The Open Secret : A New Vision for Natural Theology.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- CHAPTER 1 Natural Theology: Introducing an Approach -- "Nature" is an Indeterminate Concept -- Natural Theology is an Empirical Discipline -- A Christian Natural Theology Concerns the Christian God -- A Natural Theology is Incarnational, Not Dualist -- Resonance, Not Proof: Natural Theology and Empirical Fit -- Beyond Sense-Making: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful -- PART I The Human Quest for the Transcendent: The Context of Natural Theology -- CHAPTER 2 The Persistence of the Transcendent -- Natural Theology and the Transcendent -- The Triggers of Transcendent Experiences -- The Transcendent and Religion -- CHAPTER 3 Thinking About the Transcendent: Three Recent Examples -- Iris Murdoch: The Transcendent and the Sublime -- Roy Bhaskar: The Intimation of Meta-Reality -- John Dewey: The Curious Plausibility of the Transcendent -- CHAPTER 4 Accessing the Transcendent: Strategies and Practices -- Ascending to the Transcendent from Nature -- Seeing the Transcendent Through Nature -- Withdrawing from Nature to Find the Transcendent Within Oneself -- Discerning the Transcendent in Nature -- CHAPTER 5 Discernment and the Psychology of Perception * -- Perception is Brain-Based -- Perception Involves Dynamic Mental Structures -- Perception is Egocentric and Enactive -- Perception Pays Attention to Significance -- Perception Can Be Modulated by Motivation and Affect -- Human Perception and Natural Theology -- Conclusion to Part I -- PART II The Foundations of Natural Theology: Ground-Clearing and Rediscovery -- CHAPTER 6 The Open Secret: The Ambiguity of Nature -- The Mystery of the Kingdom: Jesus of Nazareth and the Natural Realm -- The Levels of Nature: The Johannine "I am" Sayings -- Gerard Manley Hopkins on "Seeing" Nature -- CHAPTER 7 A Dead End? Enlightenment Approaches to Natural Theology.

The Enlightenment and its Natural Theologies: Historical Reflections -- The Multiple Translations and Interpretations of the "Book of Nature" -- The Flawed Psychological Assumptions of the Enlightenment -- The Barth-Brunner Controversy (1934) and Human Perception -- Enlightenment Styles of Natural Theology: Concluding Criticisms -- CHAPTER 8 A Christian Approach to Natural Theology -- On "Seeing" Glory: The Prologue to John's Gospel -- A Biblical Example: The Call of Samuel -- The Christian Tradition as a Framework for Natural Theology -- Natural Theology and a Self-Disclosing God -- Natural Theology and an Analogy Between God and the Creation -- Natural Theology and the Image of God -- Natural Theology and the Economy of Salvation -- Natural Theology and the Incarnation -- Conclusion to Part II -- PART III Truth, Beauty, and Goodness: An Agenda for a Renewed Natural Theology -- CHAPTER 9 Truth, Beauty, and Goodness: Expanding the Vision for Natural Theology -- CHAPTER 10 Natural Theology and Truth -- Resonance, Not Proof: Natural Theology and Sense-Making -- The Big Picture, Not the Gaps: Natural Theology and Observation of the World -- Natural Theology, Counterintuitive Thinking, and Anthropic Phenomena -- Natural Theology and Mathematics: A "Natural" Way of Representing Reality -- Truth, Natural Theology, and Other Religious Traditions -- On Retrieving the Richness of Truth -- Truth and a Natural Theology of the Imagination -- CHAPTER 11 Natural Theology and Beauty -- Recovering the Place of Beauty in Natural Theology -- The Neglect of Beauty: The "Deconversion" of John Ruskin -- Hugh Miller on the Aesthetic Deficiencies of Sense-Making -- John Ruskin and the Representation of Nature -- The Beauty of Theoretical Representations of Nature -- Beauty, Awe, and the Aesthetic Engagement with Nature -- Aesthetics and the "Seeing" of Beauty.

Beauty, Natural Theology, and Christian Apologetics -- CHAPTER 12 Natural Theology and Goodness -- The Moral Vision of Reality -- Natural Theology and Natural Law -- The Eternal Return of Natural Law -- The Moral Ambivalence of Nature -- The Knowability of Goodness in Nature -- The Discernment of Goodness: The Euthyphro Dilemma -- Conclusion to Part III -- CHAPTER 13 Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.