Wisdom, Philosophy, Truth - the Source of Wisdom

When I worked with university students as a Campus Minister, I was engaged with an wide array of souls at a multiplicity of maturity levels, and yes, I mean maturity spiritually and emotionally. Some were tremendously mature adults while quite young in their faith. Others had been (nominally) in the body for many years but acted as though they were still in middle school. Still others were mature, level-headed, and had deep walks of obedience with Jesus.

I want to talk about the first group, the mature, young men and women who were new to their walk with Christ. As new Christ-followers, one of the foundational disciplines each of them needed to resolve was, “Whom do I allow to speak into my life? To whom do I now listen?”

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
– Colossians 2:8, ESV

Philosophy

It has to capture our attention that the one time scripture speaks of philosophy, it says, essentially, “beware of that stuff!” There is one other mention, not of philosophy itself, but of those who practice it, “philosophers,” in Acts. There it speaks of those Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who referred to the apostle Paul with disdain as a “babbler” because he was teaching Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.¹

It further arches our eyebrow when we consider the root meaning of the word philosophy. We have philos and sophos. Philos (φίλος) is fondness. It is that affection you have toward your friends. It is a loving devotion of, or toward them. This is why Philadelphia is known as “the city of brotherly love.” Sophos (σοφός) is wisdom. Thus, philosophy is a “love of wisdom.” So, how can that be a bad thing, or something to approach with caution? Isn’t the fear of the LORD  the beginning of wisdom?² Doesn’t James tell us to seek wisdom?

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
– James 1:5, ESV

Both assertions above are true. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and James does tell us to ask God for wisdom. The key for us is to cultivate the ability to distinguish humanistic wisdom from divine wisdom.

Drawing Distinctions

The Source

To be fair, both camps are attempting to answer the “big” questions—How should we live? What is true? What is the good, the moral, or the ethical? What does life mean? What is my purpose? Where the two camps differ is in their source for answers.

Walking in the footsteps René Descartes, the world draws wisdom from itself, grounding that wisdom entirely in human capacity for reason, observation, logic, and quantifiable experiences. Philosophy operates with a slight to not-so-slight arrogance that looks at life and the universe from the bottom up and says, “I can figure this out. I can decode all this.” What is true and untrue is determined by human intellect and logical consistency.

In sharp contrast to this, godly wisdom draws from a transcendent, divine source in a top-down approach that says, “I can’t figure this out. God will have to reveal it to me.” Beginning with the reality noted above, that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowing that “in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,”³ ultimate truth and understanding must be spiritually discerned.⁴ The camp of godly wisdom knows that human cognition is a tool for understanding reality rather than the source of it. What is true and untrue is anchored in the unchanging nature and character of God.⁵

The Objective

The philosophical wisdom of the world is chasing after intellectual mastery, self-fulfillment (often called self-actualization), and a coherent explanation for existence. Philosophy asks, “How can I, using just my mind, explain and master the complexities of life? When the answers are not forthcoming (because they cannot be) this approach to life often slides into depression or nihilism.

The wisdom that flows from God is a relational and ethical, rather than a purely intellectual. The objective is not merely knowing concepts, but living a life of alignment with divine intent and design. The desired outcome is spiritual transformation, being remade in the image of Christ.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
– Luke 10:29, ESV

The Perspective

The philosopher and the theologian (for lack of better descriptors) each view the other as somewhat inverted. What one views as insightful, rooted, or based, the other views as ignorant, foolish, and nonsensical.

The philosopher sees the theologian as intellectually lazy. To him, the theologian is unwilling to put in the hard work of figuring how how life happens and thus let’s someone else (God) tell him how life works. Rather than investing the effort to think things through, the theologian relies on “blind faith” that things are the way his God tells him they are. Furthermore, the philosopher is put off by the demands that his ego be in submission to a higher power.

Conversely, the theologian often views the philosopher as brilliant, but shortsighted. The philosopher may be able to build complex, cognitive models of life, the world, meaning, and more, but when the foundational premise ignores or denies the divine, the theologian knows the foundation is flawed and any conclusions drawn from it will be incomplete if not completely inaccurate.

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? … For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
– 1 Corinthians 1:20b, 25, ESV

Compatible or Incompatible

Saint Augustine takes a different view. We might call it the “all truth is God’s truth” view. Augustine argues that any time a pagan thinker uncovers a fact about reality, he or she is merely exposing truth owned by God.⁷ Augustine later went so far as to suggest that Christians should “plunder” the useful truths of secular philosophy.⁸

During the Medieval Age, numerous universities began floating the idea of “double truth,” wherein something could be true in philosophy but false in theology. Saint Thomas Aquinas vociferously rejected this idea, saying, “Every truth, by whomsoever spoken, is from the Holy Ghost as bestowing the natural faculty, and as moving the mind to understand and speak the truth.”⁹

The Source of Truth

We have already seen that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up in Christ,³ the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.¹⁰ Hear/read these sobering words from the lips of Jesus:

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
– Luke 10:29, ESV

If it is the words of Jesus that will judge in the last day, it becomes of paramount importance that we know what those words are. I have often encouraged believers to “live in the red letters.” Devour the words of Jesus as the choicest morsels. We have the words of truth, thus we need never waste our time toying with human philosophy.

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
– 1 Corinthians 3:19, ESV

1. Acts 17:18
2. Proverbs 9:10
3. Colossians 2:3
4. 1 Corinthians 2:14
5. Malachi 3;6
6. Tertullian. (1994). On the prescription against heretics (P. Holmes, Trans.). In A. Roberts & J. Donaldson (Eds.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol. 3, pp. 243–265). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers
7. De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine), Book II, Chapter 18, Section 28.
8. De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine), Book II, Chapter 40.
9. Summa Theologiae, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), Question 172, Article 6, Reply to Objection 1.
10. John 14:6