Natural Law in the Spiritual World

An extended argument proposes that many moral and spiritual principles mirror regularities observed in the natural sciences; the author tests this claim by examining biological concepts—biogenesis, growth, degeneration, death, mortification, and environment—and their analogues in spiritual life, and by discussing relations such as conformity to type, semi-parasitism, parasitism, and classification. He maintains that scientific method can illuminate religious ideas without eliminating mystery, advocates reciprocal enrichment between scientific and theological thought, and supplies observational examples and implications for faith, ethics, and theological method.