Abstract

This introductory chapter begins by identifying the primary themes covered in this Handbook. It then attempts to put to rest the prevailing myth regarding natural theology: that natural theology had a brief, if significant, flourishing at a kind of interim point of the scientific revolution and culminated in William Paley's 1802 book, Natural Theology, before being fatally undermined by the combined effects of a three-pronged philosophical, scientific, and theological critique. It is argued that the interest in natural theology and the issues it is concerned with is very much at the centre of contemporary thought. An overview of the three parts of the Handbook is also presented.