Natural Theology in the Scientific Revolution: God's Scientists

217 Pages·2014·1.271 MB·English

by  Katherine Calloway

Pickering Studies in Philosophy of Religion
Natural Theology in the
Scientific Revolution
Katherine Calloway
NATURAL THEOLOGY IN THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION: GOD’S SCIENTISTS
Pickering Studies in Philosophy of Religion
Series Editor: Russell Re Manning
Titles in this Series
Ineff ability and Religious Experience
Guy Bennett-Hunter
Forthcoming Titles
Hegel, Love and Forgiveness: Positive Recognition in German Idealism
Liz Disley
Eighteenth-Century Dissent and Cambridge Platonism
Louise Hickman
www.pickeringchatto.com/por
NATURAL THEOLOGY IN THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION: GOD’S SCIENTISTS
by
Katherine Calloway
PICKERING & CHATTO
2014
Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH
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All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without prior permission of the publisher.
© Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd 2014
© Katherine Calloway 2014
To the best of the Publisher’s knowledge every eff ort has been made to contact
relevant copyright holders and to clear any relevant copyright issues. 
Any omissions that come to their attention will be remedied in future editions.
british library cataloguing in publication data
Calloway, Katherine, author.
Natural theology in the scientifi c revolution: God’s scientists. – (Pickering stud-
ies in philosophy of religion)
1. Natural theology – History of doctrines – 17th century. 2. Th eology, Doctri-
nal – History – 17th century. 3. Natural theology – Early works to 1800.
I. Title II. Series
210.9’032-dc23
ISBN-13: 9781848934641
e: 9781781440865
∞

Th is publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American
National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by CPI Books
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List of Figures and Tables ix
Introduction 1
1 Rational Th eology: Henry More’s An Antidote against Atheism (1653) 29
2 ‘Prudent Charity’: Richard Baxter’s Th e Reasons of the Christian Religion
(1667) 49
3 A Settled Mind? John Wilkins’s Of the Principles and Duties of Natural
Religion (1675) 71
4 God’s Naturalist: John Ray’s Th e Wisdom of God (1691) 95
5 God’s Philologist: Richard Bentley’s Th e Folly and Unreasonableness of
Atheism (1692) 117
Conclusion 139
Notes 151
Works Cited 189
Index 199

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Th is book began as a PhD thesis written at the University of British Columbia,
and I remain grateful to my supervisory committee there, without whom it could
never have taken its present form. Nicholas Hudson and Mark Vessey made avail-
able their impressive store of knowledge of the history of science and theology
and read the manuscript with great care, smoothing out rough places and off ering
constructive criticism where necessary. And my supervisor, Dennis Danielson, has
been a steady guide from fi rst to last, initially pointing me towards the most
helpful resources and lines of inquiry and remaining present to off er guidance
long aft er his offi cial responsibilities ceased. Th is project is greatly indebted to
him, both directly and indirectly as I have looked to his example of rigorous,
faithful historical scholarship.
I owe many other people thanks for Natural Th eology’s progress from thesis
to book. I am grateful, fi rst, for the vision of the editors at Pickering & Chatto,
who have recognized with this series the importance of an understanding of
history to discussions of philosophy of religion. Philip Good in particular fi rst
contacted me and worked to bring the book in line with the series’ aims, and
Russell Re Manning and Sophie Rudland have seen that process through, and
the book is much better for the focus and clarity they have brought to it. During
these revisions, a number of learned people read and commented on the manu-
script, in whole or in part, and I am tremendously grateful to them: John Hedley
Brooke, Steven Fallon, Leni Robinson (who fi rst suggested the topic) and David
Parry. Moreover, when the project required a breadth of philosophical and theo-
logical knowledge that reached beyond my disciplinary training, several readers
off ered vital insights from those disciplines, including J. I. Packer, Elmer H.
Duncan, Todd Buras, Sandra Visser, Lesley-Anne Dyer and Simon Burton. I am
grateful to all of them for their responses and suggestions as the book took shape.
Finally, in both conceiving and writing Natural Th eology, I profi ted from
years of lively conversation with two practitioners of scientia in particular: my
father, Terry Calloway, and my husband, Shinjiro Sueda, both of whom have
always had eyes and ears for my humanistic preoccupations. Remembering those
conversations, I dedica te this book to my parents, and to Shin.
– vii –

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 3.1: From Wilkins’s Of the Principles and Duties of Natural
Religion 82
Table I.1: Natural Th eologies of the Scientifi c Revolution 21
– ix –