Philosophical Theology

work by Tennant

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July 1, 2026

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Frederick Robert Tennant's Philosophical Theology is a two-volume work that seeks to harmonize science and religion through an empirical approach. Tennant, an English philosophical theologian, was skeptical of mysticism and argued that religious experience requires an independently established theism, supported by epistemology, psychology, and natural sciences.1

Volume II of his work presents an argument for the existence of God based on the design of the world. Tennant's endeavor to merge scientific and theological thinking was eventually surpassed by shifts in empirical philosophy and theology. Theology, in general, has significantly influenced cultural evolution and intellectual life, shaping concepts of history and contributing to the development of modern philosophy.12

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Christianity
The design (or teleological) argument
Tennant (Philosophical Theology, 1928–30) and Richard Swinburne (using Thomas Bayes’s probability theorem in The Existence of God, 1979), taking account not only of the order and functioning of nature but also of the “fit” between human intelligence and the universe, whereby humans can understand its workings,…
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Tennant (Philosophical Theology, 1928–30) and Richard Swinburne (using Thomas Bayes’s probability theorem in The Existence of God, 1979), taking account not only of the order and functioning of nature but also of the “fit” between human intelligence and the universe, whereby humans can understand its workings,…
Read More

Frederick Robert Tennant
…(1928) of his chief work, Philosophical Theology, Tennant shows himself temperamentally and philosophically unsympathetic to mysticism and argues that justification of the claims of religious experience to reveal God requires an independently established theism, derived by a “laborious ascent” from such knowledge about the self and the world as is…
Read More
…(1928) of his chief work, Philosophical Theology, Tennant shows himself temperamentally and philosophically unsympathetic to mysticism and argues that justification of the claims of religious experience to reveal God requires an independently established theism, derived by a “laborious ascent” from such knowledge about the self and the world as is…
Read More