A Newcomer's Guide to "The Natural Theologian"

A Guide to the Themes of this Newsletter, and of the Issue of Nature and Grace in Christian Theology and Philosophy

As I began to write this Substack, I did not know what direction my writing would take. Following the directions of my own interests, I found that the convergence of my interests in philosophy and theology and in the relationship between the two was captured in the theological problem of “nature and grace.”

The questions that drive me have to do with the relationship between natural human life and eternal, spiritual things. In a parallel way, there is the question of the relationship between secular forms of knowledge, chiefly science and philosophy, and religious forms, revelation and theology.

As I see it, both our secular culture and our Christian discourse suffer from a lack of appreciation of nature. “Nature” describes the world as we find it, created by God, broken by the fall, exhibiting both stability and change. It is denied in different ways by postmodernists, progressives, evolutionary naturalists, technologists, and transhumanists, but also by Christian fundamentalists and ideologues who fail to recognize the goodness of creation and the possibility and necessity of natural, human knowledge.

The secular and religious alike could use a greater appreciation and understanding of nature. And in fact, grace itself can only be understood and received in light of nature itself. It is our common human nature that the Son took to himself; it is nature that groans, longing for our redemption. And it is a new Creation and a new nature for which we long.

About Me:

I am a philosopher and theologian, pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy at Saint Louis University. Previously, I got an MA in Philosophy at the University of Chicago (by far, the best educational experience I ever had) and an MDiv at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA). I studied music and philosophy at Wheaton College (IL) and continue to write and perform music today. I am married to Anna Carini and have three young children.

To learn more about me, listen to my interview with Will Jackson on his podcast Conversations about Life.

Posts:

For an intro to my writing and thinking, read the first article on any of the following topics:

Common Grace and Nature:

1. CGT: Common Grace Theology and the Theology of Nature

2. Can’t We Just Say “Common Grace,” Even if We Mean Nature?

3. Christians, Atheists, and Gnostics: Christian Co-Belligerency and the Possibility of Based Belief

4. Nature: Fallen, but not Destroyed: An Exchange on the Doctrine of Total Depravity

5. Nature Destroyed: The Doctrine of Total Depravity

6. Why Aaron Renn Is Right about Common Grace

7. Three More Reasons Aaron Renn Is Right about Common Grace

8. Common Grace, Nature, and Our Most Fundamental Identity

9. Biblical Political Theology: What I Learned from 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Living Out a Theology of Nature and Grace:

1. On the Idea of a Christian Village

2. Whatever Happened to Reformed Theology?

3. In Defense of Christian Stoicism

4. Why You Should Leave Your Church

Christian Coherentism and Empiricism:

1. Based Belief: On the Possibility of Christian Empiricism

2. Why I’m Not Going to Read “Biblical Critical Theory”

3. Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender

4. Delano Squires and Glenn Loury Talk Gay Marriage

The Sexes, Sex, and Sexuality:

1. Same-Sex Attraction and the Misery of Our Condition

2. Is the Divine Dictionary View of Language as Bad as Postmodernism?

3. Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender

4. Side B Celebrates Same-Sex Attraction. What Could Be More Controversial?

The Philosophy of Language:

1. Is the “Divine Dictionary” View of Language as Bad as Postmodernism?

2. Based Academia, Part 1: Words and the World

3. Based Academia, Part 2: The Assumptions of Analytic Philosophers

4. Based Academia, Part 3: Christian Analytic Philosophy

5. Based Academia, Part 4: The Perennial Philosophy of Language

Free EBook:

50 Errors of Christian Presuppositionalism, by Gordon Van Clark III

Books:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics

Emil Brunner’s Man in Revolt, The Divine Imperative, and Revelation and Reason.

Karl Barth and Emil Brunner’s Natural Theology: “Nature and Grace” and “Nein!”

Steven Long’s Natura Pura: On the Recovery of Nature in the Doctrine of Grace

Lawrence Feingold’s The Natural Desire to See God

Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option

Christian Empiricist Writers:

Aaron Renn:

Paul Kingsnorth:

Mary Harrington:

Alastair Roberts and Susannah Black Roberts:

Eric Brende:

The lovely Anna Carini: