[2] Smith was a member of the Traditionalist School of metaphysics, having contributed extensively to its criticism of modernity while exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific method and emphasizing the idea of bringing science back into a Platonist and Aristotelian framework of traditional ontological realism.

Proceeding with his critique of scientism in his monograph, The Quantum Enigma (1995), Smith raised the questions of whether the scientific method is in fact dependent on the scientistic philosophy and, if it is not, whether linking it to other philosophical frameworks would provide better solutions to the way physical phenomena are interpreted.

Working then into the second question, he proposed linking the scientific method – and thus the modern sciences – to a non-bifurcationist, non-reductionist metaphysics in the form of a modified Thomistic ontology, showing how such a move resolves the apparent incoherences of quantum mechanics.

[4] Smith's understanding of the relationship between corporeal and physical objects extends to his interpretation of biology, where he became an opponent of Darwinian evolution, as the fundamental element in a species would be its form, not its causal history, which evolutionists favor.

[7][8] The End of Quantum Reality (2020), a documentary film about Smith's life and thought, ran in a limited national theatrical release in the U.S.[9][10][11] Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984) Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy (1988; originally published as Teilhardism and the New Religion) The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key (1995) Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism (2004; originally published as The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology) Christian Gnosis: From Saint Paul to Meister Eckhart (2008) Science & Myth: With a Response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design (2012) In Quest of Catholicity: Malachi Martin Responds to Wolfgang Smith (2016) Physics and Vertical Causation: The End of Quantum Reality (2019) The Vertical Ascent: From Particles to the Tripartite Cosmos and Beyond (2021) Vedanta in Light of Christian Wisdom (2022) Physics: A Science in Quest of an Ontology (2023) Articles on philosophy, religion, physics and non-mathematical subjects in general: Academic articles on mathematics signed as "J. Wolfgang Smith":