William Derham: between Nature and Theology

Abstract

William Derham is one of the most prominent figures in the physico-theology movement in the eighteenth century. He believed that the investigation of nature, its immensity, its complexity, and its harmoniousness can bring most people to the belief in the benevolent and omnipotent God. He strongly believed in the preeminence of final causality which led him to facing the problem of theodicy; he explained the existence of evil through the imperfection of human cognition and through the use of evil as punishment for sin.