SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online vol.65 issue1 author indexsubject indexarticles search Home Pagealphabetic serial listing Services on DemandArticle pdf in English Article in xml format Article references How to cite this article Automatic translation Send this article by e-mailIndicatorsRelated linksShare Share on deliciousShare on googleShare on twitterShare on diggShare on citeulikeMore Sharing ServicesMore More Sharing ServicesMore PermalinkHTS Theological StudiesPrint version ISSN 0259-9422Herv. teol. stud. vol.65 no.1 Pretoria 2009 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Nature as creation from an eco-hermeneutical perspective: from a 'natural theology' to a 'theology of nature' Johan BuitendagDepartment of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics, University of Pretoria, South AfricaCorrespondence to ABSTRACTFor researchers who are interested in the relationship between theology and the natural sciences, 2009 is of special importance. It is now 500 years since Calvin was born and 450 years since his Institution of the Christian Religion was finally published. It is also 200 years since Darwin's birth and 150 years since his On the Origin of Species appeared in print for the first time. Calvin and Darwin are representative of two separate lines which converge in a particular 'transversal space'. Such insights are regenerating light on our search for scientific truth today. Neither the absolutisation of transcendent revelation, nor that of immanent knowledge of nature, provides an accountable understanding of reality. Against this background, the challenge for Systematic Theology today is to conceive of a 'theology of nature', which can be offered as a dialectical third option. An 'eco-hermeneutics' offers a possibility of establishing such an option for theology. However, such an option will, on the one hand, have to deconstruct the reformed criticism of a natural theology and will, on the other hand, have to make serious work of an evolutionary epistemology.Keywords: natural theology; theology of nature; epistemology; Karl Barth; Darwin INTRODUCTIONIn this festival year of both the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth 200 years ago, as well as of the publication of his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species, 150 years ago, I wish to pursue the following intimation that he makes in the concluding chapter of the book regarding the meaning of his theory for Protestant theology: In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researchers. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. (Darwin [1859] 1999:399)I wish to propose, in this essay, that Protestant theology ought to shake off the anathema expressed in certain circles towards the concept of natural theology. The time is ripe for us to be able, in an accountable way, to arrive once again at a qualified natural theology. Thanks to the contemporary dialogue with various other sciences, it is indeed possible now for theology to consider the matter under review.1The reason for the decades of virtual aversion to a natural theology especially in the terms of a Western Protestant theology can probably be directly ascribed to the adamant role taken by Karl Barth in his dispute with Emil Brunner in