A Reformation Theology of Nature Transfigured

Abstract

Joseph Sittler's rich theology of “nature transfigured” is predicated on both the vision and the rhetoric of grace. Sittler's dual focus marks a break with Reformation tradition, particularly with Luther's theology, which was rooted primarily in a theology of hearing, often contrasted to any theology of seeing. Ironically, the biblical witness, which theologians like Luther so fervently claimed as their own, itself witnesses to revelation based on both hearing and seeing. Sittler builds on the biblical witness and also draws on the testimony of other theological witnesses, such as classical Eastern Orthodox theology, and the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, to lay foundations for a new, more biblical theology of nature in the Reformation tradition, for the life of our Reformation churches.