“Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding” (Prov 4:5)
Man is a creature of curiosity. He seeks ever to understand the world around him, and develops new methods of acquiring this understanding. However, he cannot gain such understanding unless he can learn the basics of what he is trying to understand. In the course of this, man always comes back to the divine, for this is the beginning and end of all knowledge. John Paul II once said that man has “a path which begins with reason's capacity to rise beyond what is contingent and set out towards the infinite.”(1)
Over the course of history, there have developed many ways that man has searched for this knowledge. Philosophy was one of first ways that man sought the path. Other sciences and arts arose from philosophical training. “For the ancients, the study of the natural sciences coincided in large part with philosophical learning.”(2) The ancients also felt that the studies of classical arts, such as painting, literature, and sculpting were important for they “articulated this intimate desire of theirs” (3) to seek the divine.
In modern times, philosophy and the natural sciences are not as connected as they were for the ancients. Philosophy became a search for the understanding of one’s beliefs, even those not connected with the divine. Natural sciences seek to understand the world around man through logical means.
The modern world is ever changing. Because of this, studies of the modern world evolve as society does. Breakthroughs in science and new technologies arise, provoking a need for further education. Because of these new developments, “the destiny of the human community has become all of a piece, where once the various groups of men had a kind of private history of their own.” (4) Where once a single group did not have the need for the same information of other groups, it now becomes necessary for all of mankind to share the same information.
For one in discernment to the priesthood, it becomes important to have an education in philosophy, sciences, and the liberal arts. Philosophy allows the future priest to explain why the Church believes what she does. The sciences “help the future priest prolong the living ‘contemporaneousness’ of Christ.” (5) Music and arts, through their own medium, express gratitude for the gifts given them by God in ways that mankind can see and hear the gratitude. Further study of music and arts allows one to articulate this gratitude easier and more effectively.
Because the sciences help to prolong the contemporaneousness of Christ, and the world is ever changing, seminaries must evolve their courses as well. The intellect of man is moving forward, and “broadening its dominion over time: over the past by means of historical knowledge; over the future, by the art of projecting and by planning.” (6) For it was the Lord who gave dominion of the earth to man, yet to have dominion means to have knowledge of the world.
The sciences are but a piece of the whole of liberal arts. The sciences deal with the way the world works, while the other pieces of the liberal arts deal with the way human beings act and relate to each other. Another important part of the liberal arts is rhetoric. “Since preaching is at the heart of priestly ministry, college seminaries should include courses in writing and speech.”(7) By giving the seminarian an education in the whole of liberal arts, rather than only in the sciences, the seminarian will be better equipped to handle events in the world as well as the people of the world. This is due to the fact that an education in liberal arts “encourages intellectual curiosity, promotes critical thought, and fosters disciplined habits of study.”(8)
It becomes clear that an education in the liberal arts and sciences does more than just teach subjects. If forms and prepares the mind for further studies in other subjects. By undergoing such education, the mind is opened up, molded, and a desire for greater knowledge is implanted. But, the biggest reason for such an education is because the Church sees the liberal arts as providing “college level candidates with an understanding of the cultural roots of their faith.”(9)
Theology is often seen as a higher learning subject. The liberal arts are a foundation upon which theology can build. When the knowledge of culture interacts with faith, one can “gain some insight into the working of God’s plan in larger historical events.”(10) So, liberal arts help the seminarian take the teachings of the Church and apply them to the “contemporary issues of the day in intellectual, cultural, social, economic, and political life.”(11)
Theology provides the basis of faith for the seminarian, while the liberal arts and sciences provide reason. Faith and reason are but two sides of a coin. “Therefore, reason and faith cannot be separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to know themselves, the world and God in an appropriate way.”(12) One cannot come to God by reason alone, for he is above man’s intellect. On the other side, faith in God alone ignores the rational side of man, which God gave him in order to come to him.
For seminarians, the acquisition of understanding should come from their intellectual formation. For it is through it, that they see “the basic teachings of the faith as well as [see] the richness and diversity of the Catholic intellectual tradition.”(13)
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