ABSTRACT
Thomas Dick's life and writings demonstrate the persistence—the enduring attractiveness—of a committed study of nature as a religious activity of great moral efficacy, inseparable from study of Scripture and worship of God. A study of his life and writings, therefore, provides insights into relationships between science and religion. Dick himself firmly contested the autonomy and divisibility implied by the categories 'science' and 'religion'. In his writings, these categories collapsed to produce a God-centred account of nature within an evangelical and devotional framework. Within an evangelical context, Dick extolled the expertise of Christian philosophers like himself who possessed knowledge both of Scripture and of God's works. Such expertise, he asserted, led one to more exalted conceptions of God. Thus Dick saw himself as being privileged as an interpreter of the Bible and also as a teacher of God's works in the afterlife. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
