Natural theology

Fisch, Harold. The scientist as priest a note on Robert Boyle s natural theology. Ms 44, no. 3 (1953) 252-265. 

Davy, Elements of Chemical Philosophy, 1. For natural theology and chemical philosophy, see William Prout s Bridgewater Treatise, Chemistry, Meteorology and the Function of Digestion Considered with Reference to Natural Theology (London Pickering, 1834). 

Paley, William. Natural Theology. Rev. Amer. ed. New York Sheldon, 1854. 

Considered with Reference to Natural Theology, William Pickering, London, 1834, 499-500... 

Paley, W. (1802) (other sources report 1803). Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature,... 

The famous opening paragraph of Paley s Natural Theology shows the power of the argument and also contains some of the flaws that led to its later rejection ... 

Paley, W. Natural Theology, American Tract Society, New York, pp. 9-10. 

One of the books which most impressed the young Darwin was the treatise of theologian William Paley, Natural Theology Or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes oftheDeity, Collectedfrom the Appearances of Nature (1802). The main point was put forward in this way ... 

Particularly Boerhaave s insistence on keeping to the study of the individual characteristics and powers of nature set him apart from other religiously inspired natural philosophers. It can be argued that the idea of God s handiwork manifested in nature was a regular feature of all natural theology at the time and also that the emphasis on the weakness of man s intellect can be found in the works of other, non-Calvinist, natural philosophers. Yet, Boerhaave s aversion to general theory,... 

Matthew D. Eddy is lecturer in the history and philosophy of science and an associate of the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease at the University of Durham. He has most recently held fellowships at the Dibner Institute (MIT), Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and with the University of Notre Dame s Erasmus Institute. He has written numerous articles on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century intellectual history. Most recently he has edited (with David M. Knight) Science and Belief From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 1700-1900 (2005) and William Paley s Natural Theology (2006). He is currently writing a book on the interactions between medicine, philosophy, and science in Enlightenment Edinburgh. 

Pearl, R. (1913). Natural theology without theistic implications. The Dial, 55 (Aug. 16), 111-12. 

Less well recognized, however, is the philosophical pedigree of this notion of secondary causality and the crucial role it has played in natural theology from the Middle Ages to the present. As the medieval historian of philosophy, Armand Maurer, puts it ... 

What is the nature of Darwin s argument for evolution by secondary causes and what is its value It does not belong to science but to natural theology, for it concerns God the creator and the laws he has implanted in matter. It should more properly be called metaphysical, for the argument turns on the distinction between primary and secondary causes, which are traditionally the concern of metaphysics. (Maurer, 2004, p. 497) ... 

This article traces both Darwin s own personal exposure to the natural theology of secondary causes through his own reading and the genealogy of the concept from Proclus to the nineteenth century. 

J. Cooke. Religion and Chemistry. New York Scriven (1880). This work is discussed further, as is Darwin s theory of evolution by natural selection, by M. Valentine in Natural Theology or. Rational Theism. Chicago S. C. Griggs (1885). Cooke s book is quite rare but can be read online at http //etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/ modeng/public/CooReli.html. 

P. A.Chadbourne. Lectures on Natural Theology. New York Putnam (1870). 

W.Whewell. Astronomy and General Physics, Considered, with Reference to Natural Theology. Bridgewater Treatise III. London The Royal Society (1833) 9 edns. by 1864. 

W. Paley. Natural Theology (1802). In The Works of William Paley, ed. R.Lynam. Edinburgh Baynes and Son (1825). 

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