自亞里士多德開始，形上學原為「第一哲學」或「神學」；是在探討事物的原因、原理、基礎。其方法則是透過「第二哲學」的「物理學」，對萬事萬物的俯仰觀察，求得「變化」為事物之通性。但是，「變化」皆事出有因；因而有「因果原則」的「形質說」和「四因說」的運用。這運用的進程是知性進路的，由對物理的知識，推論到形上的智慧，是下學而上達；由內存走向超越。中世哲學大師聖多瑪斯，利用傳統的「類比」和「分受」，使形上形下二界得以貫通，由存在直達存有，觸通了希臘智慧與希伯來的信仰。近代以還，知識優位，逐漸模糊了形上學的的地位，新士林哲學家設法以傳統智慧，與當代思潮交談、辯論、融洽，開展出內超越的形上體系，重新評估及肯定神祕經驗在哲學中的地位。

　　　　　Metaphysics was called by Aristotle as the First Philosophy or Theology, it seeks causes, principles and foundations of all things. Through the scientific observation, by using the socalled Second Philosophy, namely Physics, Aristotle found the phenomenon of change in all visible things. Change postulates cause. The ultimate cause of all things should be called God. Along this epistemological way the Scholasticism went on with deep concentration on uniting the principle of causality and Hebrew religiosity. The identity and difference between philosophy and theology have been discussed and discovered by St. Thomas Aquinas in both his excellent works Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica. The effort of this epistemological metaphysics lies in the transcendental and objective God. Ever since modern times, the epistemology has been the focus of philosophy. The Neo-scholastic schools in seeking dialogue, concordance and consensus with philosophers, try to create a new way to support the traditional metaphysics. Thus an agreement with the phenomenologist's “consciousness” and the existentialist's “life-world” is reached, and such an agreement confirms the divine immanence in human heart, which should be the mystical experience with divine presence. God is both transcendental and immanent.