Natural theology

Hamann hoped for a natural theology that would lead not to “the God of naked reason” but to “the God of Holy Scripture, who would show us that all [nature’s] treasures are nothing but an allegory, a mythological painting of heavenly systems – just as all historical events are the shadow-images of secret deeds and revealed wonders.” The difference between natural and revealed religion is the difference, he says, between an untrained person looking at a painting and an artist looking at the same painting, the difference between “the natural and the musical ear.”