Overview

Larry Chapp develops a true ""theology of nature"" that begins and ends with strictly confessional Christian warrants. He begins by showing how modern naturalism arose out of a theological matrix and how it lost its way specifically as naturalism as soon as it rejected that theological matrix. Indeed, modern naturalism is not so much a-theological as it is a rival theology to that of the Church. All claims of ultimacy, including those of natural science, have inherently theological orientations embedded within them - however unconsciously. Therefore, what confronts us in the modern world is not so much a choice between a non-theological naturalism and a theological naturalism. Rather, what confronts us is a choice between two rival theologies - one agnostic and a-theistic in its implications while the other is revelocentric and Christian.

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9780567391438

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Reviews

`According to Larry Chapp, theology is left with two dire options in the aftermath of naturalism's apparent cultural triumph. Provide modernity with an intellectually cogent theological vision or perish, along with that same culture, in the wasteland of our nihilism. Chapp's important book is grounds for hope that theology may live to see another day and that the pervasive nihilism may not have the last word. He correctly diagnoses the intellectual and cultural dangers posed by so-called scientific naturalism, lifting the lid on its alleged metaphysical neutrality and exposing this naturalism for what it fundamentally is: a bad theology which doesn't know itself. And more importantly still, he restores theology to its proper cosmological scope. Not only does `creation' become intellectually compelling in Chapp's deft hands, it elicits wonder and praise for its Creator and restores what is human in us. This is a hopeful development indeed and a sign of an indispensible book.' - Michael Hanby, John Paul II Institute, Washington D.C., USA -- Michael Hanby `Chapp is right that theology matters. The world is at an intellectual crossroad shaped in large measure by a liberal ideology masquerading as a set of neutral technical procedures. Nothing short of a sustained mutual engagement between the metaphysics implicit in modern science and a full-bodied confessional Christianity will succeed in exposing and transforming this ideology.' - David L. Schindler, Provost and Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. -- David L. Schindler

'According to Larry Chapp, theology is left with two dire options in the aftermath of naturalism's apparent cultural triumph. Provide modernity with an intellectually cogent theological vision or perish, along with that same culture, in the wasteland of our nihilism. Chapp's important book is grounds for hope that theology may live to see another day and that the pervasive nihilism may not have the last word. He correctly diagnoses the intellectual and cultural dangers posed by so-called scientific naturalism, lifting the lid on its alleged metaphysical neutrality and exposing this naturalism for what it fundamentally is: a bad theology which doesn't know itself. And more importantly still, he restores theology to its proper cosmological scope. Not only does 'creation' become intellectually compelling in Chapp's deft hands, it elicits wonder and praise for its Creator and restores what is human in us. This is a hopeful development indeed and a sign of an indispensible book.' - Michael Hanby, John Paul II Institute, Washington D.C., USA -- Michael Hanby 'Chapp is right that theology matters. The world is at an intellectual crossroad shaped in large measure by a liberal ideology masquerading as a set of neutral technical procedures. Nothing short of a sustained mutual engagement between the metaphysics implicit in modern science and a full-bodied confessional Christianity will succeed in exposing and transforming this ideology.' - David L. Schindler, Provost and Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. -- David L. Schindler

Author Information

Larry S. Chapp, Ph.D. An expert in the theology of the late Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. His most recent publication ""Deus Caristas Est and the Retrieval of a Christian Cosmology,"" appeared in the Fall, 2006 issue of Communio: International Catholic Review. Currently, he is Professor of Theology at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

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