180. Wonder, Literature, and the Fruits of the Spirit

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Wonder as Gateway to Transcendence #

• Wonder aroused by great literature and metaphors is essential to philosophical and spiritual life
• Modern literary education often “disenchants” rather than cultivates wonder by treating literature as political game
• Examples: Moses and the burning bush (metaphor for Incarnation—divine fire not consuming human nature), Mozart’s music, Shakespeare’s metaphors
• Metaphors are meant to provoke questioning about deeper meaning, not mere surface enjoyment
• Contrast: Murundá’s use of metaphor in “Il Postino” focuses on material pleasures without transcendent dimension

The Problem of Stunted Wonder #

• Young people taught that rap is “real” rather than encouraged toward transcendent beauty
• Universities increasingly present literature through political lenses rather than wonder
• Loss of wonder = loss of pathway to God through creation’s beauty

Transition to Fruits of the Spirit #

• The fruits of the Holy Spirit (charity, joy, peace, etc.) are characterized as “delectable”—things to be enjoyed
• Faith provides certitude about invisible things, distinguishing it from mere opinion or play with ideas
• Modern academia treats ideas like ping-pong balls—knocked back and forth without serious pursuit of truth
• Augustine teaches that good acts should be distinguished and ordered by the Holy Spirit according to different “ways” of moving the mind

The Unity of Knowledge in Opposites #

• There is the same knowledge of good and evil (following Aristotle and Socrates)
• Yet there is NOT the same love of good and evil
• All knowledge as such is good, but not all love is good
• This distinction addresses the apparent contradiction: if knowledge of opposites is unified, why can’t we say the same of love?

Key Arguments #

The Asymmetry Between Knowledge and Love #

• Knowledge: All knowledge is good as such. One can know how to make poison, but knowing what is poisonous is itself knowledge (good), even if the use to which someone puts this knowledge is evil.
• Love: Not all love is good. To love torturing someone is not a good love.
• Conclusion: Therefore, one cannot say love is better than knowledge, since all knowledge is good but only some love is good.

Accidental vs. Essential Badness #

• Knowledge can be accidentally bad in its use (due to a disordered will) but is never bad as such
• Example: A doctor’s knowledge of how to poison is good knowledge; its use for evil is accidentally bad
• Sex education example: True knowledge is good as such, but it may be accidentally bad to give such knowledge to young people who will misuse it or be distracted from higher pursuits
• The knowledge itself is not rendered bad; rather, the circumstances and the person’s disposition make its possession accidentally bad

Knowledge and Deception #

• One can know how to deceive others (through equivocation, sophistry, rhetoric) while remaining knowledgeable
• Example: Using equivocal words, Berquist can convince students that “a part is sometimes more than the whole” by confusing senses of “part” and “whole”
• This demonstrates that knowing how to argue fallaciously is still genuine knowledge, not absence of knowledge
• Rhetoric itself is not bad because it can persuade to evil; rather, its misuse is bad

Important Definitions #

Fruit (Fructus) #

• Something delectable—meant to be enjoyed
• Related etymologically to felicitas (happiness), from the same root
• Virtue consists in virtuous activity, hence the connection between fructus and happiness
• The fruits of the Spirit include: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, mildness, faith, modesty, continence

Wonder (Admiratio) #

• The starting point of philosophy and spiritual ascent
• Aroused by encountering what cannot be immediately comprehended
• Can be cultivated through engagement with great literature and metaphorical language
• Can be stunted by reductive, non-transcendent approaches to learning

Certitude (Certitudo) #

• The quality of faith that distinguishes it from mere opinion or conjecture
• Faith provides certitude about invisible things
• Contrasts with modern academic approach that treats truth as unattainable and ideas as playthings

Examples & Illustrations #

The Burning Bush #

• Literal burning bush: a plant that turns red at season’s end with poor conditions
• Spiritual metaphor: divine nature (fire) does not consume human nature (bush), representing the Incarnation
• Illustrates how ordinary phenomena become vessels of deeper meaning through metaphor

Mozart’s Quartets #

• Berquist’s personal testimony: listening to Mozart’s first quartet (written in Italy, Loditz) and the six Haydn quartets evokes profound wonder
• Memory of checking out LPs from St. Paul Public Library—returning to listen one more time before leaving—demonstrates how wonder draws us back repeatedly
• Mozart’s music arouses wonder naturally; contrasts with modern literature education that blocks such experience

Shakespeare on Virtue and Vice #

• Hamlet: “Hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature; show virtue her own face, and scorn her own image”
• Shakespeare understood that nature is the measure for understanding both virtue and vice
• Homer, Sophocles, and Shakespeare represent supreme poets who cultivated wonder
• Their metaphors and similes (especially Shakespeare’s) are tremendous and deserve careful study

The Poisoned Medicine (Cymbeline) #

• The doctor in Shakespeare’s play distrusts the evil queen and gives her false information about poisons
• The substance he describes would kill, but actually puts one to sleep (like Juliet’s potion)
• Demonstrates that withholding knowledge can sometimes be good when the person would misuse it
• The husband’s final realization: “Who is’t can read a woman?"—acknowledging the need for wisdom in knowing whom to trust

The Butcher Knife #

• Knowing how to use a butcher knife well (cutting meat) is good knowledge
• One simultaneously knows how to ruin the dish by using too much or too little seasoning
• The knowledge is the same; its application differs
• Illustrates that knowledge of good and evil is unified, even though their practice differs

The Bomb-Maker #

• Knowledge of how to make a bomb is good knowledge as such (it is true knowledge)
• It is accidentally bad for a terrorist to possess this knowledge because he will use it for evil
• Knowledge of chemistry or engineering is not rendered bad by potential misuse
• Distinguishes the knowledge itself from the will’s ordering of that knowledge

Equivocation and “Part vs. Whole” #

• Berquist’s example to students: “Man is an animal. Man is not just an animal (he has reason).”
• By confusing senses of “animal” (genus including dogs, cats, etc. vs. man specifically), one can make it appear that a part (man within animals) is greater than the whole (animal)
• Demonstrates that knowing how to deceive through language is still genuine knowledge, not ignorance

Notable Quotes #

“The burning bush is really a metaphor for the incarnate word, right? And his divine nature does not consume his human nature.” — Berquist, explaining typological reading of Scripture

“Fire is both enlightens, gives light, and it warms, right? We say the sun enlightens the world before it warms it. And so God enlightens us by faith, and then he warms us by charity.” — Berquist, on metaphors of God

“People who haven’t gone through great literature, their wonder is what’s stunted, right? And they don’t wonder about the great or important things.” — Berquist, on the loss of transcendent wonder

“All knowledge is good… But not all love is good.” — Berquist, distinguishing knowledge and love

“If you know how to cook the meat, I know how to spoil the meat, too. So all knowledge would be… the same knowledge of the good and the bad.” — Berquist, on the unity of knowledge in opposites

Questions Addressed #

Why is there the same knowledge of good and evil, but not the same love of good and evil? #

• Answer: All knowledge as such is good; it grasps what is true. But love can be ordered toward evil (disordered love). One can know poison is poisonous (true knowledge, good) but use this to harm others (evil will, disordered love). The knowledge remains good; the use is bad.

Is it bad for someone to have knowledge that could be misused? #

• Answer: Knowledge as such is never bad. What is accidentally bad is for a disordered person to possess knowledge they will misuse. The doctor’s knowledge of poisons is good; its possession by someone with evil intent is accidentally bad. The distinction between as-such and accidental must be carefully maintained.

How do we reconcile Aristotle’s teaching that “all knowledge is good” with the claim that some knowledge is bad for young people? #

• Answer: The knowledge itself is good (true). What is bad is that possessing this knowledge now, in their present state, will lead them astray or prevent them from contemplating higher things. This is an accidental badness, not a badness in the knowledge itself.

Can rhetoric (or logic, or medicine) be called bad because it can be misused for evil? #

• Answer: No. The art itself is not bad; its misuse is bad. A physician knows medicine as such (which can heal or harm, but the knowledge is good); a bad physician misuses this knowledge. Similarly, rhetoric can persuade to truth or falsehood, but rhetoric itself—the knowledge of how to persuade effectively—is not bad.

Connections #

To Aristotelian Philosophy #

• Follows Aristotle and Socrates on the unity of knowledge of opposites
• Applies Aristotle’s principle that “all knowledge is good”
• References Aristotle’s distinction in the Rhetoric on the potential misuse of arts
• Draws on Aristotle’s understanding of nature as measure

To Literary Tradition #

• Uses Shakespeare, Homer, and Sophocles as supreme examples of wisdom through literature
• Contrasts with modern academic literary criticism that treats literature politically rather than as cultivator of wonder
• References specific plays: Hamlet, Cymbeline, Il Postino (modern film)

To Theological Framework #

• Connects wonder in creation to ascent toward God
• Links beauty and metaphor to the fruits of the Holy Spirit
• Establishes faith as providing certitude in contrast to modern relativism
• Sets up transition to examination of vice as contrary to virtue and natural order