The Virtue of Reading to Gain Wisdom
There ought to be a purpose for reading. At a base level, reading is a pleasurable activity that may stimulate the minds and hearts of young and old. A deeper purpose of reading is to seek wisdom through the “influence of theoretical knowledge.” Aristotle considers practical wisdom as one who can “deliberate well about what is good and expedient … a true and reasoned capacity to act … (and) a virtue.” Proverbs teaches that wisdom is better than gold. Horace encourages poets to include “profitable wisdom … (and) to instruct.” Reading with a purpose to seek wisdom is a virtue, finer than gold, and is profitable. Scripture reading is the finest way to gain wisdom. Augustine outlines a way to seek wisdom in Book II, Chapter 7 of his On Christian Teaching. This seven-step process includes Fear of the Lord, Piety, Knowledge, Resolution, Counsel, Purification of the Heart, and Wisdom.
Fear of the Lord concerns a commitment to align one’s will with God’s will. There needs to be an intentionality to seek knowledge and gain wisdom to conform to oneself. Scripture reading is not a passive activity. The second step is piety. Augustine writes that one ought to “think and believe that whatever is there written, even though it be hidden, is better and truer than anything we could devise of our own wisdom.” A sense of humility is necessary when encountering Scripture. One can grow in wisdom with the realization that one will never have perfect knowledge or wisdom. Charity is the cornerstone of the next step, knowledge. Augustine cites Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus’ gloss on the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Without loving self, neighbor, and God, then knowledge is a pointless endeavor. Knowledge of Scripture has the power to bring one out of despair and into “knowledge of good hope (which) makes … (one) not boastful, but sorrowful.” This knowledge ought to lead to the fourth step–resolution, that is, the strength to turn from the temporary material world and toward the Trinity. The fifth step is the counsel of compassion, one reads with the hermeneutic of love of neighbor, “for caritas is the nature of scripture.” Since reading is both the purview of reason and compassion, the sixth step is the purification of the heart. This is the purification stage, the dialectic is central and the primary conversation is with God in heaven. The seventh stage is wisdom. Augustine explains later in Chapter 41, that the one who studies Scripture ought to “constantly meditate upon that saying of the apostle’s, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
There is a purpose to reading, especially in the reading of Scripture. One of the goals is to understand the intent of the author. The author of Scripture is no ordinary person but is God. It is essential to ascertain its meaning through a distinct sequence of steps as outlined above. The impetus is to find accurate meaning. Augustine cautions, “Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer intended, goes astray.”
Bibliography
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, eds. Mortimer J. Adler and Philip W. Goetz, 2nd ed., Vol. 8, Great Books of the Western World. Chicago: Robert P. Gwinn; Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990.
Augustine. On Christian Teaching. Digireads.com Publishing, 2010.
Cicero. “The Value of Literature,” from the Oration in Defense of Achias, in Select Political Speeches. Translated by Michael Grant. London: Michael Grant Publications, Ltd., 1973.
Horace. “Ars Poetica,” in The Epistles of Horace, trans by David Ferry. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002.
Owens, Bryant K. Love in Interpretation, The Value of Augustine’s Hermeneutics in an Age of Secular Epistemology. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2019.