by Michael Tkacz, PhD
From ancient times, human beings have held that philosophy or the quest for wisdom is the highest and noblest of all activities. Indeed, the pagan philosophers Plato and Aristotle identified the perfection of human nature itself with intellectual virtue—that is, with activity aimed at the attainment of wisdom. Wisdom is also central to the Christian’s life of faith. The gospels report that Christ identified himself as the wisdom of the Father, the early Church councils spoke of wisdom as the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the ancient Church Fathers referred to wisdom as the very essence of divine reality.
Yet, there is in these two traditions of wisdom—the philosophical and the Christian—a potential, or at least apparent, conflict. Such is clear in that ancient discussion at Cassiciacum where St. Augustine and his friends Romanianus, Licentius, and Trygetius attempt to confront the problem head-on. Augustine opens the discussion by citing the gospel text “seek and you shall find” as the means by which one examines one’s soul (exercitatio animi) in an effort to attain wisdom. This immediately provokes a discussion that turns on the key concepts of seeking (quaerere) and finding (invenire). In what, then, does human happiness (beatitudo) or human fulfillment (perfectio) consist? Is it in the seeking or in the discovery of the truth? Licentius claims that the search for truth is all that is possible for man and that human happiness is to be found in the virtuous pursuit of the intellectual life. Trygetius, on the other hand, insists that happiness implies that the truth has been found, is possessed, and is enjoyed. In the intellectual skirmish that ensues, the authority of the pagan philosophers is invoked and ruled out of court. The point of philosophy is to liberate one from the yoke of authority and Christ himself taught that “the truth shall make you free.” Authority for both the philosopher and the Christian, it would seem, must yield to reason. Or does it?
While hardly resolving the issue, the discussion at Cassiciacum certainly presents the problem in a dramatic fashion. It is a problem that not only confronted the Church in its early centuries, but continues to confront us today. In what does human happiness and perfection consist? What is wisdom and its pursuit? What roles do reason and authority play in the perfection of wisdom? If, out of all creation, man is especially created in the image of God, then how does divine wisdom come to exist in man? Such questions remain before the Church today as surely as they were before Augustine and his friends at Cassiciacum.
In our exploration of philosophy at Catholic Studies Institue, we seek to engage in a neo-Cassiciacum dialogue on wisdom and faith. Through a series of contemporary and historical readings, we seek anew answers to ancient questions regarding the life of faith and the intellectual life. Our goal is to at least initiate a reflection within our readers that can function as the sort of formational examination of the soul that Augustine had long ago recommended to his friends.
Wisdom Reason and faith.
These seemingly incompatible ideas are at the root of the quest for “Truth”. We have to decide for our self what is true and we can only hope we are correct.
Human reason is fraught with pitfalls. We are after all the product of the history of man, and our various and diverse cultures as we have learned and as we believe them to be true. To step further then this requires us to acknowledge that we are capable of being wrong, that we might, despite all our certainty of the “Truth” be mistaken.
This is a product of the uncertainty of our ability to interpret our surroundings and our state of mind. To quote the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident”… But they rarely are. Our ability to discern the truth is wisdom of sorts.
It requires dedication and the hope that we have not been deceived, or are deceiving our self’s.
Wisdom then is very much a product of our ability to correctly judge in our current surroundings, the truth about what, where and when. To be able to make a sound judgment to the benefit of our self, the group or the society we are in. We must do this over and over and over again for the long hall. Not an easy task for some one who can be wrong. The truth is a slippery thing and reason and wisdom will only take you so far.
Faith is this final frontier. We develop faith by going as far as reason and wisdom will allow and then going further. To believe that something is true, even though human reason is at its end and wisdom says that there is no benefit to any one. Faith, as in a faith in God, is only partially based on the truth. Remember you can be wrong. But the faith that God is not wrong. This places God on a higher or at least different plane from man. It is only by faith as a gift from God by the Holy Sprit that we can even contemplate that Christ died for our sin once and for all. It is the positive assurance that no mistake has been made, that our wisdom is strong and our reason intact, that we can make any such assurance of a truth.
So we must also act on that faith. If we say that we believe and do not act then there is a lie evident to anyone. The lie that we have faith, remember that we have accepted “Truth”, so the actions must follow. To be thirsty and decide to drink must be followed by the very action of drinking. Other wise the thirst is a lie to others. To see a poor man on the street and do nothing, we show that our care for the poor is a lie to others. We may say to ourselves that I really believe, but it is in our actions that we present the outward sign to the inward belief to ourselves and others.
In the Gospels Christ always shows to every one that he is the true son of God by his actions. He heals the world and all that is in it. We have faith that Christ had wisdom and reason, but also boundless love for his creation. Since we could not be there, we could not see for our self, we could not know and there is no guarantee that we would have believed even if we had. Our faith sustains our reason and wisdom that it was and is true.
We are left with Pilots question. “What is truth?”… The truth is left to us to decide by God’s grace, in our free will. We may be wrong, but our faith, backed by our reason and wisdom say different.