Most recently he edited Wolfgang Smith for Everyone: Science, Metaphysics, and Religion (with Testimonials and Tributes) with Marie-José Jolivet. Here, he takes to answer some questions on his process and continued interest in the thought of Wolfgang Smith.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us a bit about your background and what led you to writing and editing this book.
Metaphysics has been at the center of my intellectual life for more than forty years. What began as a personal quest gradually developed into scholarly work, writing, and, over the last two decades, editing and publishing.
I first encountered Wolfgang Smith's work in 2008. Here was a thinker capable of addressing some of the deepest questions of our time—concerning science, reality, consciousness, and transcendence—while remaining firmly rooted in the metaphysical tradition. The more I studied his writings, the more convinced I became of their importance.
This book grew out of a desire to honor him on the occasion of his ninety-fifth birthday. Sadly, it has instead become a posthumous tribute—while also serving as an accessible introduction to a body of work that I believe deserves much wider recognition.
Tell us a little about Wolfgang Smith and if you ever had a chance to meet him.
I had the privilege of meeting Wolfgang shortly after we published his first book in French. We became friends immediately, as sometimes happens when two people share a deep interest in metaphysical questions and recognize a common intellectual horizon.
Because I spent considerable time in California over the years—both for work and for holidays—I had several opportunities to visit him. These encounters were always memorable, not only because of Wolfgang himself, but also because of his remarkable wife, a woman of rare intelligence and deep spirituality, whose warmth and generosity perfectly complemented Wolfgang's own qualities.
What struck me most about Wolfgang was the rare combination of intellectual rigor, spiritual insight, and personal humility that characterized both the man and his work.
What inspired you to write this book? What influence has Wolfgang’s ideas had on you?
The book was inspired by a conviction shared by all its contributors: Wolfgang Smith is one of the very few contemporary thinkers whose work genuinely matters. He addresses some of the most fundamental questions of our time, bringing together modern science, philosophy, and traditional metaphysical wisdom in a way that few scholars have attempted and even fewer have achieved.
His most significant contribution, in my view, lies in his interpretation of quantum physics through the combined lenses of scientific rigor and traditional philosophy. By challenging the assumptions of scientism without rejecting science itself, he opened a path toward a deeper understanding of reality.
His work has reinforced my own conviction that metaphysics is not an obsolete discipline but remains indispensable for making sense of both the world and our place within it. Wolfgang showed that the deepest discoveries of modern science need not lead to materialism; they can also point beyond it.
Who is this book for, and what do you hope readers will gain from it?
This book is intended first and foremost for readers who have heard of Wolfgang Smith but do not know where to begin. His writings are profound and rewarding, but they can also be demanding, especially for those unfamiliar with metaphysics, philosophy of science, or the traditional perspective. Wolfgang Smith for Everyone was conceived as an accessible gateway into his thought.
At the same time, the book will also be of interest to readers already acquainted with his work. The various contributors approach Smith from different angles—scientific, philosophical, metaphysical, and spiritual—offering a multifaceted portrait of both the man and his ideas.
What I hope readers will gain is, above all, an appreciation of the importance and originality of Smith's intellectual legacy. He addresses questions that concern us all: What is the nature of reality? What are the limits of science? What is consciousness? How should we understand the relationship between the visible world and the transcendent?
If readers finish this book with a greater sense of wonder before the mystery of reality, and with the desire to explore Smith's own works for themselves, then it will have accomplished exactly what it set out to do.
What is the central message or argument you most want readers to take away?
If there is one message, I would like readers to take away, it is that reality is greater than the picture of it offered by modern scientism.
Wolfgang Smith never opposes science; on the contrary, he deeply respects its achievements and possesses an exceptional scientific competence himself. What he challenges is the ideological assumption that empirical science alone can provide a complete account of reality. He shows that many of the difficulties and paradoxes of modern thought arise precisely when scientific descriptions are mistaken for reality itself.
His work reminds us that the world is not exhausted by what can be measured, quantified, or mathematically modeled. Meaning, consciousness, beauty, truth, and transcendence are not secondary illusions; they belong to the fabric of reality no less than physical phenomena.
More fundamentally, Smith invites us to rediscover that the world we actually experience—the world of qualities, meanings, forms, and living presence—is not an illusion to be explained away. It is the primary reality from which scientific abstractions are derived. Recovering this insight may be one of the most important intellectual tasks of our time.
Were there any surprising discoveries you made while working on it?
Yes. Although I had been familiar with Wolfgang Smith’s work for many years, I was surprised by the breadth of its impact. Bringing together contributors from different countries and disciplines revealed how deeply his ideas had influenced not only philosophers and theologians, but also scientists, artists, and independent thinkers. In a sense, the book confirmed that Smith’s thought is even more fertile and far-reaching than I had previously realized.
What themes did you find yourself and other contributors repeatedly exploring in this work?
Perhaps the most recurring theme is a deceptively simple question: Is reality limited to what can be measured?
Wolfgang Smith’s answer is clearly no. While measurement is indispensable to science, it is not the measure of all things. Again and again, the contributors explore the distinction between the measurable and the intelligible, between quantitative description and qualitative reality.
In different ways, the essays point toward the same conclusion: science tells us much about the world, but not everything that is real can be captured by measurement alone.
What are you working on next?
My next major project is devoted to another extraordinary thinker who was both a close friend of Wolfgang Smith and one of the most important contemporary metaphysicians: Jean Borella (also published by Angelico Press).
I had the privilege of publishing a dialogue between the two thinkers in both France and the United States, Rediscovering the Integral Cosmos: Physics, Metaphysics, and Vertical Causality (Angelico Press). That work highlighted the profound intellectual affinity between them, despite their distinct approaches.
In a sense, after helping introduce readers to Wolfgang Smith, it seems only natural to turn to Jean Borella—another major representative of the metaphysical tradition, and one whose work remains as timely as it is profound: Jean Borella for Everyone.
Where can readers follow your work or learn more?
The easiest way to follow my work is through my books published by Angelico Press and through Metafysikos.com.
Metafysikos brings together many of my articles and research papers in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German. Readers will find there a substantial collection of studies devoted to Wolfgang Smith and Jean Borella, together with essays on metaphysics, philosophy, theology, and cosmology, as well as an extensive glossary of some 100 metaphysical terms.
Anyone wishing to delve further into the ideas discussed in Wolfgang Smith for Everyone will find abundant resources there.
If you want some words about Marie-José Jolivet:
Marie-José Jolivet is an extraordinary lady. Now in her nineties, she brings a lifetime of experience, in part as professional translator, including work from Hebrew, and has lived both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Convinced of the importance of Wolfgang Smith's work, she translated his first book into French before there was any certainty that it would ever be published. Happily, it was, and she went on to translate many more of his books. French-speaking readers owe her a great debt, for without her dedication and perseverance much of Wolfgang Smith’s thought would have remained inaccessible to them. It is therefore no surprise that her latest published work, Pépites borelliennes: Textes choisis pour entrer dans l'œuvre de Jean Borella (“Borellian Gems: Selected Texts for Entering the Thought of Jean Borella”), serves as an introduction to yet another exceptional thinker. In many ways, whether Smith or Borella, her contributions reflect her lifelong gift for recognizing intellectual treasures and making them accessible to a wider readership.
