The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology

by Michael Sudduth

"Michael Sudduth examines three prominent objections to natural theology that have emerged in the Reformed streams of the Protestant theological tradition: objections from the immediacy of our knowledge of God, the noetic effects of sin, and the logic of theistic arguments. Distinguishing between the project of natural theology and particular models of natural theology, Sudduth argues that none of the main Reformed objections is successful as an objection to the project of natural theology itself. One particular model of natural theology - the dogmatic model - is best suited to handle Reformed concerns over natural theology. According to this model, rational theistic arguments represent the reflective reconstruction of the natural knowledge of God by the Christian in the context of dogmatic theology." Informed by both contemporary religious epistemology and the history of Protestant philosophical theology, Sudduth's examination illuminates the complex nature of the project of natural theology and its place in the Reformed tradition.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology

250 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Michael Sudduth (D.Phil., M.Phil., University of Oxford) is a philosophy professor at San Francisco State University, where he's taught philosophy and religion since 2005.

Although specializing in the philosophy of religion, his interests range broadly over epistemology, philosophy of science, the psychology of religious experience, eastern philosophy and spirituality, life after death, and philosophy in literature and film.

Michael's interests also include the field of psychology, especially cognitive, personality, and abnormal psychology. This interest evolved out of his earlier exploration of eastern spiritual practices and western therapeutic modalities.

Growing up on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and 1970s horror films, Michael has had a life-long fascination with the darker side of human nature. In 2015, Stephen King inspired his turn towards dark fiction literature.

Michael's first novel Sylvia’s Shadow is undergoing beta reader and editorial evaluation. The story revolves around the apparent discovery of poet Sylvia Plath’s unfinished, lost novel Double Exposure. When individuals who handle the manuscript begin exhibiting aberrant behavior, it appears that the manuscript is not all Plath left behind. Thematically, the story interconnects the transformative power of books, the fuzzy boundaries of personal identity, the need for emotional closure, and the possibility of life after death.

Michael Sudduth maintains a blog on his professional website Cup of Nirvana.

Reviews

[Zachary Horn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to 4.5 stars. This is book written to address a relatively niche audience—but I am among the target audience and found this an immensely helpful book. Sudduth sets out to answer the question: is there a Reformed programmatic objection to natural theology? He helpfully clarifies two types of natural theology: the natural knowledge of God (natural theology α) and rational arguments for the existence and nature of God (natural theology β). It is the compatibility of natural theology β and Reformed theology that Sudduth is interested in exploring.

Three things I most appreciated about this book:

1) Sudduth demonstrates the historic appreciation of natural theology in the Reformed tradition, contra the claims of a few notable detractors (principally, Barth, Van Til, Plantiga, Berkouwer, Hoeksema, and to a modified extent, Bavinck) of compatibility. The opening chapters make the historic Reformed appreciation of natural theology clear.

2)Sudduth astutely points out that natural theology α & β rightly belong together, and operate best within dogmatic theology, thus effectively eliminating any seriously Reformed objections to the project of natural theology.

3) There is an incisive critique here of the implicit (and at times explicit) reliance on Humean/Kantian conceptions of causality and the modernist project in contemporary Reformed objections to natural theology.

Excellent.

[Laurent Dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that answers 3 popular reformed objections to natural theology (the ability to know with inferences - by deduction and induction methods - informations concerning God through general revelation = us and the world, without special revelation = Scriptures) which are :
1. Only immediate knowledge is possible (mediate knowledge is no functional at all for diverse reasons), so mediate knowledge is impossible.
Answer : Reformed systematicians (Turretin, Hodge, Bavinck, Berkhof etc) never create a dilemn between immediate ("innate") and mediate knowledge (deductive & inductive). They accept both and consider that they complement each other.

2. Sin disables men to know God through nature.
Answer : Sin only reduces the quantity of knowledge of God and every man naturally know God by necessity (i. e. sensus divinitatis of Calvin). On the historical side, reformed theologians (early and reformers like Calvin) never intend to mean by the noetic effects of sin that irregenerate people know nothing of God. But they wanted to express that they know truth mixed with impious false philosophy or very little of God. Theistic arguments (natural theology, reasoning from natural revelation) are usefull in the construction of systematic theology, in the theology proper part when they are under the authority and the control of Scriptures, special revelation.

3. Theistic arguments are not relevant (the conclusion that God exist doesn't follow), mainly for the reasons that Hume and Kant gave : we cannot move from the finite to the infinite by deduction.
Answer : Hume and Kant are wrong because we move from the finite to the infinite not necessarily by the way of deduction but by a priori. The immediate notion of infinity for example enables us to make the connection of the finite universe's beginning with God as the transcendal and infinite cause.

For more details, a rigorous, lengthy and very detailed exposition of the book read Paul Manata's review on Triablogue :
http://triablogue.blogspot.fr/2010/06...

Last comment but very important, infortunately, the author abandoned christianity to embrace Hinduism despite his extensive, relevant and excellent insights in theology, philosophy and apologetics. He is well acquainted with reformed theology and academic christian philosophers thought (Plantinga, Wolterstoff, Swinburne, James Anderson ...). I was quite surprised and sad ; I just hope that he will return to the truth. So I totally recommend his works (including this book) on christian theology. But I encourage the reader to be carefull. Ironically, perhaps, he proves that irregenerate people can know God (truth propositions about him).

[Michael Kenan Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Sudduth did his doctorate in philosophy at Oxford and he turned his dissertation into this book addressing the so-called Reformation objection to natural theology. Let natural theology be the knowledge of beliefs about God that someone might have without special revelation, or that a Christian might have that result only from interaction with creation. Sudduth begins by quite comprehensively going through countless Reformed/Reformation thinkers ranging from Luther to Bavinck. Surprisingly, leaning heavily on Richard Muller's scholarship, he finds no such consensus against natural theology and instead ubiquitous support for natural theology.

He does, though, find variation when it comes to its purpose: almost everyone agreed that it reassured believers and, while Calvin argued that it had a non-rigorous rhetorical use, many also thought it had a demonstrative use to disprove Epicureans and the like. These different uses highlight that there are many differing versions of natural theology, and Sudduth dedicates himself to seeing if there is a decisive objection to natural theology as a project, thus blowing all versions out of the water. objection The rest of the work could be described as the introduction of many distinctions which are explicated and examined to see if they help safeguard natural theology or if they bring the whole thing into disrepute.

The first of these is extremely important and useful, and is between natural theology α (alpha) and natural theology β (beta). The latter represents knowledge of God resulting from reflection or argumentation, whereas the former represents natural knowledge of God that comes more 'spontaneously', 'directly' or 'immediately' from nature or any way that isn't rational inference or argumentation. While you might think that the existence of natural theology α competes with or contradicts natural theology β, he finds time and time again that in Reformed theology it is the first which actually motivates the second! He introduces the 'formalization thesis' to explain: β makes explicit and organises the more primitive α knowledge into more sophisticated argument or propositional form, then reinforces, modifies or discards the premises accordingly, as well as drawing out any implications or other beliefs further downstream. In contrast to a pre-dogmatic natural theology which acts as an autonomous foundation to justify the rest of theology, Sudduth defends a dogmatic account of natural theology which is part and parcel of a thorough-going Christian system of theology and stands on the principium, authority or foundation of Scripture.
He is extremely, almost painfully, meticulous as he goes on, making explicit the kinds of views that would be necessary to score a successful project objection. The SI thesis states that the immediate knowledge of God is sufficient, and so while not ruling out natural theology β as possible, at least renders it unnecessary since the Christian has access to more immediate and certain knowledge. The EI thesis states that this immediate knowledge of God is not only sufficient but necessary, thus excluding natural theology β altogether. Sudduth responds compellingly that i) neither of these two theses are found in the Reformed tradition, and go way beyond any limitations such theologians ever placed on natural theology; ii) reasoning & inference can play an important role in developing and augmenting the immediate knowledge by inferring details about the characteristics of this God, iii) theistic beliefs may be warranted in part by way of inference; iv) natural theology β only claims that there is inferential knowledge or warranted beliefs about God, not that it is the best or most important kind of knowledge about him.

In the second half of the book, Sudduth moves on to look at objections from the noetic effects of sin which supposedly jeopardise the project of natural theology and then objections that some theologians have borrowed from Hume and Kant. Unsurprisingly, he responds robustly to both and finds that neither are sufficient to get rid of natural theology β.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review is here:

http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2010/0...