A.D. Sertillanges on wisdom and the intellectual life

Taking his inspiration from a short work, De Modo Studendi, attributed to Thomas Aquinas, A.D. Sertillanges sketches an portrait of the intellectual vocation from a Thomist perspective. Although written nearly a century ago, the view expressed provides a critical counterbalance to recent contemporary conceptions of education, in particular, higher education and the life of the mind. For Sertillanges, the intellectual vocation demands a serious commitment to the truth and to knowledge and understanding. In seriously seeking truth, he argues, we are thereby also committed to what is good and to virtue and hence, to the transcendent. Taking his cue from Aquinas, the ultimate goal of all intellectual endeavour is to apprehend truth and goodness in its unity and interconnectedness, that is, as transcendent Truth and Wisdom, which he recognises as God. It is this commitment to an open-ended search for truth which structures Sertillanges's account of the intellectual life. His view is in sharp contrast to postmodern views which reject any form of absolutism, yet the account is eminently practical. This paper outlines Sertillanges's account of the intellectual life and argues that the qualities required for the intellectual life are the same qualities that lead to wisdom.