Intellectual Difficulties Have To Be Met

[Eggnotz]

"Intellectual difficulties have to be met, and you will be meeting them for the rest of your life. Where you have absolute solutions, however, you have no need of faith. Faith is what you have in the absence of knowledge. You can’t fit the Almighty into your intellectual categories.” -Flannery O’Connor

 

[Crusaderbear]

Disagree. Faith is a valuable asset at any level.

 

[dshix]

Disagree. Faith is a valuable asset at any level.

I don’t think you quite understood.

Faith is the “substance of things hoped for”, the belief in the unseen or that which cannot be understood. Insofar as a person has perfect or complete understanding/sight of something, one no longer has “faith” in it because he sees it.

Those in Heaven no longer have “faith” in God because they see Him, face to face. They don’t have hope either, for the same reason.

 

[Crusaderbear]

Faith is what keeps you looking before you understand. Faith is a belief in yourself that you CAN understand.

 

[friardchips]

"Intellectual difficulties have to be met, and you will be meeting them for the rest of your life. Where you have absolute solutions, however, you have no need of faith. Faith is what you have in the absence of knowledge. You can’t fit the Almighty into your intellectual categories.” -Flannery O’Connor

We are Catholic by Faith and Reason.

What the snippet probably - on one level - means, is that when we are boxed in, in our little regimented compartmentalized categories and subcategories, of absolutes, we can become self-consumed in our own knowledge, so much so, that faith is suffocated in the claustrophobic climate of our own prowess. We need to remain open. An over-dependence on our own self-made perimeters, can not only diminish faith, but also have a detrimental effect upon our reasoning capabilities. Being intellectual is not an issue, it is what we do with our intellect, that really produces good fruit.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

We are Catholic by Faith and Reason.

What the snippet probably - on one level - means, is that when we are boxed in, in our little regimented compartmentalized categories and subcategories, of absolutes, we can become self-consumed in our own knowledge, so much so, that faith is suffocated in the claustrophobic climate of our own prowess. We need to remain open. An over-dependence on our own self-made perimeters, can not only diminish faith, but also have a detrimental effect upon our reasoning capabilities. Being intellectual is not an is
."sue, it is what we do with our intellect, that really produces good fruit.

Thomas Aquinas ceased his work on the great Summa near the end of his life. When begged by his secretary to resume, he said in effect that all he had written seemed like straw to him compared to what had been revealed to him. That is to say, he believed he needed to “remain open” to the experience of God rather than to continue boxing himself into “categories and subcategories of absolutes.”

 

[friardchips]

Thomas Aquinas ceased his work on the great Summa near the end of his life. When begged by his secretary to resume, he said in effect that all he had written seemed like straw to him compared to what had been revealed to him. That is to say, he believed he needed to “remain open” to the experience of God rather than to continue boxing himself into “categories and subcategories of absolutes.”

I had never properly understood what had been meant by the “straw” statement, as this seemed to conflict with God saying to St. Thomas Aquinas, that he had written well of God, and so, your explanation is both useful and appreciated, as it doesn’t negate Aquinas’ reasoning, but fulfills it, with faith.

 

[dshix]

That is to say, he believed he needed to “remain open” to the experience of God rather than to continue boxing himself into “categories and subcategories of absolutes.”

This interpretation of Aquinas’ words does not seem to conform with what I have heard before.

I had the impression that Aquinas merely could not bring himself to continue attempting to compose his works after he had had God deeply revealed to him in a certain way. It had more to do with Aquinas being overwhelmed and awed by the knowledge of God that he had received.

 

[fisherman_carl]

"Intellectual difficulties have to be met, and you will be meeting them for the rest of your life. Where you have absolute solutions, however, you have no need of faith. Faith is what you have in the absence of knowledge. You can’t fit the Almighty into your intellectual categories.” -Flannery O’Connor

If you could fully understand God then you wouldn’t have God, but a figment of your imagination.

Faith is based on evidence, not on absolutel proof. Hebrews 12 says faith is the evidence of things unseen. We will never know everything this side of heaven. But, there is really almost nothing that we can have absolute certainty of through human reason alone. You can not even be sure you are not a brain in a vat being experimented on by a mad scientist filling your mind with all you experiences. However, we can come to know God in a way beyond human understanding and that is through grace, through his presence in us.

 

[animalis]

"Intellectual difficulties have to be met, and you will be meeting them for the rest of your life. Where you have absolute solutions, however, you have no need of faith. Faith is what you have in the absence of knowledge. You can’t fit the Almighty into your intellectual categories.” -Flannery O’Connor

“Peruse attentively this treatise, and if you understand it, give God the praise; but where you fail to understand it, pray for understanding, for God will give you understanding. Remember what the Scriptures say: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him.”” (Augustine of Hippo. (1887). A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. In P. Schaff (Ed.), P. Holmes (Trans.), Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings (Vol. 5, p. 465). New York: Christian Literature Company.)

The intellectual will work out many aspects in the treatises in which he comes across. John XXII guided the Church by proclaiming to the faithful to seek the writings of Saint Thomas over all else if you desire light. Flannery is right that you cannot fit the Almighty into categories. But the Angelic Doctor has received so much praise from the Bishops of Rome throughout the centuries because his works are an act of Mercy to the mind.

 

[Neithan]

Yes and intellectual difficulties are worked out in philosophy, which is a common playground of reason, so to speak, accessible to any person with natural mental faculties. Faith begins where reason ends; so for the purpose of evangelization, I think we have to work on the obstacles to faith: the errors in metaphysical reasoning and the misconceptions of our religion that are so widespread now.