Intellectual Pride
- Michael Haldas
- Oct 24, 2024
- 5 min read
“The pride of the mind is much more disastrous than the pride of the will, because the pride of the will can be observed by the mind, which can insist on the will’s subjection to itself. But when the mind is proud and believes that its thoughts and judgments are indisputable and better than those of others, then who or what can make the mind submit? Therefore, the holy Apostle Paul writes: If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise (1 Cor. 3:18).” (St. Seraphim Chichagov)
“Dead faith is exclusively intellectual, theoretical, inactive, dreamy…Such faith is no different from the faith of the demons, who believe, but tremble (James. 2:19). They do not follow the Lord, because they do not listen to Him but to their own lord—satan. Living faith is a practical faith that is embodied in concrete deeds. Faith without works is dead (James. 2:20)—the Apostle James says. Without works, faith is not visible to anyone, because it is fruitless, which means that it does not actually exist. Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matthew 3:10) …In order to be saved it is not enough just to believe with your mind. It is necessary to show and confirm your faith by deeds of fulfilling the commandments of Christ. Only a living, active faith unites us with the Lord.” (Priest Tarasiy Borozenets)
“You don’t have to know much. All you have to know is that you love Jesus, and that He is your Truth. Orthodoxy [Christianity] is about loving Him, and wrapping your life around Him until your dying breath. Everything else follows from this. And without this, everything else in your religious life will ultimately prove futile and failing. Head knowledge, of course, is not to be disdained…But a merely cerebral approach to the Faith, one devoid of love for Jesus, is not sufficient. Love for Christ is foundational, and our intellectual and theological pursuits are meant to serve and further this love…If you know a lot, that is wonderful. But it still remains true that the Lord of heaven and earth revealed His salvation to babes, to those who approach Him in trust and simplicity of heart (Lk. 10:21). Pure hearts are what is needed in order to be saved and to see God, not big brains. You may not know much. ” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)
“Unlike Job, Zophar had all the answers and no questions. Zophar is incorrect in asserting that if a man does all the “right” things, God will bless him; when in fact, man's will cannot force God to act. The intellectual demands of men like these are satisfied with their manmade theories and doctrines. They are more anxious to appease an inaccessible God than to trust in a God who loves them.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Job 11:1-20)
“Death and suffering coming into the world was less like a punishment for disobedience and more like the natural consequences of humans attempting to change their being in a way that clashes with the nature of reality. This act had many effects. Cut off from the arché [beginning, source, principle], man began to die. Not immediately, but gradually. To return to our electricity analogy, this is like unplugging a laptop or a cell phone from a power outlet. The battery has some power saved up from when it was plugged in, but eventually it will run out. The rest of creation is also affected by this change (“ Cursed is the ground for your sake,” Gen. 3: 17). The reason for this has to do with man’s relationship to creation. God made man the crown and leader of creation, to guide and cultivate it. (This is why God gives Adam intellectual work to do in the garden, such as naming the animals.) If man is the power strip plugged into the wall socket that is the arché, then the rest of the creation is like a bunch of other devices plugged into the power strip that is man: when the power strip gets unplugged, the rest of those devices lose power as well.” (Dr. Zachary Porcu)
“Christ is God and Savior; He reveals the word of the Lord that we seek to avoid. Talking about salvation may offend the intelligent and the worldly by assaulting their pride. How often do we hear finely educated people say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us” (Jeremiah 8:8). Yet far too many books are written with the lying pen of vanity (vs. 8). The Apostle Paul cautions us: “Be not be wise in your own opinion” (Rom 12:16). Saint Augustine possessed fine intelligence and skilled rhetoric, but in the end he asks, “What was the value of my cleverness?” (Dynamis 2/20/2019)
“The hubris of human intellectual pride that somehow we can reduce all things in the universe to mere observation is, at best, wildly optimistic! And, at worst, we witness the results already happening in our society as persons are reduced to mere fleshly machines, and all the world reduced to utilitarian “usefulness” or worse yet, personal desire and “my rights!” The clinical and antiseptic mindset of a society that has lost its ability to plumb the depth and wisdom of story and mystery loses something God-given in entering into union and communion with Him Who is always beyond our rational abilities and always dwells in mystery.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
“When Christian Education is only about facts we miss an important dimension. We miss the mystical and without the mystical we cannot teach the fullness of our faith. It is so much easier to just teach ‘facts’ – ‘facts’ are cut and dried and quite measurable. We think we must understand everything and often try to act as if we do. Too often this deception becomes our reality. The truth is we cannot understand everything because it is just too complex for our limited minds. Still, we continue in our intellectual pride. We stand with our Curriculum Guide in hand, and hide our real selves behind it. As the get older our students often turn away as they understand the shallowness of our words, when we cannot give an answer, when we do not answer the questions that they are afraid to ask. Many of us are uncomfortable sharing the spiritual sides of our lives. We would rather be thought of a smart, as logically reasoning, as clear thinkers, and we are not really comfortable with paradox. Yet what is our faith if not permeated with paradox?” (Betty Randolph)
“It is not enough simply to give intellectual assent to a system of doctrine, for tradition is far more than a set of abstract propositions – it is a life, a personal encounter with Christ in the Holy Spirit. Tradition is not only kept by the Church – it lives in the Church, it is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.” (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware)
“Knowledge of God is not an intellectual pursuit…Theology cannot be grasped intellectually. It can only be experienced.” (Father Spyridon Baily, Jonathan Jackson)
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