Natural theology has not had much of a profile in Catholic theology in recent decades. This article examines the political and cultural significance of natural theology. It compares and contrasts the context of Aquinas and the `five ways' with our contemporary post-modern context. Drawing on Doran's analysis of the cultural dialectic in terms of cosmological and anthropological poles, it analyses the context of Aquinas as one of transition from a more cosmological culture to a more anthropological one, whereas our own is a hyper-anthropological culture increasingly cut off from cosmological meanings. In both contexts, natural theology has a positive but different contribution to make.
