Life of the Mind as Vocation in a Mindless Age....Sertillanges's The Intellectual Life

     When I tell people that have little or nothing to do with the academy of which I am a Professor, I usually get the same look.  While it is not the same look I imagine one would get if they declared they worked with those inflicted with leprosy, it is close.  I have even had a few honest folks say, "well, what's it like working with a bunch of egg-heads all the time?"  They are even more surprised when I tell them that many in the academy care nothing about learning and education.  The truth is, and I have said this before in several settings, the Christian intellectual is doubly marginalized.  The academy cares little for Christian intellectuals, and the church cares as little for Christian intellectuals.
     So what is one who is desiring to honor God with the life of the mind to do?  First, know what you are getting yourself into before you start down that path. The Intellectual Life by A.G. Sertillanges is a fine guide.  While it was published in 1920, it is filled with much instruction on these matters.  This book, as with others of this nature, was influenced by Thomas Aquinas's "Letter to Brother John."  Before James Schall in his book, The Life of the Mind,  Os Guinness in his book The Call, and Mark Noll's recent Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, Sertillanges points out that the vocation of the intellectual life can and should be seen as a calling.   He says this of vocation, "vocation is not fulfilled by vague reading and a few scattered writings. It requires penetration and continuity and methodical effort…"
     As with all great masterpieces, there are often passages that beg for analysis and extended reflection and mediation.  The Intellectual Life is such a work, and what follows is such a passage. "The life of study is austere and imposes grave obligations. It pays, it pays richly; but it exacts an initial outlay that few are capable of. The athletes of the mind, like those of the playing field, must be prepared for privations, long training, a sometimes superhuman tenacity. We must give ourselves from the heart, if truth is to give itself to us."  I remember reading Adler also speaking about the demands of an intellectual life borrowing the language of sports.  The problem is that in a culture that has become cultic about sports, this metaphor makes no sense.  The notion of students giving such attention to the mind with the fervor as many do to a game is just silly.
     Sertillanges highlights a key point often forgotten when it comes to searching for one's location. Finding real pleasure in what one does may be a large part of finding ultimate fulfillment in location.  He would have us to seriously consider the ends and the means of our vocations. Among the many insightful points within this work, one that stands at the top of the list is a proper definition of scientia that the author gives.  "Science in the broad meaning of the word, scientia, is knowledge through causes; but actively, as to its attainment, it is a creation by causes.  We must recognize and adopt the causes of knowledge, then provide them, and not defer attention to the foundations of our building…"
     As with other great works through the ages that address the life of the mind, this work, The Intellectual Life, encourages us to take care and redeem the days, strengths, and vigor of our intelligence.  Any and all who are able ought to encourage students to be diligent in the life of the mind.  "Lectures, reading, choice of companions, the proper proportion of work and rest, of solitude and activity, of general culture and specialization, the spirit of study, the art of picking out and utilizing data gained, some provisional output" are all of extreme importance.
     Sertillanges in key places in this work emphasizes something that few people recognize the value of as it relates to the intellectual life. He lifts up the value of the will.  As if one is willing, then much can be accomplished.  If one has not the will, then what is to follow?  What true education is and learning God's wisdom, according to this author, is that it creates within us a humble spirit and drive for wisdom and it turns our hearts and our minds toward what is first and foremost, and then our hearts and minds toward the supreme and of what is ultimate.