εν αρχή
The beginning of Wisdom…
Everything which we know has a beginning. The universe itself has a beginning, which we have recently understood to be the big bang. Similarly, there is also a beginning, as well as middle and an end, to the journey towards acquiring Wisdom. I’ve capitalized Wisdom there because in order to embark on this journey a certain objectivity is demanded of the reader.
Wisdom, according to the Judeo-Christian tradition, is one. It is a person, and it is the object of our entire lives. There is no room in this quest for strict subjectivism, nihilism, or existentialism. On the contrary, we believe in a Truth which, though we have yet to fully understand, is in fact real and within our power to strive towards. To acquire Wisdom, to be conformed to Wisdom, to embrace Wisdom in the way a wife embraces and takes in her husband, that is the project here.
Thus, we return to the “beginning” – the beginning of Wisdom.
The Trivium
Many classicists and Catholics will be familiar with the Trivium. This is a classical teaching curriculum which essentially follows a sequence of three educational stages:
- Grammar: first, students acquire the raw material of truth; they accumulate facts about the world and basic mathematical skills.
- Logic: then, students start making connections between the body of data they have memorized; they study logical principles and form arguments.
- Rhetoric: finally, the student speaks, analyzes multiple arguments, and becomes a productive member of society, capable of synthesizing their corpus of knowledge into a cohesive, singular vision of life.
Acquiring Wisdom through the Hebraic Scriptures
Catholics and classicists are not the originators of a tripartite education. In fact, Jews also had a three-part system – a system for teaching and passing on the moral law.
This system survives in the Bible and in the mystical tradition of the Catholic Church.
If you want a do-it-yourself version of this, here is the sequence of books you need to read and what to do with them, from the mouth of St. Jerome himself:
“For [you], the Bible must take the place of silks and jewels… Learn the Psalter first and find [your] recreation in its songs; learn from Solomon’s Proverbs the way of life, from Ecclesiastes how to trample on the world. In Job [you] will wind an example of patient virtue. Thence… pass to the Gospels; they should always be in [your] hands. [You] should steep [yourself] in the Acts and the Epistles. And when [you] have enriched [your] soul with these treasures [you] should commit to memory the Prophets, the Heptateuch, Kings and Chronicles, Esdras and Esther: then [you] can learn the Canticle of Canticles without any fear.“
St. Jerome (Letter to Laeta)
To put it briefly, the beginning of Wisdom is to assent to the authority of the heart and moral teachings of the Bible. If it is truly God’s love letter to us, it is incumbent upon us human beings to treat it with high devotion and reverence. Concretely, let us begin by writing out our first Psalm.
If you want help beginning, check out our post on memorizing psalms.
God be with ye,
Joseph