I wanted to give a brief afterword regarding my last post. I often write against and about natural theology, the so-called analogy of being (analogia entis), and now what we have called a ‘theology of correlation.’ But I rarely explain what is at stake, at least for my marbles. The reason I have come to detest (not too strong of a word) natural theology in the main is because I believe it allows humans to treat God as something they possess. In other words, my conception of natural theology entails that the theological starting point for the natural theologian is somewhere engrained in an inherent human capacity; whether that be something we are born with (and that was not lost at the Fall), or whether that be a created (quality of) grace that the elect of God have received—the latter being something that remains to be actuated by the elect’s push to habituate in activities becoming one of the elect of God. No matter how one arrives at being a natural theologian and working from a theologia naturalis the specter remains the same; the theologian and his or her wit necessarily precedes God. For one thing this places a primacy on creation that I think is untenable; for another thing it displaces the capacity for God to speak his Word mediated through his chosen Self-mediation in Jesus Christ. If the human voice—an abstract human voice, one not grounded in the human voice of the Christ—is allowed to speak about God prior to God speaking of himself then as a foundation the human voice will always be the mediating voice as it concerns God’s who and what. This is why I repudiate natural theology; it forecloses on the holy ground that belongs to God and the dominion of his life alone. If the human voice (abstract from Christ’s vicarious humanity) is the basis upon which the Christian is allowed to know God from, then that human voice[s] will always need to be present as the foundation upon which God talk can proceed. We can extrapolate out from a singular human voice that speaks of God, to a corporate body, and finally to the Church (and attending tradition); either way, whether singular or multiple, if this voice is allowed to precede God’s voice, then distinguishing God’s voice from the human’s voice will nigh be impossible. This is why I reject natural theology; it makes God a possession of the church; it wipes any space for God’s voice to actually confront not only the world, but his church. How are we to know if we are hearing God’s voice and recognize the character of his vocality if we have allowed the sheep to become the Shepherd; if we have sublimated God’s voice by the Church’s voice? This is why I reject natural theology; I am a sheep, and I know my Shepherd’s voice; it is a voice sui generis, and natural theology offers a voice I don’t recognize as my Shepherd’s; it sounds like a hireling’s voice, a voice this sheep cannot follow.