Thanks for taking an interest in my journey. Christian theological systems span quite a wide range of traditions. I am not sure if I fully understand what you have in mind by your descriptions but my formal theology studies were from 2 institutions that would be classified as reformed, both with roots leaning towards the English Baptist and the European anabaptist movements. If I understand your question correctly then yes I encountered the reformed doctrines of grace, from both sides of the free will and predestination camps. While my first couple of years of study was done in New Zealand, the second half was done in BC Canada. I got quite a bit of exposure to the North American variants of what I call popular Christian culture.

The best way to describe my pursuit of a better understanding of the spiritual experience a human can encounter would be to first say that I don’t deny that “there is a there there.” Something valid and meaningful can occur in the human experience that gets labelled as spiritual. My current investigation is focused on the way language develops over time from both a cultural and religious institutional perspective, and how language, its use and evolution shapes the way a human can experience both their internal and external environment. Add to this, among other things, my study of psychology. This came about mainly because both of my parents were psychiatric nurses who spent their lives dealing with a wide spectrum of mental illnesses, including forensic. The result is that I have a deep appreciation of how complex the human mind is and how belief systems are constructed.

There are a number of intellectually problematic theological positions that challenge me but they are a seperate line of enquiry to the study of consciousness and some sort of theory of mind. One interesting topic has to do with the authority of the bible in and of itself. Try building a case for the bible being the authoritative word of God without using the bible. The normal approach would be to use the bible to prove the bible matches the claim. There are many more but probably not productive at this point to create a list.

Yes I/we are chipping away at the task of quantifying “truth.” I have spent quite a bit of time forming an understanding of quantum mechanics, and more recently the simulation hypothesis due to personal experiences that challenged my previous understanding of space and time. My interactions with these subjects have no answers in any historical religious system of thinking or experience. Looking to science, math and physics as well as other related disciplines has lead to some clues about a what I think makes up at least some of my conscious experience. Like I said earlier, my assumption is that there is a there there, but I don’t think I can wrap it up nice and neatly in my previous Christian clothes.