Core Curriculum Archives - Sattler College

The Pursuit of Knowledge: Good for Making One Wise and Becoming Like God

Meghan Zimmerman — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 23:07:20 +0000

There is a general distrust and uneasiness among conservative Christians surrounding the pursuit of knowledge through intentional higher education. “Knowledge puffs up” they say, “And those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:1-2). It is a genuine concern, and their distrust of universities is not unmerited. But together Anselm of Canterbury and Hugh of St. Victor create a convincing counter to that unease and distrust. Though dated from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, their works Proslogion and Didascalicon (respectively) provide relevant insights into how a Christian can avoid the common pitfalls of education today and use it instead as a means for knowing God. On the basis of these writings, it can be illustrated that when approached wisely, the pursuit of knowledge can conduct us both in nature and in spirit ever closer to God. To achieve this end, an education must be built upon the proper foundation, pursued for the right purpose, governed by wisdom, and characterized by humility. Approached in this way, the pursuit of knowledge need not be feared. These requirements will be discussed under the following two titles: Basis (foundation and purpose) and Practice (as governed by wisdom and as characterized by humility). Basis All study should be based on faith in God and subsequently, the desire to know God, to see him, experience him, and love him. Anselm calls this approach to philosophy “faith seeking understanding.” He writes, “I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe even this: that unless I believe, I shall not understand.”1 Hugh of St. Vincent calls it “seeking wisdom.”2 He writes, “Of all things to be sought, the first is that Wisdom in which the Form of the Perfect Good stands fixed.” Hugh sees Wisdom personified to be God himself. Understanding can only be built on a foundation of initial faith in God. Today we can understand the Christian as having a great advantage in the quest for knowledge and understanding because he already has this foundation of belief. If a person knows his point of origin and the point of his end, the line he walks will be a straight one and his footsteps strong and sure. He does not need to fear any knowledge that he encounters because everything can be interpreted through this anchoring truth. Unless God is our foundation and the end that we are pursuing, nothing will make sense. Isaiah 7:9 says, “If you are not firm in the faith, you will not be firm at all.” Hugh pointed this out as well and in so doing gives an explanation from nearly one thousand years ago to why many Christians do lose their faith in universities today and why the most highly educated societies are becoming increasingly confused and cynical. “[T]he man wishing to attain knowledge, yet who willingly deserts truth in order to entangle himself in mere by-products of art, will find . . . but exceedingly great pains and meagre fruit” (88). It is important to recognize at the outset that all understanding comes from God and that we can know nothing unless God reveals himself to us. Anselm is convinced of this when he prays, “Teach me to seek You, and reveal Yourself to me as I seek; for unless You teach [me] I cannot seek You, and unless You reveal Yourself I cannot find You” (92). He goes on to refer to God as the “Light” that illuminates the rational mind (103). Hugh also favors the idea of “illumination”. “Wisdom illuminates man so that he may recognize himself” (1). In recognizing himself, man in turn recognizes the God who created him. To some, the idea of knowing God through knowing yourself could have a humanistic ring to it. Those who already have a mistrust for philosophy might use this to confirm their assumption that the pursuit of reasoning and knowledge is a slippery slope. But Anselm points out that we were created in God’s image. “O Lord, I acknowledge and give thanks that You created in me Your image so that I may remember, contemplate, and love you” (93). He believes that it is through God’s image in us, that we remember God and recognize Him when we see Him. Hugh believes that it is in knowledge and virtue that we find our likeness to the “eternal and divine substance,” and he says it is by the means of knowledge and virtue that we can attain our integrity. “This is our entire task—the restoration of our nature and the removal of our deficiency” (52). Thus, we come full circle; we seek to understand God so that we can understand ourselves so that in turn, again we can understand God. Anselm’s prayer was that God would grant him understanding “to the degree You know to be advantageous” (93). For these two men, education is not an exultation of man and his reason, but a means by which man exalts God and becomes more like him. To the degree that it produces this worship and restores man to God is the degree to which it is advantageous. Any man who desires to pursue knowledge today should have a solid grasp on his foundation and the purpose which drives his pursuit. Practice: Governed by Wisdom Education then cannot be extracted from the whole of a man’s life, but will inform his daily practice, coloring every consideration and defining his every action. The influence education will have over us is not something we need to fear. The character of a man is being shaped regardless of his education, and regardless of his initiative or inactivity. Hugh recognizes that as created in the image of God we have “natural endowment” or aptitude for comprehension and memory, but what is natural is not enough, only the soil (90). He says that their cultivation will “either [restore] our nature’s integrity, or [relieve] of those weaknesses […]

The post The Pursuit of Knowledge: Good for Making One Wise and Becoming Like God appeared first on Sattler College.

Biblical Languages as Worship

Justin Cox — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:16:00 +0000

“What does this verse really say?” “What does this verse really say?” This is probably the question I get asked most by those uninitiated into the joys of reading the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew. The thought of accessing some special (read “secret”) meaning in Scripture is extremely appealing. Why else would Dan Brown’s books have sold so well? Alas, my answer to this question is often not what the inquirer hoped for: “Precisely what it says in English.” As boring as it sounds, that’s the answer for almost every passage of Scripture. Yes, there is the odd verse that may raise some questions (cf. Jesus’ statement to Peter, “Get behind me Satan,” vs. simply “Get behind me adversary”), but even in those cases, the translation you will find in most modern English translations is, at least, a strong possibility. But the main problem with the above question is not the motivation for asking it; rather, the problem lies in the focus of studying the biblical languages. Instead of seeing the study of Greek, Hebrew, or even Latin as a portal to hidden meanings inaccessible through translation, original language study is chiefly an act of worship. Let us consider two reasons we should be driven to worship through study of God’s Word in the original tongues: because the languages are beautiful, and because they are hard to learn. Reason One: Worship—Because the Languages Are Beautiful Photo by Tanner Mardis on Unsplash In my years of studying, reading, and teaching biblical languages, I have often been struck by the majesty of the act: reading the words of the apostle, prophet, or church father in their original tongue allows a degree of participation that reading these texts in translation does not. It is one thing to read that “the Word became flesh,” but it is another thing to read John’s actual words, “ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο.” Through original language study we can see that the Beatitudes use as much alliteration as the most Baptist of Baptist pastors. We can see that James 1:17 is written in the same poetic meter as Homer’s poems, or that the Psalms (and indeed, the whole Old Testament!) are structured in a repeating pattern full of allusion, mirroring, and metaphor that rivals the world’s greatest epic poems. When the Christian encounters such beauty, there is only one proper response: praising the Lord for his magnificent revelation. When we read the striking classical periodic structure introducing the letter to the Hebrews, there is reason to thank God for the Greek language’s ability to communicate so complex an idea in so flowing and elegant a style. When we read the wordplay in the genealogies of Genesis, we are bound to admire the handiwork of the Lord who inspired it. When we see the parallels between “בראשׁית” in Genesis 1:1 and “Ἐν ἀρχῇ” in John 1:1, we must marvel at the simplicity with which so lofty an event is described. This is not to say that this beauty is inaccessible through translations. Indeed, much of it is! But the more I have studied and taught Greek and Hebrew, the more I have realized God’s providence in inspiring his Word into particular languages at particular times. Thus, by learning Greek and Hebrew, we can celebrate not only the Word of God, but also the words of God as he chose to reveal them. And that is a joy worth knowing. Reason Two: Worship—Because the Languages Are Hard Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash At one of the tea times last year, President Johnson shared his reflections on a video produced by retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink titled “Good.” The video is straightforward: whenever we encounter an obstacle to success, or a disappointment, or anything that inhibits us on the path we have chosen, good. We can now rise to the challenge afresh, armed with the knowledge and skill set to overcome what stopped us before. “If you can say the word ‘Good,’ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing. And if you’re still breathing, well now, you’ve still got some fight left in you.”1 The difficulty doesn’t break the experience, it makes it. In a way quite different from Navy SEAL training, studying Greek and Hebrew is hard. You may not risk being drowned by a super soldier, but you may very well spend many a sleepless night poring over grammars, lexica, and biblical passages. You will very likely exert tremendous effort for a disappointing grade and contemplate quitting this study altogether. But when we encounter these challenges, what if we say, “good”? Even better, what if these challenges lead us to worship God for the depth of his revelation in Scripture? Consider this: the difficulty you face in learning the languages reflects the great artistry present in the text of the Bible. If it were easy, the Bible might read something like a newspaper—informative, but boring. Instead, Scripture is full of some of the most incredible literary beauty, and that means you will have to learn both the science of the language (which is often drab and repetitive, but helpful) and the art of the language (where the difficulty and the beauty lie). Your education at Sattler will well prepare you for such discoveries. If there is one thing I have learned in my time here, it is that the students are up to the task they’ve been given, particularly in the study of Greek and Hebrew. And if the tediousness of deep language study gets to you, remember the words of the great Anglican theologian Sir Edwyn Hoskyns, “Bury yourself in the lexicon and arise in the presence of God.”2

The post Biblical Languages as Worship appeared first on Sattler College.