For the Love of God
Nurturing the Intellectual Life
I received instruction in the art of nurturing a Christian intellectual life—the discipline of pursuing truth by observation, especially reading—from my professor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Professor Zef Nekaj (pronounced Nay-kai) discerned my need for a structured approach to reading, reflection, retention, interaction, and the extraction and application of truth from significant works. Today, we call it critical thinking. My professor just called it thinking. And he informed me that I wasn't doing it—that is, thinking. I was reading without interacting, which disgusted him as if I were imbibing black water contaminated with some tropical diseases. Professor Nekaj determined that I should learn how to read and learn how to learn. I only thought I knew how to read. He differed.
On a huge hill, Cragged and steep, Truth stands, / and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goe; / And what the hills suddenness resists, winne so; / Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night.
John Donne (1572-1631), Satyre III (c. 1598)
The erudite pedagogue from the northern mountains of Shqipëria (Albania) introduced me to the methodologies articulated in The Intellectual Life (1928) by A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. (1863-1948). A devout Catholic, persecuted under the brutal post-WWII Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha, Zef Nekaj had escaped from a labor camp by night, sailing across the Adriatic Sea to Italy in a crude vessel he had crafted from the forest next to the camp. He, then, made it to Berkley and, at length, to Monterey. In addition to degrees from Albania, my professor earned postgraduate degrees in linguistics from the prestigious Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), and Cal Berkley. At length, Dr. Zef Nekaj worked for the Department of Defense as a faculty member of the Defense Language Institute (DLI). Teaching top-secret members of the Defense Intelligence Agency, State Department, CIA, and other “front-line combatants” in the struggle for freedom was his way to fight the Cold War. By training others, this member of the ethnic Albanians in the diaspora conducted operations to free his people. Years later, I would be in the capital city of Tirana when “the Iron Curtain” was torn in twain in Albania. And I would give thanks to God for my mountain professor. But the truth is, I give thanks to the Lord for him and so many others today and every day, for Professor Nekaj gave me a license to learn.
A License to Learn
I share my insights, hopeful they may aid others in their pursuit of truth in reading and in doing so to seek the source and object of truth, Christ Jesus, our Lord. I hope to write instructively about reading in pursuit of truth for the purpose of cultivating an ordered soul in a future tract. For now, I want to state how my experience led to the Scriptures. I am of the conviction that any serious odyssey for truth will necessarily lead to an encounter with the Holy Bible. For to set out on such a journey will undoubtedly lead one to the texts of the great religions of Man, and, thus, to the Word from Another World. Yet, to read the Bible is a dangerous mercy to the recalcitrant self. For there, in that Story of stories, truth intersects with love. And love opens the heart to receive truth existentially—ontologically—and not merely intellectually.
“Every hierarchy sees to the policing of its own domain” (Sertillanges, 180). This principle also applies to the study of God’s Word. Its message embodies a single-mindedness, demanding a similar focus in its reading. Through prayerful reading, we seek God’s will, fortifying our hearts, minds, and spirits for His divine purposes.
No scripture should be studied in isolation. It represents God’s progressively revealed truth, shepherded by the Holy Spirit and verified by Jesus Christ, who died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. The teachings of our living Savior in the Scriptures are the manifestations of the Logos. The Holy Spirit acknowledges His authorship of the Word, harmonizing His divine intentions between Bible and believer. Thus, engaging with the scriptures is a divine gift—a bridge between the supernatural and the tangible realms.
There is a cherished memory engraved in the channels of my mind. I once asked my Old Testament professor, Dr. R. Laird Harris (1911-2008) about the spiritual merit of the Apocrypha compared to the canonical 66 books. His reply, reminiscent of how Jesus taught, was a question: “What is its benefit to you?” I answered “I have never read the Apocrypha” before I realized the inevitability of forced student labor in the Socratic system of teaching and learning. Thus, I had an assignment: read the Gospel of John and two Apocryphal selections. “Come back next week, and let’s talk.” And, so, I read. The distinction became clear immediately. “So,” Dr. Harris began, “What do you think, Mike? What is the nature of the books you read from the Apocrypha?” “Well, Dr. Harris, I believe the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John resonated with the Holy Spirit’s presence in me, while the Apocrypha provided enlightenment.” I paused, “But it was insight without Spirit.” Dr. Harris nodded with a father’s satisfaction. He summarized with concise brevity: “The Holy Spirit recognizes His own work. There is a benefit to good books. There is salvation in the Logos.” In essence, the Gospel of John is the Spirit-breathed Word of God, while other writings, though illuminative, lack the Holy Spirit’s signature. “Life recognizes life.” This revelation mirrors Jesus’ words: “The wind blows where it wishes” (John 3:8), and this comports with the teaching on the anointing that rests on believers:
“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
The Apostles and Church Fathers, for instance, interpreted Genesis 1 through the lenses of Matthew 1 and John 3. The omnipotent creativity of God, which crafted the cosmos, also steered the genealogy leading to Jesus Christ, legally adopted by His earthly father, Joseph. This divine craftsmanship resonates with our spiritual rebirth through repentance and faith in Christ.
“Always seek connections, understand the preconditions; let coordinated understanding, not fragments, anchor in your memory” (Sertillanges, 178).
A profound observation posits that every domain harbors pivotal ideas that illuminate the whole. Thus, ideas that remain unattached to other ideas will dissipate for want of mindful companionship. To connect a thought to another is not merely to save it for an intellectual museum but to deploy it for good use. When ideas adhere to practice, they illumine the inner sanctum of our hearts.
I saw a documentary on the otherwise hidden life of animals at night in the jungles of southeastern Thailand. One of the most remarkable creatures observed was the lightning bug. The males of the species gather in a colony of shrubbery, and by the instinctive nature placed in their beings by God, will a chemical reaction in their bodies that produces light (or does the thought of the female produce their light? I rather think it is the latter). The light is intended to attract the attention of the female lightning bugs. And what is so astonishing (as if that was not remarkable enough) is that within a matter of seconds, there is a synchronization of the lights! This synchronized light show does not merely appear to be so. It is, in fact, an observable phenomenon. So, if you were to walk through the jungles of that part of Southeastern Asia at night, you would encounter a row of bushes aflame with iridescent passion! Truly burning bushes that! But even more, the lights would be synchronized, as if they were a magnificent display from Times Square or, perhaps better, the shimmering nightlife of Bangkok or Tokyo. Light and love are like that. Truth synchronizing with Truth conceives life. Count the variables in this little story from nature, and you will locate the factors for the intellectual life — the life of the pursuit of truth: wonder, discipline, freedom, connectivity, and, at length, synchronization that begets insight and understanding.
At the Crossroads of Faith and Life
At the core of these insights lies a divine thread woven by God even before the foundation of the world: His sacred promise to accomplish for us what we cannot do ourselves. God’s love serves as the divine dynamic that conjoins Scripture with Scripture, life with life, and grace with truth. As Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) wrote, ”Love Alone is Credible.” This sentiment rings true for hermeneutics, evangelism, and preaching, bridging the Scriptures to life and the sacred intellect to God’s intent for us as His people.
The mind's endeavours reach, and mysteries / Are like the Sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes. — John Donne
O to know more mysteries for the sake of the light itself. To see and yet not be able to see through is not a burden but a blessing. To taste the bread, drink the cup, and believe His promises (all “yes and Amen” in Christ Jesus) is to stand in His light. And Truth for the love of God is the light that leads to another room. And another. And another.
Reference:
“Earth at Night in Color.” Apple TV+ Press. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/earth-at-night-in-color/.
“Cloud Study: Horizon of Trees: Works of Art: Ra Collection: Royal Academy of Arts.” Cloud Study: Horizon of Trees | Works of Art | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts, 2023. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/cloud-study-horizon-of-trees.
Idriz Lamaj. “Professor Zef Nekaj from Domgjoni Mirdita, a Graduate of Two Universities in California, Served in the US Department of Defense.” Memorie.al, May 19, 2022. https://memorie.al/en/prof-zef-nekaj-from-domgjoni-mirdita-a-graduate-of-two-universities-in-california-served-in-the-us-department-of-defense-as-anti-communist-diaspora-in-the-west/.
A. G. Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 1946.
Hans Urs von Balthasar. Love Alone Is Credible. St. Louis: Ignatius Press, 2016.