American Academy of Religion

The Biblical Precedent for Natural Theology

Author(s): John J. Collins
Source: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), p. 70
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1463390 .
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JAAR, XLV/I Supplement (March, 1977), B: 35-67*
The BiblicalPrecedent
for Natural Theology
John J. Collins

ABSTRACT
"Natural theology" is characterized by the attempt to articulate the religious
dimension of common human experience independently of special revelation and to
relate this experience to the received tradition. This approach to theology has often
been contrasted with a "biblical" theology which relies on the authority of special
revelation. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the Jewish wisdom
literature as a specimen of natural theology within the biblical corpus which deserves
greaterattention than it has received from both "biblical"and "natural"theologians.
The relevance of wisdom for the theological enterpriseis illustrated by four theses:
1. Wisdomis an integral part of the biblical tradition. This has been disputed by
many biblical scholars, most recently H. D. Preuss. Both critics (e.g., Preuss) and
defenders (Zimmerli, Gese, von Rad) have tended to assume that wisdom must be
legitimated in terms of some specifically Israelite doctrines, which distinguish it from
gentile wisdom. However, it is precisely in the failure of wisdom to appeal to
specifically Israelitetraditions that we find a fundamental trait of natural theology: the
attempt to give an autonomous account of the common human experience
independently of special revelation.
2. Wisdom articulates the religious dimension of universal human experience.
Since wisdom attaches little importance to visionary experiences or prophetic
revelations it has often been characterized as secular. Yet wisdom is consistently
presented as a revelation, which is beyond human control and is experienced as a gift.
Revelation in this sense does not necessarily imply the intervention of a personal God
or the disruption of the normal processes of nature. The religious characterof wisdom
must be appreciated in universal experiential categories. Significantly, the key
concepts of limit and transcendent order stressed by von Rad are widely recognized as
fundamental to the phenomenon of religion.
3. Wisdom attempts a correlation with the specific traditions of Israel. This
correlation is found in Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon. The Israelite traditions
are treated as focal instances of universal phenomena, such as justice.
4. Analogies with wisdom suggest that elements of natural theology can also be
found in other parts of the Bible. Alleged instances of "wisdom influences" on
historical and prophetic books are significant chiefly for the phenomenological
similarities they reveal, irrespectiveof historical influence. While these similarities may
only show the common basis of all this literature in human experience, they support the
view that even explicitly "supernaturalist" theologies have assumptions and
implications which derive in fact from natural theology.

John J. Collins is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at St. Mary of the Lake
Seminary, Mundelein, I1. He is author of The Sibylline Oracles of Egyptian Judaism
(SBL Dissertation Series 13, 1974) and The Apocalyptic Vision of the Book of Daniel
Harvard Semitic Monograph Series 16, 1977) and several articles on Jewish
apocalyptic and intertestamental literature.

70

*Please see pages 143-44 for full-text ordering instructions.

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