ABSTRACT
Natural theology', Polkinghorne says, 'may be defined as the search for the knowledge of God by the exercise of reason and the inspection of the world'. This chapter sees natural theology as an integral part of the whole theological quest for understanding and by no means an isolable or merely preliminary sub-department of it. Specifically, natural theology tends to abstract God's Being from his Act; both are inseparable from each other and from God's Word, revealed in incarnate form in Jesus Christ, so any such natural theology must fail to reach the living God. George Pattison notes that a characteristic of the western Christian tradition is 'the location of theological discussions of art in the realm of natural theology'. A view of art renders a natural theology of the arts possible, just as the 'flexible openness' of nature in general as viewed by the metaphysical scheme renders natural theology in general possible.
