Natural theology legitimated visible class hierarchy as part of God’s design

Evidence

The present social order, like the present natural order, was the most useful for carrying out God’s plan. “There are good political reasons for man’s clothing himself … many callings and ways of life arise from hence, and (to name no more), the ranks and degrees of men are hereby in some measure rendered visible to others, in the several nations of the earth.” The idea that nature could be transformed by the hand of man within a social system where clothing and callings marked one’s station in life was part of the ideology of status society with an acquisitive middle class. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 924

Categorization

• XREF: Ties nature’s design argument to sumptuary-clothing status markers discussed in earlier chapters, and to Merchants’ Broad thread about how cosmology underwrites social order. — connects to: The ideology of scientific progress legitimated class hierarchy rather than lifting the poor — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 712; Natural theology sacralized commerce, science, and improvement as divine service — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 913; Natural theology reframed godly stewardship as managerial mastery compatible with growth capitalism — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 925 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Natural theology sacralized commerce, science, and improvement as divine service #expands (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 913
• Natural theology reframed godly stewardship as managerial mastery compatible with growth capitalism #expands (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 925
• Vital forces form a descending hierarchy from God through ancestors to inanimate world #exemplifies (0.78) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 526