ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to present an interpretation of the religious content in Smith’s thought that emphasises the role of natural theology. The hypothesis to be considered is that natural theology is central to his anthropology and thus to the whole corpus. The argument proceeds in the following fashion. The first section simply seeks to account for why Smith did not leave a serious theological work. Once this first hurdle is jumped, examination of his earlier work on religious topics shows a theological end to the natural order as evinced by a social progression toward monotheism. This serves as an introduction to a discussion of Smith’s use of the word ‘Nature’. After cataloguing the various interpretations, Smith’s own views are interpreted and a new taxonomy is considered. This yields ‘Nature’ as the efficient cause of a divine final end. The efficient causality occurs in and through natural human sentiments. The key notions of sympathy, selflove and the spectator (real and impartial) are then discussed. These theological notions are then assembled together to form a broad theory of interpretation for Smith’s theological ideas. The outcome is one that emphasises the reliance of the natural theology on Christianity’s Golden Rule.1
