An Essay Collection
Thoughts on “The Natural Theologian” by Joel Carini
Joel Carini at “The Natural Theologian” is a deep and clear thinker and writer on some of the most pressing issues facing Christians and human beings today. He makes it clear that ‘thought and experience are influencing different theological formulations’ (pg. xiii), and that Christians who think otherwise smuggle in thought and experience without realizing it. ‘True knowledge of God and the world is only available by taking the risk of thinking’ (xiv), Joel writes, and I appreciate the emphasis on “thinking as risk.” Indeed, to be “in” the world means we are never “of” a stable state that is outside of change and influence, but that also doesn’t mean it’s impossible for us to achieve “a point of contact” in reality. Many Christians have been postmodern in the negative sense without realizing it, which is to say they believe the best the Christian can hope for is a “Christian coherence” based on Biblical assumptions that can only be understood by assuming these assumptions, but Joel sees this as a mistake. The Christian who splits apart “the book of revelation” and “the book of nature” is on a road that heads quickly toward nihilism and cynicism: the effort to protect Christianity ends up burying it alive.
By “Natural Theologian,” Joel suggests theology is always informed by experience and observation, which means that it is not possible to ascribe to “Revelation” without some involvement of “Reason.” ‘Biblical statements assume the basic human understanding of the world with which each person is, in the ordinary course of things, equipped,’ Joel writes, ‘When the Bible speaks of a ‘donkey,’ for example, it assumes our familiarity with that species’ (4). We bring understanding to the Bible, hence why its words are intelligible. Is this heresy? No, it is life. Joel carries this insight into his reflections on Analytical Philosophy and language, sections which I found remarkably engaging and illuminating. He makes a strong case that ‘Analytical philosophy is nominalism masquerading as realism’ (15), for it is based on a metaphysics which assumes ‘the division of reality into objects and properties’ (15), which is problematic. ‘Philosophy is not and never will become a sub-field of mathematics,’ Joel stresses; rather, ‘Philosophy is the last bastion of the questions that cannot be answered by a mechanical method; when this is finally lost sight of, humanity is lost’ (16).
Joel is concerned that the number of ‘non-material entities’ Christians are willing to be ‘open to’ tends to reflect what their ‘secular colleagues are willing to respect’ (20), and to avoid this mistake Joel would have Christians rethink their metaphysics and theology from the “dirt” up. I use the word “dirt” here versus “ground,” for Joel suggests we should take the word “physical” in “meta-physical” more seriously than we often do: metaphysics and abstractions are “seen” in the ash, curly leaves, spilt water — we can look away from the earth to see the truth and so leave the truth standing there, still. This is not the way. ‘Existence is concrete; there is no such thing as abstract existence’ (22). Christians are the body of Christ. The body has fingernails, cuts, and white hair. Joel speaks of nature.
It can be believed that language doesn’t access things, that we are stuck in signifier that never crossed “the gap” to the signified. Joel wouldn’t argue that words and concepts can’t be mistaken, but he would point out that concepts can only be mistaken if it’s possible for them to be right. ‘What our words mean depends on how things are in the world’ (35), and if words only referred to themselves, the word “donkey” would not make us remember that animal we saw grazing in the field. Words fail, yes, as bodies age, but bodies still walk in the world as words express the terrain. Death and failure are evidence not of irrelevance but of contact. There is life where there is touch.
I find it difficult not to write an essay with this space on Amazon for a review, and so I will leave more to be found and said on YouTube in an audio recording. Joel has given us an outstanding book, and I cannot suggest it enough. He is a blessing from whom I have learned much.
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For more by Joel, please visit his Substack, and you can find more on Instagram (@thenaturaltheologian) and Twitter (@NaturalTheologian).
