Natural Theology

by Geerhardus Vos, Albert Gootjes (Translation), J.V. Fesko (Introduction)

Biblical and natural theology may not appear to mix, but the two actually do belong together. Vos’s reputation as the father of contemporary biblical theology is not negated by his earlier teaching of natural theology, appearing here for the first time in English. Gathered from source material found in the Heritage Hall archives at Calvin Seminary and University, these are the earliest notes of Vos’s lectures on natural theology. They demonstrate his understanding of Reformed orthodox approaches as well as extensive knowledge of contemporary developments in the subject. The present volume could be regarded as, and may have formed, a partial introduction to Reformed Dogmatics since it lacks a prolegomenon and because Natural Theology discusses religion and the proofs for the existence of God.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

180 pages, Hardcover

Published March 10, 2022

About the author

Geerhardus Johannes Vos was an American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theology.

Vos was born to a Dutch Reformed pastor in Heerenveen in Friesland in the Netherlands. In 1881, when Geerhardus was 19 years old, his father accepted a call to be the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Geerhardus Vos began his education at the Christian Reformed Church's Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, before moving to Princeton Theological Seminary. He completed his studies in Germany, receiving his doctorate in Arabic Studies from the Philosophy Faculty of Strassburg University in 1888.

Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper tried to convince Vos to become professor of Old Testament Theology at the Free University in Amsterdam, but Vos chose to return to America. Thus, in the Fall of 1888, Vos took up a position on the Calvin Theological Seminary faculty. In 1892, Vos moved and joined the faculty of the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he became its first Professor of Biblical Theology.

In 1894 he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the USA.

At Princeton, he taught alongside J. Gresham Machen and Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield and authored his most famous works, including: Pauline Eschatology (1930) and Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (1948). Despite his opposition to the growing modernist influence at Princeton in the late 1920s, he decided to remain at Princeton Seminary after the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary by Machen, as he was close to retirement. Vos did indeed retire to California in 1932, three years after the formation of Westminster.

Vos's wife, Catherine, authored the well-known Child's Story Bible. She died in 1937, after 43 years of marriage. They had three sons and one daughter, and their son J. G. Vos studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and also became a minister.

Reviews

[Richard Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good BUT basic introduction to Natural Theology notable due to its author

Reading some of the recommendations for this book one may expect something earth shattering, if so one will be disappointed. Geerhardus Vos taught a short basic/introductory undergraduate class on Natural Theology, this is the notes from that class.

You may consider it notable that Vos who is seen as "the Father of Reformed Biblical Theology" also taught Natural Theology and presented as a good thing.

Summary thoughts
This could be a good choice as a helpful primer for the topic but it is NOT a comprehensive text book on it - all of this material is very brief and introductory. The core content of the book is just 97 pages.

There are two reasons to read this:
- you're looking for a brief and accessible intro to natural theology (positively presented)
- you'd like to know what Vos thought about the topic

Content of Vos's work
The material is presented as a sequence of 224 brief questions and answers. Including discussion of how natural theology (knowledge of God from nature) relates to revealed theology, a brief historical sketch of its use and presentation, analysis of different philosophical views of religion and presentation and analysis of natural proofs for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul.

It does not discuss (beyond very minor hints) what Natural Theology does (or does not) say about the attributes of God - this surprised me as Matthew Barrett's recommendation for the book (on the inside cover flap) said that it did.

A noteworthy early section considers whether knowledge of God is innate or acquired, Vos presents a position very similar to Wilhelmus à Brakel, contending that we are born with some innate knowledge of God but that all experiences in life contribute to it/cause further knowledge of God to be acquired.

102 of the questions focus on the theistic proofs, broadly speaking Vos affirms the validity of the Ontological, Cosmological, Teleological and Ethical arguments though in each case he engages with critiques of each (always including Kant), Vos points out deficiencies in prior uses of the proofs and insufficiencies in them, Vos maintains that none of these arguments is sufficient to bring you to the full christian understanding of God - Revealed Theology remains necessary - nonetheless he affirms that these arguments are useful in showing the error of opposing positions and in confirming the validity of our faith.

The Introduction by JV Fesko
The book includes a lengthy introduction by JV Fesko, covering the following points:
- The history of Natural Theology in the Reformed Tradition (primarily positive views/uses of it)
- Natural Theology in the 19th Century (including both positive and negative views of it)
- Vos's own background/Education
- The context of Vos's work on natural Theology and a review of his Methodology
- The relation between Vos's material and the broader Reformed and Post-Reformation views of Natural Theology
- The relation between Vos's material and later reformed Thought
- Prospects for future Reformed Thought on Natural Theology

This introduction is well written and helpful however it is very long compared with Vos's material that it is intended to introduce, Fesko's work fills more than a third of the volume; it feels like it belongs at the start of a longer work than this but it is nonetheless very useful for situating Vos's work in context and helping us to think more broadly about Natural Theology, as a standalone piece I would rate it fairly highly for what it's trying to do.

Broadly speaking Fesko seeks to argue that Vos's material on Natural Theology is in line with a lot of earlier reformed thinking including at the time of the reformation and in Vos's own day.

Controversially, whilst Fesko argues that Vos's position on Natural Theology stands in broad agreement with Hodge, Kuyper, Bavinck and others he also argues that it is in strong contradiction to Van Til's position. I can certainly see a lot of similarity with Bavinck - though there are points of difference on specifics. From having checked a few of the footnotes, I can confirm that Van Til did indeed accuse Bavinck of being wrong on some of the points being discussed, however Fesko goes a step further in concluding that Vos's work agrees with Bavinck on the points Van Til was opposing. Fesko may well be correct - I'm not certain either way - however this potential dispute feels to me like a step beyond the scope of an introduction to Vos's work.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vos, Geerhardus. Natural Theology. Reformation Heritage Books.

This book presents at least one danger: the reader is tempted to interpret Vos along the lines of several schools of thought: a proto-Van Tillian or an adherent of natural theology along the lines of Thoms Aquinas. Both moves are mistakes. There is not anything distinctively presuppositional in this volume, but at the same time it does not read like a standard natural theology text. That is not simply because this is a transcription of his own lectures, presented in Q&A format. That is a good format, to be sure. But Vos does not make the standard “moves” a natural theologian makes. In other words, he does not always cover the same ground.

Another strange, though not unwelcome, aspect is J.V. Fesko’s introduction, taking close to half the volume. Fesko follows Vos’s definition of natural theology as “the interpretation and systematization of the data of natural revelation.” Fesko then gives a historical survey of natural theology, highlighting Augustine’s use of “common notions” (epinoia) and Calvin’s “prolepsis” (Comm. Romans 2:14-15). He also rebuts crude caricatures of Thomas Aquinas, noting for Aquinas that God is God of the external world also, and Aquinas’s arguments seek to confirm Scripture, not operate independently of it.

To be sure, Reformation theologians did not use natural theology the same way that modern natural theologians do today. Charles Hodge best illustrates this. Hodge championed, not simply reason, but “right reason,” reason operating in light of the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Elsewhere, Paul Helseth explains that for Hodge the ability to reason ‘rightly,’ i.e., the ability to see revealed truth…presupposes the regenerating activity of the Holy Spirit on the whole soul of a moral agent” (Helseth 5-6). In other words, one can be objective without being neutral.

Vos’s Text

There is nothing particularly good or bad with the text. One should consult it for historical purposes mainly. He does have some valuable concepts on nature. Nature is “the causal link between cause and effect.” This allows reason to fall under the category of nature.

He further clarifies the connection between metaphysics and theology proper. Metaphysics studies the first principles of being. Natural theology, as a result, sees these principles of being within the larger unity of God (Q.13).

In the discussion of innate ideas, Vos has a good comment on Charles Hodge. For Hodge, the idea of God precedes our conscious inference (Q.90). This is very close to Thomas Reid and to what Alvin Plantinga would later say is a properly basic belief.

Conclusion

Unlike Vos’s other works, this is easy to read and reads fairly well. Moreover, Fesko’s introduction is a fine addition. On the other hand, there is not anything noteworthy in this text to set it apart from other works on natural theology.

[Lucas Cardoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit above my pay grade but very insightful where I could actually comprehend what was going on 😂

[Andrew Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text is a collection of lectures from Reformed Theologian, Geerhardus Vos. The lecture notes are reorganized into a catechetical (question and answer) format. The three main divisions of the text are one the nature of natural theology, arguments for the existence of God, and arguments for the immortality of the soul.
The text of this work is 178 pages. 97 of these are the titular lecture notes by Geerhardus Vos. The first 72 pages are taken up by the translator, and 55 pages of introduction. Approximately ⅓ of the book is work written by another author. I am sure that Mr Fesko is a lovely author with great ideas about Vos and natural theology. I do not know that for sure because I did not read his introduction (I may someday.) However, I did not want an essay by J.V. Fesko. For the record. I take responsibility for this. As a reader, it is my job to pre-read the book before I read it and I did not do that.
This book clearly lays out the foundation for natural theology, arguments for the existence of God, and arguments for the immortality of the soul. I also appreciated the catechetical format. It made it easier to follow the arguments presented and allows you to go back and re-reference the work more easily than if it were left off.

[Kevin V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawing from his Dutch tradition, Vos formats this work through catechetical questions and answers. While the format can take getting used to, it aids Vos in working through distinctions and definitions. He writes with a high level of clarity in brevity, even as he discusses difficult, multifaceted topics.

With little background in philosophy and natural theology, I am grateful for this work by Vos. His definitions and distinctions were a great help to me.

[Joshua Maier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The work is fine, and I'm glad we now have this portion of Vos' corpus in English. But if you're looking for a book to further the discussion around Natural Theology, this is not it. Much of it is repackaged lecture notes from early in Vos' career, and does not have the same maturity and character as his biblical theology.

That being said, if your only goal is to pull quotes to prove that Vos supports your side, go for it!

[Eddie Mercado · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I found out about this publication several months back. Textual critical questions aside (which is far from my area of expertise), this turned out to be an interesting and fruitful entry in Vosian scholarship. Fesko’s introduction (almost as long as the main body from Vos) is a very helpful overview of the history of Natural Theology in Christian (specifically Reformed) theology. But the inclusion of a section on Van Til and his (apparent) rejection of Natural Theology is quite unfortunate. What Fesko sees as adequate evidence for Kuyper’s approval of NT is not enough for Van Til, though he also appeals to Calvin’s sensus divinitatis, and the second article of the Belgic confession in his discussion of man’s knowledge of God (xxxvi). Fesko reads certain misinterpretations of Roman Catholicism in a charitable light noting, “Vos likely means to say that the Reformation rejected certain forms of Roman Catholic natural theology,” but is not willing to extend the same charity to Van Til in his refutations of Roman Catholic NT (lx).

The Vos lectures are easy to read and go over things such as the proofs for God’s existence, systems of religion, and a brief look at the immortality of the soul. He provides helpful critiques and rebuttals to some of the classic proofs for the existence of God, and his Q&As on knowledge of God proper are well worth considering in light of the debates with Van Til. While Van Til may or may not agree with every jot and tittle that his beloved professor wrote during his days in teaching Grand Rapids, when considering natural theology proper, I think these two are on the same page. The sections I enjoyed the most were Vos on the Ethical and Religious Arguments (chapter 2), and the immortality of the soul (chapter 3).

[Sam Nesbitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although interesting to see Geerhardus Vos’s thoughts on natural theology, this work is somewhat of a church-politics publication. This is not only due to the interesting-but-not-that-remarkable thoughts on the subject from Vos (meaning that Vos’s contributions to the subject are interesting due to the voices he is interacting with at his moment in the history of theology, but as for any groundbreaking advances or profound clarifications, there are other more helpful resources), but it is made especially apparent by the horrendous misreading/misrepresentation of Van Til at the end of Fesko’s already too long introduction, this work is an attempt to demonstrate the historical continuity of Fesko’s (and others) position on the recent debate concerning the role of natural theology in Reformed theology and apologetics. Fesko attempts to frame Vos as heavily continuous with Old Princeton and other early modern Reformed thought on natural theology, while also putting Van Til in heavy discontinuity with Vos. This framework, however, does not bear out when reading Vos and Van Til together. In Vos’s natural theology, as with any historical work, there are continuities and discontinuities between him and Van Til on the subject. Similarly to Fesko’s “Reforming Apologetics”, his introduction to this book (which takes up almost half of it) clearly demonstrates that he has a warped understanding of Van Til and many of his positions (one critique of Van Til by Fesko [and many others] that can be granted is his historiographical approaches to scholasticism, but this is a peripheral point compared to the rest of Van Til’s system).
In sum, this is a piece to read not primarily for the sake of deepening one’s understanding of Reformed approaches to natural theology, but more so for the deepening of one’s understanding of the history of natural theology in Reformed thought, keeping always in mind how this work has been framed in a wider contemporary theological debate (one wonders how Vos’s Natural Theology would have been framed if Richard B. Gaffin Jr. wrote the introduction instead of Fesko).

[Aaron Irlbacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Natural theology is a knowledge of God that takes its content and method from the world as it presents itself to us as governed by fixed laws.” -Vos

Interesting and helpful book. It’s main content is translated notes from Vos’ students. These lectures on Natural theology are now available in English and are helpful. The brevity of the book makes the content very easy to manage. The introduction was written by J.V. Fesko and was also very helpful in setting the stage for the reader to better understand why a book on Natural theology is both helpful and somewhat controversial. I’ll definitely pick this book up again for a second read. Great book.

[Peter Kiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've never had a book so overhyped and overshadowed by its introduction. I think that the intro was also probably of equal length in word count to the book. The book itself was quite painful to try and engage with, because of its question and answer format. I think the inroduction oversold it completely, and I didn't feel more convinced of the total viability of natural theology. I'm not sold on the idea that natural theology is able to teach different truths about God than Scripture is, and isn't just a sin-stained revelation that is revealed without sin in special revelation. The supremacy of Scripture is still very important to me.

[James Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good material. Has a good overview of different streams of thought and how different thinkers interacted. I did mostly enjoy the introduction by Fesko, but I wish that the anti-Van Til section was smaller. I'm sympathetic to his complaints about Van Til, but that section would be 90% better if it were 70% shorter.

[Nick Roark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underwhelming

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Fesko’s introduction very informative. The last couple sections on utilitarianism were very helpful. Concise and descent.

[Evan]

Pretty good and interesting