact that the natural world is accessible to the public, it’s actual that means can be hidden (McGrath
So how can we say that nature ‘speaks’? Or do you ‘discover’ the presence of God and the natural world? We explore alternative answers that are so influential to this question that, to some extent, have shaped the modern approach to natural theology. A discussion of natural theology arose during this period, shaped by the means of it is to postulate an Enlightenment in which nature will rest in trouble, through the unreasonable use of the human mind to reveal reliable information about God. There is nothing ‘secret’ or ‘hidden’ in natural, that is, human thought is prepared to reveal its true masses (McGrath
The word ‘enlightenment’ is widely used to refer to a major intellectual and cultural movement, dating back to the 18th century, which later swept away much of Europe and North America (McGrath
The use of the term ‘enlightenment’ becomes problematic, when academics now have suggested that major movements in Western thinking are better understood as ‘enlightenment groups,’ sharing a not unusual place dedicated to middle thoughts and values, but displaying diversity. At different points, the concept that the enlightenment is characterised with the aid of using an exact set of thoughts has proved very tough to protect historically; better understood as ‘an attitude of mind, rather than a coherent set of beliefs’ (McGrath
McGrath argues that any attempt to discover and propose natural theology increases essential questions on the definition. How is natural theology understood? And who has the right to make such normative decisions? Any dialogue of whether or not natural theology is beneficial or destructive, worth or inappropriate, clever or foolish, actual Christian or pagan, relies upon an awful lot on how that know how is defined and the idealistic paintings wherein it stands (McGrath
So, what does McGrath mean by Christian natural theology? McGrath argues that through Christian natural theology we can reconsider nature.
What is then meant by McGrath with Christian Natural Theology? McGrath argues that a Christian natural theology allows us to reimagine nature. In talking about such intellectual permissive actions, McGrath does not mean that it encourages false inflation of our understanding of nature, or falls into intellectual vacuum or irrationality (McGrath,
McGrath states a theological rearrangement of nature, such a rethinking prompts us to develop principled attention to the details of the natural world that enables us to see what may have been overlooked, to appreciate more complete beauty and wonder and to understand their underlying interrelationships. According to McGrath, the Western theological tradition has six fundamental understandings of natural theology, each of which can be regarded as a construction or interpretation of a broader and richer underlying notion, reflecting the demands or opportunities of the unique environment in which it is anchored (McGrath
Firstly, natural theology is ‘the branch of philosophy that investigates what the unrevealed human mind can say about God’. It is interpreted in this context as an attempt to demonstrate God’s existence or qualities without the aid of supernatural revelation. This is now largely regarded as the established view of natural theology. This technique has tremendous apologetic appeal in the setting of secular culture because it does not rely on or express any distinctive Christian principles. It’s not interesting for the natural world in its entirety but rather to a priori conceptions that could be termed ‘natural’, and it analyses their theistic significance. As a result, natural theology refers to theology that emerges ‘naturally’ in the human mind.
Secondly, natural theology is the demonstration or confirmation of God’s existence based on the natural world’s order and complexity. For apologetic reasons, this particular version of natural theology appears to have originated in the Protestant environment throughout the early modern period. It is commonly referred to as ‘physico-theology’ because of its application to a posteriori observation of order. Concerning nature, which is considered to suggest divine existence, rather than a priori notions about God, which is thought to underpin ontological reasoning. This method avoids the ‘scandal’ of specificity, which came from modernism’s insistence that heavenly truth be universally accessible rather than historically or culturally distinctive. When secularism became a pressing worry in Western Europe in the 19th century, this approach to the theology of nature within Catholicism became increasingly relevant. The First Vatican Council’s Decree (1870) acknowledged this transition, stating that God ‘may be known with certainty by reason, things produced in the natural light of human reason’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica
Thirdly, natural theology is the intellectual product of the human mind’s natural inclination to desire or incline to God. This approach has traditionally appealed to Thomas Aquinas’s ‘natural desire to see God’, but recent advances in the cognitive science of religion have opened up new options for further exploration of this issue. Other theologians have significantly elaborated on this thesis, most notably in Bernard Lonergan’s reformulation of this premise as an innate human intelligence tendency, equivalent to an infinite desire to understand existence.
Fourthly, the study of the analogy or conceptual resonance that occurs between the human experience of nature on the one hand and the Christian gospel on the other is known as natural theology. This natural theology method typically confines itself to showing the possibility of coherence or compatibility between specific claims of Christian faith and world knowledge drawn from other disciplines or spheres of life. Thus, natural theology articulates and expands on the concept of ‘isomorphism between our reason and the structure of reality’. Variations on this theme can be found in the works of Joseph Butler and John Polkinghorne (McGrath
Fifthly, natural theology is an attempt to show that the ‘naturalistic’ explanations of nature and the outcomes of the natural sciences themselves are appropriate and that a theological approach is needed to provide a comprehensive and coherent interpretation of the natural order. This approach relies on today’s predominant cultural belief that today’s intellectual thinking about nature leads to ‘natural theology’ rather than ‘Natural Theology’, while avoiding the theologically questionable notion of ‘the God of inequality’. This approach to natural theology is particularly important in modern discussions of the metaphysical meaning of science, as it challenges the notion that the naturalistic explanation of privilege is epistemological or ‘neutral’. While speaking openly about his own metaphysical assumptions and narrative missions, he challenges naturalism and admits its own implicit foundations and assumptions. In particular, this approach to natural theology argues that the ‘scientific’ record of reality essentially reduces ‘reality’ to reality. A single layer or perspective is not enough to explain the complexity of the human experience of the world. In the second half of this work, we will return to the problem of such a flat world view (McGrath
Sixthly, natural theology must be regarded principally as ‘natural theology’, that is, as a specific Christian view of the natural world that reflects the essential assumptions of the Christian faith, as opposed to secular or naturalistic accounts of nature. The progress of thought in this case is from inside the Christian tradition towards nature, rather than from nature towards faith (as in the second approach, mentioned here). Natural theology is frequently framed in this way, particularly in the case of the doctrine of creation.
With this plurality of interpretations, some may be tempted to conclude that the concept of ‘natural theology’ is incoherent, open to multiple interpretations and thus no longer valid or meaningful. Thus, natural theology is understood as the act of ‘seeing’ nature from a certain Christian point of view. This involves rejecting the natural version of the enlightenment theology as a generic attempt to demonstrate the existence and attributes of God that are supposed to be of attraction to the natural world. Instead, nature is seen from the perspective of the Christian tradition, with different views on God, nature and human agency. McGrath argues that a significant level of resonance or consonance is observed between theory and observation. In other words, there is a high empirical level between the vision of the reality of the Trinity and what is actually observed. This is not considered as ‘proof’ of the Christian belief in God. His point is that what is observed is in line with the Christian vision of God, which is believed to be true for another reason because it offers a significant degree of intellectual resonance at important points. Natural theology is defined as the capacity of the Christian faith to grasp what is observed, rather than as an attempt to deduce the existence of God from observations of nature. Natural theology emphasises the resonance between faith’s conceptual framework and Christian observation, rather than attempting to prove the essential principles of faith by an appeal to nature.
In contrast to the effort to enlighten universal natural theology through human reason and natural experience, Christian natural theology is clearly founded on and inspired by Christian theology. We insist that understanding Christianity in nature is an intellectual precondition for natural theology that reveals the god of Christianity. The understanding of Christianity in nature is an intellectual premise of natural theology, which reveals the God of Christianity (McGrath
McGrath argues as follows: Can the existence of God be known from science? If anything about God could be known from science, it would become clear that religion and science would share some significant common features (McGrath
Alston defines natural theology as ‘an effort to provide support for religious beliefs by starting from premises that neither exist nor do they presuppose any religious belief’ (Alston
Within Christianity, three general approaches have emerged to the question, can and to what extent, God can be known through nature? It is an appeal to reason, to the order of the world and to the beauty of nature. Let us briefly discuss each of these three approaches, noting that the second and third are of particular importance to the relationship between science and religion. The appeal to human reason is one of the most commonly encountered methods to natural knowledge of God. Augustine of Hippo’s works are a good illustration of this method (354–430), particularly in his major work,
For Augustine, God created man in His image, thus establishing a correspondence between human reason and the ‘deep structure of nature’. As a result, the human mind is ‘fixed’ to distinguish God in creation, either by reflecting on ideas or on the nature of the world (McGrath
Augustine’s vision was developed by other writers, including the great medieval writer, Thomas Aquinas. However, it is not clear, when comparing it with the human mind whether it has direct relevance to the dialogue between science and religion. Indeed, some would suggest that it really leads away from involvement with the natural world, where it implies that the human mind is capable of resolving the question of the existence of God without reference to the natural world. While the second and third approaches of the three considered here, this is more interesting, as both are based on reflections on the natural world itself (McGrath
The world is one of the most significant themes for our research, given its close relationship with scientific findings. Thomas Aquinas’ argument for the existence of God, established in the 13th century is based on the perception that there is an order in nature, which needs to be explained. Likewise, the fact that the human mind can discern and investigate this natural order is very important. There seems to be something about human nature that prompts him to ask questions about the world, just as there is something about the world that allows answers to those questions to be given. This is a recurring theme in the writings of the theoretical physicist and Christian theologian John Polkinghorne (McGrath
We are so familiar with the fact that we can understand the world that most of the time we take it for granted. This is what makes science possible. But it could be the other way around. The universe may be disorderly chaos rather than an orderly cosmos. Or it may have rationality that is inaccessible to us. There is a correspondence between our minds and the universe between natural rationality and unobservable rationality (Polkinghorne
There is a strong correspondence between the rationality we have in mind and the order we observe it as it is in the real world. One of the most striking features of this order is the abstract structure of pure mathematics, a spontaneous creation of the human mind – which, as Polkinghorne notes, still provides significant clues for comprehending the universe (McGrath
Natural theology, which is focused on the sense of beauty that comes from examining the universe, has been established by a number of notable Christian theologians. In the 20th and 18th centuries, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) and Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) both presented such an approach, the former from a Roman Catholic and the later from a reformed perspective (McGrath
Natural theology states that it is important to re-understand nature through natural theology as a foundation that derives its legitimacy and delegation from the Christian tradition rather than some ‘universal’ common principles (McGrath
First of all, how the human quest for transcendence must be viewed as a general cultural phenomenon and not necessarily related to a specific religious tradition or agenda. However, it is clear that this universal quest has had some form and direction by the character of the Christian tradition (McGrath
John 1:1–18 explains God is the only Son, close to the heart of the Father, who has made him known. This prologue provides an intellectual foundation for an embodied approach to natural theology. It begins with the dissemination of the doctrine of creation with the greatest emphasis on the Logos, the word that brings all things into existence. There is no concept of ‘natural theology’ as a prior conceptual system. Instead, we find a vague, opaque and ambiguous conception of the Enlightenment of Creation through the ‘Word’, such as that ‘the Word became flesh’ when we first created creation. The prologue goes on to say that a man who has come to know God can enlighten our hearts so that we can see his reflection in creation. He ‘gets into his place’ so that he can feel his true meaning by inhabiting the physical space and cultural category of the nation of Israel (McGrath
The divine light emanating from the logo allows us to ‘see’ the created order in an accurate way, allowing us to overcome human limitations in discerning the divine. But Christ, the incarnate Word, not only illuminates and interprets creation. He is the one who indulges in this order and changes the ability to point to God. And that’s not all. Christ Himself revealed the disposition and glory of God that had never been seen in man. The revelation of God’s glory thus comes
‘We saw his glory’. This word is in history and nature and you know how to see yourself in history and nature forms and make them famous. In essence, God cannot be invisible, and God enters the creative order visual and inexpensive orders. Terrible words enter the form of the natural order. Therefore, mankind can make everything to create a visible God through visible things. The word entering nature is a natural form and can be used in a natural awareness process. The word is not clearly distinguished, but there is no distinction that it is not clearly distinguished, but there is an important continuity among them (McGrath
This theological framework allows us to explore how the undeniable God became available to human perception both in the natural world and in Jesus Christ. Revelation does not take place outside of nature and history, but within nature and history. When properly viewed and illuminated using the language of John’s preface, nature and history have the power to reveal God. Nature, although limited, can serve as a conduit for God (McGrath
Does the search for the transcendent through nature lead to the Christian God as the Triune God incarnate in Jesus Christ? This is not an empty question (McGrath
This theology puts common questions about nature and humanity in the specific context of the Jesus Christ gospel. As already mentioned, the main claim is that the events of Christ make all theology ‘natural’, as the natural order is redeemed in it. The basis of ‘natural Christian theology’ is ultimately the dogma of incarnation (McGrath
What if nature ‘falls down’, so that its capacity to express God is diminished or distorted? Or if human observers and natural interpreters share their fall, causing a double decline or distortion of God’s glory? (McGrath
Natural theology William Paley praises the well-explained (albeit somewhat selective) natural order by shining an example of God’s wisdom in building great creations. However, the dark side of nature cannot be ignored. While Wordsworth and other Romantics regarded nature as a moral educator, Tennison argued that the only ethic proven in nature was the struggle for survival (McGrath
Ruskin’s concerns cannot be ignored and his changing attitude towards the natural order only reinforces the importance of his emphasis on the importance of ‘seeing’ nature, a characteristic that is highly ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations. This is evident in Ruskin’s final volume of his Modern Painter, which treats Paley’s natural theology as one of history’s most powerful and arguably one of the most powerful (McGrath
The image of God that incarnates suffering along with creation emphasises that living beings’ suffering is not alienated from divine eternity but is eternally and very redeemingly elevated into God’s ‘lifestyle’ (McGrath
This theme, according to McGrath, may be better explored liturgically rather than theologically or philosophically. The Adventist liturgy unites the great themes of Christology, soteriology and eschatology, with a focus on Christ’s second ‘coming’ to free the world from its slavery to sin and corruption (McGrath
In Advent, the church reflects on Christ’s earthly ministry in this morally ambiguous world while also anticipating the full renewal of heaven and earth, the making of all things new and the divine presence to come, which will ultimately result in the restoration of goodness and the end of suffering and pain (Rv 21:1–5) (McGrath
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) transformed biological hypotheses (such as survival of the fittest, natural selection and the struggle for existence) into prescriptions for human moral behaviour (McGrath
This, however, brings up a question that has pervaded this work: How can the natural order be interpreted in order to reveal identity for the better? Nature can be interpreted in a variety of ways, both morally and intellectually and aesthetically (McGrath
In the book
Firstly, moral values are tacitly smuggled into what is essentially a scientific narrative, for example, by presupposing certain ideas about what is good or moral and then showing how science helps us achieve that goal. Secondly, by identifying empirically observable qualities as representing or determining morality, the empirical study of these qualities can be equated with the scientific determination of moral values. But in 2010, Dawkins changed his mind about this very important thing. After reading Sam Harris’s Moral Landscape (2010), he stated that he now realises that he ‘accidentally bought into the hectoring myth that science can say nothing about morals’ (McGrath
Nature can be ‘read’ in ways that appear to support morally ambiguous ideas such as oppression and violence. If morality is concerned with man’s ‘participation in the created order’, then Christian morality is concerned with man’s ‘pleasant response to God’s deeds’, which have restored, proved and fulfilled that order (McGrath
How is the attitude and Christian faith in dealing with natural events such as COVID-19? As already stated according to natural theology, this incident is not because God is not merciful, because this event has nothing to do with morals, good or bad but to understand this, we must see it with the eyes of the Christian faith. We await the complete renewal of heaven and earth, the making of all things new and the arrival of the divine presence, which will ultimately result in the restoration of good and the end of suffering and pain (Rv 21:1–5) (McGrath
Through his observations, McGrath assesses that nature is in the category of creation according to the doctrine of creation in the Bible, so God’s word is a very important basis for him. Nature is a creation from God and humans are no exception. With the same thought, Magna or McGrath’s own definition of natural theology must be based on the revelation that is the Bible. This is what makes it different from other major natural theologies that are based on philosophy, the construction of human culture or modernist and postmodernist concepts.
Based on the Introduction and Method, McGrath’s natural theology is in accordance with the 6th concept, namely Christian theology about the natural world, which reflects the core assumption of the Christian faith that must be contrasted with a naturalist. The movement of thought comes from within the Christian tradition towards nature, not from nature to the Christian faith, which is framed in terms of the doctrine of creation. Natural theology by McGrath named it as Christian natural theology. Through the meaning of Christian natural theology, McGrath has succeeded in making Christian natural theology act as a mediator in encountering Christian faith and science. So that Christian natural theology has been able to give us a great deal of regular and irregular natural events in accordance with the Christian faith.
The authors would like to acknowledge the leadership and staff of Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Moriah, Tangerang, Indonesia, Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Bethel Nusantara, Jakarta, Indonesia, AOSIS publishers and
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
T.P., P.L.S., A.S., J.S. and B.K.P. have a shared contribution to the conceptualisation, design and writing of the manuscript.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.