Disciplined Transcendence
A methodological and intellectual framework within Christian philosophy that employs rigorous analytical reasoning—drawing systematically from the natural sciences, formal sciences, social sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary fields—to construct positive evidential and logical support for the existence of the God of classical theism and the truth claims of Christianity.
Rather than retreating from post-Enlightenment critique, Analytical Theism accepts the challenge of modernity, demonstrating that radical intellectual honesty, when pursued with sufficient depth, points beyond the purely empirical toward a reality that transcends human construction while remaining accessible to human understanding.
One can arrive at a religious stance through purely analytical means. The tools of logic, evidence, and rigorous inquiry are not obstacles to faith but pathways toward it.
Honest analytical engagement with reality necessarily opens to transcendence. The patterns, structures, and limits of empirical knowledge itself point beyond the purely empirical.
A three-step iterative methodology for convergence toward religious understanding—what mathematicians recognize as a convergent process.
Be honest so one can assess the truth
Establishes accurate assessment of reality. Extends to limitations of human understanding and recognition of distorting biases. What Lonergan termed "intellectual conversion."
Take aim at the summum bonum
Establishes the objective function to be maximized. Orients toward the highest conceivable good. Transforms Nietzsche's "will to power" into the "will to the greatest good."
Try, re-calibrate, try
Implements iterative optimization. Acknowledges the cyclical nature of understanding. Each iteration builds upon previous ones, creating compounding moral and spiritual development.
Honesty creates a stable foundation. Orientation toward the Greatest Good provides consistent direction. Iteration allows adaptation. The result: a "compounding interest" effect in development.
Analytical Theism does not retreat from critique but embraces it
We accept Nietzsche's challenge, carrying his framework forward to reveal that the creation of highest values ultimately requires acknowledgment of a reality beyond human construction. A "charitable radicalization" of his project.
Truth exhibits a duality analogous to wave-particle duality in physics. The objective dimension (precise, localized) and symbolic dimension (diffuse, pattern-oriented) must be held in complementary tension.
A practical framework for ethical action: calculating probable futures and reducing possible states toward flourishing. Be a "white hole"—radiating value outward—not a "black hole" of selfish accumulation.
Knowledge emerges through iterative processes moving closer to truth without claiming absolute certainty. Faith and reason are complementary; the created order is intelligible because it proceeds from a rational Creator.
Multiple independent lines of evidence—cosmological, teleological, moral, experiential—converge on theism. The collective force exceeds any individual argument.
Drawing from physics, biology, mathematics, logic, psychology, history, and philosophy to construct a comprehensive case. Gödel's theorems, fine-tuning, consciousness—all point toward transcendence.
Scholarly explorations applying the framework of Analytical Theism
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