For truly barren is profane education, which is always in labor but never gives birth. For what fruit worthy of such pangs does philosophy show for being so long in labor? Do not all who are full of wind and never come to term miscarry before they come to the light of the knowledge of God, although they could well become men if they were not altogether hidden in the womb of barren wisdom?
Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 57
The thinking of our ancient teachers often exhibits a clarity that is rare among modern scholars, not to mention that their writing exhibits a poetic quality that will bring you to pause and simply admire its beauty. Gregory of Nyssa lived over 1600 years ago but his observations are at least as accurate concerning the modern academy as they were of the Greek schools of philosophy and rhetoric. That modern academics has completely severed itself from the source of its living blood, namely the contemplation of God, has only made it an even more empty pursuit. At best higher education at the undergraduate level is vocational training, giving you the basic knowledge you may or may not have use for in later life. It will get your foot in the door of some industry, where you will be required to undergo an extensive apprenticeship before you are worth the paper of your diploma. It will also provide the necessary prerequisite for graduate work. A Masters Degree will earn you a title and open the door to post graduate work where you may earn a doctorate of various sorts and yet another title. For all the sacrifice and work that you go through the pursuit will not make you a true man or woman, in fact it may hinder your pursuit of genuine humanity.
The modern academy can teach the theory of anything from quantum physics to Polynesian lesbian social behavior but what it neglects is the formation of the soul. One will go through the process of learning, including a phase, perhaps lengthy, where learning itself is a great joy and takes on an almost spiritual quality but as one engages the academic process one discovers that scholarly debate is in fact a circular track of debates with some occasional insights. In the field of philosophy especially one notices a surprising lack of new thought. Philosophy is admittedly a continuous work in progress, however, one might expect some great breakthroughs of the sort that are found in the other disciplines. But as it was in the time of the Cappadocians, when philosophy was revered above all other disciplines, to now, when philosophy has become an esoteric sidebar to the mainline thrust of academia, it fails to bear fruit.
Philosophy defends itself with existentialist and process thinking. The road is more important than the destination. This is true in many senses but any journey is made truly important by a courageous journey and a rewarding destination. Again the damage has been done by a separation between the highest aspirations of the human reason and the contemplation of God. The human intellect was, in fact, designed to have the contemplation of God as its central focus. Thus “profane wisdom” is truly barren, it cannot bear fruit because it is an application that is incongruous with the design of the intellect. The human mind can certainly function on many levels without understanding the God who wrought it. We can study the mechanical intricacies of an internal combustion engine, we can categorize and classify our environment but if we truly contemplate the miracle of a starry sky, the creation of life or the delicate structures of blossom we are struck by what is thoroughly beyond us, the creative will of God.
Academic pursuits that do not raise their eyes every so often and contemplate God will never reach the pinnacle of what they are able to accomplish. Whether we speak of philosophy or biology, until they reach out beyond the insular womb of their own creation they will not begin to comprehend the wonder and the mystery of God’s creation.
