What do you think?
Rate this book
The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods
"Fr. Sertillanges's teachings are as timeless as any truths which describe the genuine nature of things. . . . This book is highly recommended not only for intellectuals, but also for students and those discerning their vocation in life."� New Oxford Review "[This] is above all a practical book. It discusses with a wealth of illustration and insight such subjects as the organization of the intellectual worker's time, materials, and his life; the integration of knowledge and the relation of one's specialty to general knowledge; the choice and use of reading; the discipline of memory; the taking of notes, their classification and use; and the preparation and organization of the final production."� The Sign
264 pages, Paperback
First published March 9, 1921
675 people are currently reading
12.6k people want to read
About the author
Antonin Sertillanges
180books123followersFr. Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, was a French Catholic philosopher and spiritual writer.
Born Antonin-Dalmace, he took the name Antonin-Gilbert when he entered the Dominican order. In 1893 he founded the Revue Thomiste and later became professor of moral philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Henri Daniel-Rops wrote that it was rumored that President Raymond Poincaré asked Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, for a reply to Pope Benedict XV's peace proposals, and that Amette passed the request along to Sertillanges; in any event, Amette gave his imprimatur to this reply on 5 December 1917, five days before it was made public. In The Heroic Life, Sertillanges had defended Benedict's attitude toward peace, but in "The French Peace", Sertillanges said, "Most Holy Father, we cannot for an instant entertain your appeals for peace."
His scholarly work was concerned with the moral theory of Thomas Aquinas. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for two non-specialist works. The Intellectual Life is a practical guide for how to structure one's life so as to make progress as a scholar. What Jesus Saw from the Cross is a spiritual work that drew upon the time Sertillanges spent living in Jerusalem. Certain of Sertillanges' works are concerned with political theory, with French identity and the structure of the traditional French family.
Born Antonin-Dalmace, he took the name Antonin-Gilbert when he entered the Dominican order. In 1893 he founded the Revue Thomiste and later became professor of moral philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Henri Daniel-Rops wrote that it was rumored that President Raymond Poincaré asked Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, for a reply to Pope Benedict XV's peace proposals, and that Amette passed the request along to Sertillanges; in any event, Amette gave his imprimatur to this reply on 5 December 1917, five days before it was made public. In The Heroic Life, Sertillanges had defended Benedict's attitude toward peace, but in "The French Peace", Sertillanges said, "Most Holy Father, we cannot for an instant entertain your appeals for peace."
His scholarly work was concerned with the moral theory of Thomas Aquinas. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for two non-specialist works. The Intellectual Life is a practical guide for how to structure one's life so as to make progress as a scholar. What Jesus Saw from the Cross is a spiritual work that drew upon the time Sertillanges spent living in Jerusalem. Certain of Sertillanges' works are concerned with political theory, with French identity and the structure of the traditional French family.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 379 reviews
February 27, 2009
"Evening! how little , usually, people know about making it holy and quiet, about using it to prepare for really restorative sleep! How it is wasted, polluted, misdirected."
~~ quote from The Intellectual Life by A.G. Sertillanges, O.P.
It has taken me a year to work my way through the book entitled, The Intellectual Life. That probably shows you right away that I am not an intellectual! The word "intellectual" in this case is used by the author to simply designate the person who feels that study is a calling, not just a vocation.
It is a dense book full of living ideas and insights valuable to the disciplining of the mind. This quote about the evening hours, though, was one I kept returning to and turning over in my mind.
I am tired by 7:00 p.m. And some evenings I am very, very tired. Evening is a time when I give myself permission to be slack. At times I may "relax" by surfing the net. I may turn on a TV show that is essentially without value. Maybe I'll mindlessly flip through a magazine or look at the ads in the newspaper.
Sertillanges has challenged me to consider the fact that maybe I've been a little too slack. In his words:
"Yes, indeed relaxed, but like a violin with all its strings completely slackened. What a labor next day to tune them all up again!"
The author goes on to list a number of dissipating evening occupations (remember this was written in 1946): dining, smoking, playing cards, talking noisily, frequenting the theatres, and gaping at the cinema. (That last phrase makes me chuckle).
His challenge is to create habits of holy, simple living for the evening hours, which he calls "peaceful semi-activity". Doesn't that phrase create instant appeal? For me it conjures up images of working a sudoku puzzle by the fire, or playing pick-up-sticks with my daughter. It might include listening to my girls play the piano or reading a chapter of The Hobbit to the family.
Good conversation over a cup of Sumatran coffee is a wonderful way to wrap up the day. A "good conversation" at our house usually includes discussing the books we've been reading and often we end up sharing quotes or tidbits. And yes, it can even include watching a well-selected TV program or movie. But no gaping allowed!
It seems the key is to have some sort plan, maybe a list of pleasant options so that the evening doesn't follow a rigid routine but still has structure.
I'm working on this; resolved to NOT be the violin with slackened strings. I'm not successful every evening, but I know habits take a while to congeal. So I'm keeping a catalog in my mind of pleasant activities I have already enjoyed, and new activities I'd like to explore. For example, I want to start doing cross stitch or knitting again, something I enjoyed B.C. (before children) and have long neglected. The long winter evenings are perfect for that sort of thing.
What does a winter evening look like at your house?
December 27, 2016
Sertillanges (1863-1948) was a French Dominican brother whose scholarly specialty was the moral theory of Thomas Aquinas. The book assumes a reader who is Catholic, open to Thomism, and sympathetic to the Catholic mystical tradition. In sum, I would characterize this book as a Catholic mystic's take on the intellectual life: its objectives, its methods, its benefits.
This approach to the subject provides some valuable insight and wisdom into the intellectual life: that it cannot be divorced from the total person; that it requires the virtues of solitude, humility, and commitment; that its essence is not reading and writing, but thinking and contemplating truth; that it cannot be fruitful apart from the soul's connection with God. He interestingly suggests that one can read too much: only a few books are worthy of our time. He encourages selectivity in choosing what we read and study. Reading is not the end but the beginning of our labor; reflection is the desired state.
I confess that I am not moved or motivated by mysticism. It seems to me to be no more than an unhealthy focus on one's emotional response to the contemplation of Truth, Beauty and God. It's not that the emotional response is bad, but the focus on it as the end of our being. And I apply that criticism to Sertillanges here. I also found his practical suggestions to be either understandably obsolete (the first edition of the book was written in 1920) or simply expressed in terms of emotion which does not translate well into praxis. In addition, I found his recommendations to be very general and difficult to apply to my specific situation. It is for all these reasons that I give this book three stars, instead of four or five as others have done.
Nevertheless, I strongly recommend reading this book. It will make you rethink your values and principles as a thinker and scholar.
This approach to the subject provides some valuable insight and wisdom into the intellectual life: that it cannot be divorced from the total person; that it requires the virtues of solitude, humility, and commitment; that its essence is not reading and writing, but thinking and contemplating truth; that it cannot be fruitful apart from the soul's connection with God. He interestingly suggests that one can read too much: only a few books are worthy of our time. He encourages selectivity in choosing what we read and study. Reading is not the end but the beginning of our labor; reflection is the desired state.
I confess that I am not moved or motivated by mysticism. It seems to me to be no more than an unhealthy focus on one's emotional response to the contemplation of Truth, Beauty and God. It's not that the emotional response is bad, but the focus on it as the end of our being. And I apply that criticism to Sertillanges here. I also found his practical suggestions to be either understandably obsolete (the first edition of the book was written in 1920) or simply expressed in terms of emotion which does not translate well into praxis. In addition, I found his recommendations to be very general and difficult to apply to my specific situation. It is for all these reasons that I give this book three stars, instead of four or five as others have done.
Nevertheless, I strongly recommend reading this book. It will make you rethink your values and principles as a thinker and scholar.
September 16, 2024
Si has sido llamado a pensar para la gloria de Dios y el bien de los demás, tienes que leer este libro YA.
July 1, 2012
This is a book devoted to the intellectual life as a vocation. It is in great part spiritual, but also practical and in its essence it demonstrates, I believe, the two are not at odds. If at least part of your purpose in reading is to improve yourself this is a book that is for you. The title sounds imposing and the intellectual life is not for everyone, but if you take the time, and this is a short book, to consider the practical recommendations in this classic work you are likely to find aspects of the book that will prove useful in your reading life. This short book presents chapters on organization of one's work, time, and life. However, the best chapter for me was chapter seven, "Preparation for Work", which focused on reading, memory, and note-taking. His recommendation for reading is to read little, but by that he means thinking about what you read rather than picking up just any book willy-nilly. More importantly he distinguishes between types of reading:
"One reads for one's formation and to become somebody; one reads in view of a particular task; one reads to acquire a habit of work and the love of what is good; one reads for relaxation."
It is up to the individual to decide how to allocate his reading time among these four areas and the author is primarily interested in promoting the first three kinds of reading. This is a good example of the type of practical advice that readers and thinkers may glean from this book. I found it both entertaining and educational and may return to it as my intellectual life progresses.
"One reads for one's formation and to become somebody; one reads in view of a particular task; one reads to acquire a habit of work and the love of what is good; one reads for relaxation."
It is up to the individual to decide how to allocate his reading time among these four areas and the author is primarily interested in promoting the first three kinds of reading. This is a good example of the type of practical advice that readers and thinkers may glean from this book. I found it both entertaining and educational and may return to it as my intellectual life progresses.
October 31, 2017
This book is inspirational and aspirational. First published in the 1920s, with heavy reprints in the subsequent two decades in French, this new edition appeared in 1998.
It is necessary - to love this book - to park two attributes. Religion and sexism. I keep tripping over God (god?) in these pages. I wish the bearded gentleman in the sky every future success, but the contemporary intellectual - and intellectual life - must be rigorously secular.
Similarly the sexism is delightful, funny and also horrifying. As one example: “In this respect the wife of an intellectual has a mission that it is perhaps well to point out; it so often happens that she forgets it, and, instead of being Beatrice, succeeds in being merely a spendthrift and a chatterbox.�
Beatrice sounds like a big girly party pooper. Send in the spendthrifts and the chatterboxes.
Parking these two attributes, the book is moving and also centering. It reminds us all about the gift of the scholarly life and also the gift of the solitary - quiet - moments of thinking, connecting, reading and writing. It is a meditative monograph and a text of memory.
In a time where higher education has the intellectual courage of a drug dealer cutting smack with baking powder, this book is a reminder of a lost age that we could have again if we committed to reading, writing and thinking. Oh - and staying the hell away from Beatrice. And blokes with beards and attendant delusions of deification.
It is necessary - to love this book - to park two attributes. Religion and sexism. I keep tripping over God (god?) in these pages. I wish the bearded gentleman in the sky every future success, but the contemporary intellectual - and intellectual life - must be rigorously secular.
Similarly the sexism is delightful, funny and also horrifying. As one example: “In this respect the wife of an intellectual has a mission that it is perhaps well to point out; it so often happens that she forgets it, and, instead of being Beatrice, succeeds in being merely a spendthrift and a chatterbox.�
Beatrice sounds like a big girly party pooper. Send in the spendthrifts and the chatterboxes.
Parking these two attributes, the book is moving and also centering. It reminds us all about the gift of the scholarly life and also the gift of the solitary - quiet - moments of thinking, connecting, reading and writing. It is a meditative monograph and a text of memory.
In a time where higher education has the intellectual courage of a drug dealer cutting smack with baking powder, this book is a reminder of a lost age that we could have again if we committed to reading, writing and thinking. Oh - and staying the hell away from Beatrice. And blokes with beards and attendant delusions of deification.
December 26, 2022
Loved it. My last spring-off book from The Great Tradition and one I've had on my shelf since 2011. Sometimes past me is good to future me, and this is the case here. I think I would have struggled much with this book before now, but during 2022, while still a challenge, it was readable and worth contemplating.
I particularly loved the last chapter which summed up much of the book while giving warnings and encouragements. The whole thing had to be read to get there, but it reminds me to count the cost and count it pure joy.
"Keep your soul free." p 235 Keep is my Word for the Year 2023 - so very fitting.
I suspect I'll revisit this as it is at times both practical and profound.
I particularly loved the last chapter which summed up much of the book while giving warnings and encouragements. The whole thing had to be read to get there, but it reminds me to count the cost and count it pure joy.
"Keep your soul free." p 235 Keep is my Word for the Year 2023 - so very fitting.
I suspect I'll revisit this as it is at times both practical and profound.
January 30, 2022
I have a lot to say about this book, and I don't really know how to start.
I've been researching and thinking about the Christian intellectual for a while now, and when a mentor of mine gave me a copy last year, I was grateful. The name of the book had cropped up before, and I wanted to know what a literate French priest writing in the 1920s and 1930s had to say about it, particularly given what was going on at the time and how the brilliant minds of the time were making sense of it all. I do really love the Modernists (and for the purposes of this review, when I call Sertillanges out on some of his ideas it's because I'm thinking of the Modernists and their project); the vast majority of them were doing their best to make sense of a world in which the old traditions no longer seemed to hold up, and they did it with such honesty, intelligence, novelty, and even a sort of integrity that I find deeply attractive--though most of them were proudly secular and I am proudly not.
Sertillanges, on the whole, disappointed me horribly. He's wildly sexist, and I don't just mean he doesn't think about women and only uses male pronouns. He quite clearly expresses that the role of wives is to support their intellectual husbands, not bother their intellectual husbands with frivolous menial stuff (I am sure child-rearing, running homes, and generally relying on her husband are none of those things), and to sit quietly with her workbasket. (He was, as my mentor apologetically noted, reading the book for the first time in full with me, a French priest). I'll put aside the slight to my own intellectual capacities and experiences for now, but this seemed extraordinarily shortsighted, again, given just who was out there writing at the time. Virginia Woolf. Dorothy L. Sayers. Edith Sitwell. Dorothy Parker. Edna St. Vincent Millay. There are more.
His language is often inordinately grandiose. He's given to broad sweeping statements that are so vague as to be useless; he indulges in repetitive stretches that are short-sighted in their nostalgia (and to me irritating in their flights of often Romantic-style imagery.) One particularly memorable example, trying on a technological image for a change: "The intensity of life being thus in abeyance, the transmission belt of the human motor having passed from the free will of the individual to the free play of cosmic forces..."(82) (I drew a skeptical face in the margins: o.O)
He unquestioningly champions Thomism and by extension, Aristotelianism. I get it, I do: they are clean, logical, clear, and helpful. But again, given the turmoil of the time, where so much of the intellectual work of the day is attempting to sort out how the old traditions and worldviews seemed to fail, it seems shortsighted to me not to fully engage with the ideologies of the time. People just didn't build up their ways of understanding the world on Plato and Aristotle and the old classics--not because people are stupid or willfully ignorant but because as they saw it, they didn't hold up any more. Frankly that seems reasonable to me: who stupidly holds to something they no longer believe in, or that no longer seems to explain the state of things?
On the face of it, that's not necessarily such a big deal: there are always going to be those who won't budge from their nostalgia, thoughtless though I might find it. But to me this points to a much bigger problem underlying Sertillanges' work. I'm still thinking about how to put it into words, but I think it breaks down into two prongs: a lack of compassion towards the human beings behind the minds (or perhaps a sense of their reality), and an academic ethos that doesn't act on, or truly realize, the implications of the Logos for the Christian intellectual. Perhaps it's the Protestant evangelical coming out in me.
To take the first: this nostalgia fails to see the underlying need shaping why culture forms and develops the way it does. When you read secular intellectuals (or heck anyone who doesn't match your definition of intellectual), you can't just come at them from a place of superiority because you can point out the holes in their logic (and Sertillanges knows this. He has moments of utter clarity on this, and yet he doesn't seem to apply it all the way). Out of the issues of the heart the mouth speaks. Yes, sin has blinded us and yes, there are often times we want it to. I don't just mean culture, I mean each of us personally, including Christians. But that's not where secular intellectuals are coming from; for them, having excluded God from the get-go, they are trying to make the world make sense. For a Christian, this should be something we treat with utmost delicacy - if we learn how to read it, it is a map for how to create bridges with our counterparts. They see and are sketching at things we can provide insight into. Not only is the academic pursuit of truth served, but we are thus loving our neighbor and even, perhaps, sharing the gospel with them. (Ask me about this; I can give you examples from my own small academic experiences).
Secondly: Sertillanges flip-flops wildly on this, but his academic ethos would at one moment have you pulling away from the world and at the next engaging in it. I never did quite figure out what's the golden mean here (yes I too can be nerdy like that). But I keep getting tugged back to the Incarnation and specifically one of my favorite verses in the Bible: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). I've always understood "the Word" here to refer to Jesus not only as the Son of God but also to the magnificence of THE WORD, the logos, the embodiment of Truth and the fulness of knowledge in one actual living flesh and blood fully-God and fully-man person. He came as a nobody: a prosy little carpenter, not wealthy, not elite, an oddball that nobody understood (except maybe Peter in that glorious moment of attestation: you are the Christ, the son of the Living God!)
And he threw himself into the muck of humanity. No Aquinas, no Aristotle, no special treatment for the intellectuals who followed him (and a heck of a lot of scrutiny for the intellectuals who didn't!) I can't help thinking that a Christian intellectual ethic that doesn't foreground this misses the point. If Christ gave up his glory and status to come here and make a way for the nobodies (which we all are, regardless of how much discipline you apply to building up your intellect and pursuing noble Truth), then surely an intellectual who pulls away from the world is being shortsighted and elitist and generally unhelpful.
(Granted, you *can* poke holes in my interpretation here. Like I said, Sertillanges flip flops on what exactly the nature of our interaction with the common world is supposed to be here, and there are places he tries to accommodate my criticism above. Nevertheless, he missed the opportunity to center the intellectual life on the life of Christ--and I think this profoundly damages his argument. If he had brought in Christ as model I think a lot of things would have come into order.)
So there is a lot to criticize. AND YET. And yet. There are moments he's right on the money too - there is a thread throughout the book where he builds up study as a means of worshipping God. I find that idea luminous and so so relatable - there have been moments where God unlocks something for me in my study and I feel like I can float away on a cloud of happiness. I think God hides glimpses of himself for us in our studies, and when he puts it on our hearts to be hungry for learning what we're really hungering for is to see how he's going to illuminate something of who he is for us. This is the delight of the Christian intellectual, and Sertillanges gets it. He's also put a lot of thought into how to understand and structure one's job as a reader and a student in slightly more practical ways and there is value in how he structures that and lays it out for your consideration. This stuff is in chapters 6-8, if you want to read it.
So for all I find to criticize, I must admit there are moments Sertillanges is spectacular.
(Similarly, I must admit I find that annoying too though, to be honest: after all the things that were shortsighted, even considering that he'd think my intellectual experiences less than his since I'm a woman, there are moments where he's so right and my heart is overjoyed with it. Dammit.)
I've been researching and thinking about the Christian intellectual for a while now, and when a mentor of mine gave me a copy last year, I was grateful. The name of the book had cropped up before, and I wanted to know what a literate French priest writing in the 1920s and 1930s had to say about it, particularly given what was going on at the time and how the brilliant minds of the time were making sense of it all. I do really love the Modernists (and for the purposes of this review, when I call Sertillanges out on some of his ideas it's because I'm thinking of the Modernists and their project); the vast majority of them were doing their best to make sense of a world in which the old traditions no longer seemed to hold up, and they did it with such honesty, intelligence, novelty, and even a sort of integrity that I find deeply attractive--though most of them were proudly secular and I am proudly not.
Sertillanges, on the whole, disappointed me horribly. He's wildly sexist, and I don't just mean he doesn't think about women and only uses male pronouns. He quite clearly expresses that the role of wives is to support their intellectual husbands, not bother their intellectual husbands with frivolous menial stuff (I am sure child-rearing, running homes, and generally relying on her husband are none of those things), and to sit quietly with her workbasket. (He was, as my mentor apologetically noted, reading the book for the first time in full with me, a French priest). I'll put aside the slight to my own intellectual capacities and experiences for now, but this seemed extraordinarily shortsighted, again, given just who was out there writing at the time. Virginia Woolf. Dorothy L. Sayers. Edith Sitwell. Dorothy Parker. Edna St. Vincent Millay. There are more.
His language is often inordinately grandiose. He's given to broad sweeping statements that are so vague as to be useless; he indulges in repetitive stretches that are short-sighted in their nostalgia (and to me irritating in their flights of often Romantic-style imagery.) One particularly memorable example, trying on a technological image for a change: "The intensity of life being thus in abeyance, the transmission belt of the human motor having passed from the free will of the individual to the free play of cosmic forces..."(82) (I drew a skeptical face in the margins: o.O)
He unquestioningly champions Thomism and by extension, Aristotelianism. I get it, I do: they are clean, logical, clear, and helpful. But again, given the turmoil of the time, where so much of the intellectual work of the day is attempting to sort out how the old traditions and worldviews seemed to fail, it seems shortsighted to me not to fully engage with the ideologies of the time. People just didn't build up their ways of understanding the world on Plato and Aristotle and the old classics--not because people are stupid or willfully ignorant but because as they saw it, they didn't hold up any more. Frankly that seems reasonable to me: who stupidly holds to something they no longer believe in, or that no longer seems to explain the state of things?
On the face of it, that's not necessarily such a big deal: there are always going to be those who won't budge from their nostalgia, thoughtless though I might find it. But to me this points to a much bigger problem underlying Sertillanges' work. I'm still thinking about how to put it into words, but I think it breaks down into two prongs: a lack of compassion towards the human beings behind the minds (or perhaps a sense of their reality), and an academic ethos that doesn't act on, or truly realize, the implications of the Logos for the Christian intellectual. Perhaps it's the Protestant evangelical coming out in me.
To take the first: this nostalgia fails to see the underlying need shaping why culture forms and develops the way it does. When you read secular intellectuals (or heck anyone who doesn't match your definition of intellectual), you can't just come at them from a place of superiority because you can point out the holes in their logic (and Sertillanges knows this. He has moments of utter clarity on this, and yet he doesn't seem to apply it all the way). Out of the issues of the heart the mouth speaks. Yes, sin has blinded us and yes, there are often times we want it to. I don't just mean culture, I mean each of us personally, including Christians. But that's not where secular intellectuals are coming from; for them, having excluded God from the get-go, they are trying to make the world make sense. For a Christian, this should be something we treat with utmost delicacy - if we learn how to read it, it is a map for how to create bridges with our counterparts. They see and are sketching at things we can provide insight into. Not only is the academic pursuit of truth served, but we are thus loving our neighbor and even, perhaps, sharing the gospel with them. (Ask me about this; I can give you examples from my own small academic experiences).
Secondly: Sertillanges flip-flops wildly on this, but his academic ethos would at one moment have you pulling away from the world and at the next engaging in it. I never did quite figure out what's the golden mean here (yes I too can be nerdy like that). But I keep getting tugged back to the Incarnation and specifically one of my favorite verses in the Bible: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). I've always understood "the Word" here to refer to Jesus not only as the Son of God but also to the magnificence of THE WORD, the logos, the embodiment of Truth and the fulness of knowledge in one actual living flesh and blood fully-God and fully-man person. He came as a nobody: a prosy little carpenter, not wealthy, not elite, an oddball that nobody understood (except maybe Peter in that glorious moment of attestation: you are the Christ, the son of the Living God!)
And he threw himself into the muck of humanity. No Aquinas, no Aristotle, no special treatment for the intellectuals who followed him (and a heck of a lot of scrutiny for the intellectuals who didn't!) I can't help thinking that a Christian intellectual ethic that doesn't foreground this misses the point. If Christ gave up his glory and status to come here and make a way for the nobodies (which we all are, regardless of how much discipline you apply to building up your intellect and pursuing noble Truth), then surely an intellectual who pulls away from the world is being shortsighted and elitist and generally unhelpful.
(Granted, you *can* poke holes in my interpretation here. Like I said, Sertillanges flip flops on what exactly the nature of our interaction with the common world is supposed to be here, and there are places he tries to accommodate my criticism above. Nevertheless, he missed the opportunity to center the intellectual life on the life of Christ--and I think this profoundly damages his argument. If he had brought in Christ as model I think a lot of things would have come into order.)
So there is a lot to criticize. AND YET. And yet. There are moments he's right on the money too - there is a thread throughout the book where he builds up study as a means of worshipping God. I find that idea luminous and so so relatable - there have been moments where God unlocks something for me in my study and I feel like I can float away on a cloud of happiness. I think God hides glimpses of himself for us in our studies, and when he puts it on our hearts to be hungry for learning what we're really hungering for is to see how he's going to illuminate something of who he is for us. This is the delight of the Christian intellectual, and Sertillanges gets it. He's also put a lot of thought into how to understand and structure one's job as a reader and a student in slightly more practical ways and there is value in how he structures that and lays it out for your consideration. This stuff is in chapters 6-8, if you want to read it.
So for all I find to criticize, I must admit there are moments Sertillanges is spectacular.
(Similarly, I must admit I find that annoying too though, to be honest: after all the things that were shortsighted, even considering that he'd think my intellectual experiences less than his since I'm a woman, there are moments where he's so right and my heart is overjoyed with it. Dammit.)
September 13, 2021
This is a fascinating and well-written account of what it takes to live an intellectual life. Using an interesting mixture of practical advice and theology, it portrays intellectual pursuits as a thoroughly religious activity that demands one’s whole person and life in order to be done properly.
The degree to which you will find this work helpful is highly correlated with your agreement with Thomism and certain elements of Catholic mystical theology. However Sertillanges does succeed in making you think of the pursuit of wisdom and truth in a new way that is insightful and helpful, even to those who are skeptical of the underlying elements of Sertillanges theological thought. Also, full-scale adoption of the semi-monastic lifestyle that is being proposed is not necessary to appreciate and benefit in some measure from what is being proposed.
Also, the practical advice alone is also well-worth the book and a reminder that modern self-help literature is mostly stealing old ideas and adding footnotes about scientific studies.
The degree to which you will find this work helpful is highly correlated with your agreement with Thomism and certain elements of Catholic mystical theology. However Sertillanges does succeed in making you think of the pursuit of wisdom and truth in a new way that is insightful and helpful, even to those who are skeptical of the underlying elements of Sertillanges theological thought. Also, full-scale adoption of the semi-monastic lifestyle that is being proposed is not necessary to appreciate and benefit in some measure from what is being proposed.
Also, the practical advice alone is also well-worth the book and a reminder that modern self-help literature is mostly stealing old ideas and adding footnotes about scientific studies.
April 11, 2015
This was one of the best books I have ever read- definitely life changing!!! Inspiring, eloquent and insightful! Thanks to my awesome (intellectual) brother for the book!
December 29, 2024
I wish I had read this book earlier in life. It answers the question - "what is all of this for?" The reading, the thinking, the life of the mind? It's a beautiful work that gives purpose to the quest for truth and it's a book I intend to return to often.
September 17, 2015
The forward was magnificent! -great men seem to us men if great boldness; in reality they are more obedient than others. -weak work or pretentious work is always bad work. -when the world does not like you it takes its revenge on you; if it happens to like you, it take its revenge still by corrupting you. -Reason cannot do everything. It's last step, according to Pascal, is to recognize its limitations.
There are a lot of reminders in this book. As I look at this book sitting on the table I ask myself, "what did I learn?" Don't give up on learning. Continuation of learning never ends after our formal education. Neither does work. Well then what is work according to this book? It is a stoic protection of my time and efforts toward a subject that interests me. Find all aspects of that interest and make it your study. But not an over bearing study that arrests your time from family, vocation and free time. Quiet solitude is one of the most important points talked about in this book. In these daily moments of solitude, be cognizant of your thoughts and be sure to write them down. In essence, find a balance in life that will continue to challenge your intellectual aims, but don't become lax enough to forget your purpose in life. I am glad this is a Catholic book. All of us mortal beings have a purpose. We are not just here to be brutes who constantly concern ourselves with eating and sleeping. We are intellectual beings, full of life, intelligence and ability.
A great motivational book that will need to be thumbed through for reminders. The only negative I can think of is that I wish it had another title. I found myself hiding its cover so others wouldn't exercise bigotry. :)
There are a lot of reminders in this book. As I look at this book sitting on the table I ask myself, "what did I learn?" Don't give up on learning. Continuation of learning never ends after our formal education. Neither does work. Well then what is work according to this book? It is a stoic protection of my time and efforts toward a subject that interests me. Find all aspects of that interest and make it your study. But not an over bearing study that arrests your time from family, vocation and free time. Quiet solitude is one of the most important points talked about in this book. In these daily moments of solitude, be cognizant of your thoughts and be sure to write them down. In essence, find a balance in life that will continue to challenge your intellectual aims, but don't become lax enough to forget your purpose in life. I am glad this is a Catholic book. All of us mortal beings have a purpose. We are not just here to be brutes who constantly concern ourselves with eating and sleeping. We are intellectual beings, full of life, intelligence and ability.
A great motivational book that will need to be thumbed through for reminders. The only negative I can think of is that I wish it had another title. I found myself hiding its cover so others wouldn't exercise bigotry. :)
April 22, 2021
Unindo o senso de vocação à piedade, o autor mostra como glorificamos a Deus por meio do trabalho da mente. Indispensável!
December 25, 2019
Nije mi rečeno ništa što nisam znala, ali nekoliko me rečenica ohrabrilo i potaklo da i dalje radim na intelektualnom planu.
March 31, 2016
O que acrescentar a tantas resenhas? Sou mais uma voz, nesse coro internacional, endossando que o livro em questão é essencial: para os intelectuais ou aspirantes, a fim de testar sua vocação e se orientar; para os que estão na dúvida, o livro a sanará de vez, no melhor estilo ou-vai-ou-racha, e nisso é superior a qualquer outro do tipo - inclusive os do Adler.
Por que quatro estrelas? Para o meu gosto, o estilo do Padre Sertillanges é floreado demais. É fato que algumas de suas metáforas e analogias são muito esclarecedoras, mas estas pareceram-me a minoria. De resto, é um emaranhado de lugares-comuns do pior gosto parnasiano. Isso torna o livro, um pouco e no não-essencial, filho de seu tempo. Eis a razão pela qual me demorei tanto no lê-lo.
É preciso insistir que, quando larga a veia poética que lhe cai mal, o Padre é muito eficiente na comunicação de conselhos práticos e iluminações mais teóricas ou até mesmo espirituais.
Assim é que, felizmente, essa silva rethoricae é compensada por conselhos muito sensatos, originais e verdadeiramente salvadores. A leitura meditada deste volume, que deve ser revisitado de tempos em tempos, dá muitos frutos. Mesmo alguns conselhos que podem parecer datados são facilmente transponíveis para o mundo atual, sobretudo os que recomendam se afastar das distrações.
A tradução da É realizações é boa, mas não excepcional. Em alguns momentos, dá para ouvir o francês por trás do português e a escolha do "senhores" e a terceira pessoa do plural no lugar do "vous" foi lamentável.
Ao cabo de contas, porém: recomendadíssimo.
Por que quatro estrelas? Para o meu gosto, o estilo do Padre Sertillanges é floreado demais. É fato que algumas de suas metáforas e analogias são muito esclarecedoras, mas estas pareceram-me a minoria. De resto, é um emaranhado de lugares-comuns do pior gosto parnasiano. Isso torna o livro, um pouco e no não-essencial, filho de seu tempo. Eis a razão pela qual me demorei tanto no lê-lo.
É preciso insistir que, quando larga a veia poética que lhe cai mal, o Padre é muito eficiente na comunicação de conselhos práticos e iluminações mais teóricas ou até mesmo espirituais.
Assim é que, felizmente, essa silva rethoricae é compensada por conselhos muito sensatos, originais e verdadeiramente salvadores. A leitura meditada deste volume, que deve ser revisitado de tempos em tempos, dá muitos frutos. Mesmo alguns conselhos que podem parecer datados são facilmente transponíveis para o mundo atual, sobretudo os que recomendam se afastar das distrações.
A tradução da É realizações é boa, mas não excepcional. Em alguns momentos, dá para ouvir o francês por trás do português e a escolha do "senhores" e a terceira pessoa do plural no lugar do "vous" foi lamentável.
Ao cabo de contas, porém: recomendadíssimo.
April 9, 2023
More than any other book, this is the one that made me realize that "the intellectual life" is the one for me. But Sertillanges also continually stresses the openness of this kind of life to anyone who is willing to seize upon its riches (not just "academics"—man, I hate that word), and the result is a splendid handbook for the serious learner in all fields (...who is also spiritual; there’s no way around that for his audience, but it allows him to shed so many fascinating perspectives on what it means to be an astute observer of the world, though the Romanism is at times a bit overbearing - alright, we get that you should make reading Thomas Aquinas the central point of your studies...) The prose is meticulously-wrought and convicting, almost like a series of sermons. It forces you to think about what you want to get out of your studies (whether they be for work or leisure) and challenges you to foster a healthy attitude toward your objectives. I cannot think of any other books where I wanted to highlight so much, and where nary a paragraph slips by without some exquisitely beautiful, time-stopping insight. Truly one of the most inspiring books I have read, and one I will never tire of returning to. This belongs on the shelf of anyone who loves reading and, more importantly, has the desire to live abundantly.
August 4, 2021
There is a genre of academic literature that I don't often read - this book falls into that category. As an academic, I don't really engage in the meta-analysis of the intellectual life. That said, this book came highly recommended and I am very pleased to have been given the occasion to read it. If nothing else, it reminds the reader of the seriousness and singularity of focus that the life of the mind requires. This book emphasizes (and perhaps overemphasizes) the sacrifices required to fulfill one's calling as an intellectual and the duty that one has to not become slothful or complacent when one has been graced with the gifts to live such a life.
The irony of this book is that I found myself most often reading it while juggling two young children. There is unfortunately too little opportunity (or desire) for serious and focused "work" without the blessing of solitude. That said, I think of my time at the office and am similarly distracted by the committees, classes, advising, and just overall human interaction that inundates the hours of the day. It is easy to play at being a thinker -- it is hard to actually take the time to think.
I will mull this book over for a while, I suspect, and I will almost certainly introduce it to students.
The irony of this book is that I found myself most often reading it while juggling two young children. There is unfortunately too little opportunity (or desire) for serious and focused "work" without the blessing of solitude. That said, I think of my time at the office and am similarly distracted by the committees, classes, advising, and just overall human interaction that inundates the hours of the day. It is easy to play at being a thinker -- it is hard to actually take the time to think.
I will mull this book over for a while, I suspect, and I will almost certainly introduce it to students.
December 10, 2010
This is a book every person who loves to learn should read. You need not be in pursuit of advanced degrees but in search of advancement in your ability to gather information better, to make better use of time for learning, discovering ways that the thinker acts in their pursuits of the intellectual life.
June 18, 2015
Foundation for the course I teach to 9th graders of the same title, The Intellectual Life. Not an easy read, but a great one.
February 19, 2021
Que livro, senhoras e senhores.
� Então, acrescentem e repitam com plena certeza: “Se fizeres isso, produzirás frutos úteis e alcançarás o que desejas�. Adeus � Sertillanges.
� Então, acrescentem e repitam com plena certeza: “Se fizeres isso, produzirás frutos úteis e alcançarás o que desejas�. Adeus � Sertillanges.
March 12, 2021
Livro muito bom!
July 5, 2021
I wish this had been required reading when I went off to school. An absolutely inspiring and excellent read.
March 24, 2021
"Send [Wisdom] out from the holy heavens,
and from your glorious throne send her,
that, being present with me, she may labor with me
and that I may learn what is well-pleasing before you,"
+ Wisdom of Solomon 9:10 (NETS)
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
+ John 14:6 (NKJV)
This is a book written to beckon us into the love of Truth, of Wisdom, of the Word. In it the late Dominican Antonin Sertillanges offers the student a warm and welcoming hand, beckoning him to discovery and deepness. I do not know of any other book that offers such a guide to the vocation of intellectual work. It's written not only for those researching in universities and seminaries; it is for the man or woman, boy or girl who reads, speaks, and writes in order to show the Truth to others. It is written for the thoughtful Christian, the studious believer, the saint called to a very high and very noble vocation. It is, importantly for me, a life-changing book.
A. G. Sertillanges originally wrote "The Intellectual Life" in 1920, long before computers and humanity's experience of instant internet information. He wrote it (essentially) as a presentation or an elucidation of Thomas Aquinas' "Sixteen Precepts for Acquiring Knowledge." Some might roll their eyes at the thought of an extended commentary on some short, individual writing of Aquinas, especially given that this book is 101 years old. However, even though some of Sertillanges' methods (such as note taking on index cards) may be "outdated," the idea or spirit behind every sentence of this book is as transformational as ever.
Sertillanges brings us to the fundamentals. He forces those of us who read and write on a regular basis to ask deeply personal, probing questions. Why do I want to know something? Why am I going about it in this way? Where is this work leading? Where do I hope to be one day? Sertillanges gently guides the reader back to the fundamentals of intellectual pursuit, and, in the process, demonstrates the sheer joy that is the intellectual life.
There is simply too much in this book to praise, so I will have to content myself with pointing out three ways this book affected me, and then I'll give a few of my favorite passages.
1) "Work" is a key word in a discussion of the believer's intellectual life. We must not read, write, study, or teach for selfish reasons, that is, for glory, money, recognition, or to settle some old curiosity. Intellectual work is holy work; it opens us up to the Truth and allows us to present Him to others. Such work takes a lifetime and may garner no real praise from others. That doesn't matter; what does is the pursuit and love and joy of the Truth Himself.
2) Books are the means to an end. They are not substitutes for enjoyment of the Truth. To read for the sake of hoarding knowledge is a terrible abuse. Sertillanges argues that Christian intellectuals read less and, instead, process more via note-taking and contemplation. The point of the intellectual life is not to parrot others' ideas or memorize alien facts, but to internalize the Truth and to become a mouthpiece of the Truth. Love is important above all in this.
3) The Intellectual life, properly lived, is un-selfish. Any scholarly endeavor can become selfish, but a thorough pursuit of the Truth, done for the sake of the Truth, is to be seriously practiced and zealously guarded. The Truth is worth a lifetime.
Finally, I'll include some of my favorite lines from Sertillanges. He is truly a beautiful writer.
- "Study is itself a divine office, an indirect divine office; it seeks out and honors the traces of the Creator, or His images, according as it investigates nature of humanity; but it must make way at the right moment for direct intercourse with Him. If we forget to do this, not only do we neglect a great duty, but the image of God in creation comes between us and Him, and His traces only serve to lead us far from Him to whom they bear witness." (29)
- "Study might be defined by saying that it is God becoming conscious in us of His work. Life every action, intellection passes from God to God, as it were, through us. God is its first cause; He is its last end; on the way, our too assertive self can deflect the movement. Let us rather open our eyes wisely so that our inspiring Spirit may see in us." (131)
- "A book is a signal, a stimulant, a helper, an initiator - it is not a substitute and it is not a chain. Our thought must be what we ourselves are. When we read, our masters must not be a goal for us, but a starting-point. A book is a cradle, not a tomb. Physically we are born young and we die old; intellectually, because of the heritage of the ages, 'we are born old; we must try to die young.'" (173)
- "When one has the necessary dispositions and one's whole soul is in what one is doing, when one studies well, reads well, makes notes well, when one takes unconsciousness and night into one's service, the work that one is preparing is like the seed beneath the sun, or like the child whom its mother brings forth in anguish; but in her joy that a man is born into the world she does not remembers the anguish any longer." (256)
and from your glorious throne send her,
that, being present with me, she may labor with me
and that I may learn what is well-pleasing before you,"
+ Wisdom of Solomon 9:10 (NETS)
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
+ John 14:6 (NKJV)
This is a book written to beckon us into the love of Truth, of Wisdom, of the Word. In it the late Dominican Antonin Sertillanges offers the student a warm and welcoming hand, beckoning him to discovery and deepness. I do not know of any other book that offers such a guide to the vocation of intellectual work. It's written not only for those researching in universities and seminaries; it is for the man or woman, boy or girl who reads, speaks, and writes in order to show the Truth to others. It is written for the thoughtful Christian, the studious believer, the saint called to a very high and very noble vocation. It is, importantly for me, a life-changing book.
A. G. Sertillanges originally wrote "The Intellectual Life" in 1920, long before computers and humanity's experience of instant internet information. He wrote it (essentially) as a presentation or an elucidation of Thomas Aquinas' "Sixteen Precepts for Acquiring Knowledge." Some might roll their eyes at the thought of an extended commentary on some short, individual writing of Aquinas, especially given that this book is 101 years old. However, even though some of Sertillanges' methods (such as note taking on index cards) may be "outdated," the idea or spirit behind every sentence of this book is as transformational as ever.
Sertillanges brings us to the fundamentals. He forces those of us who read and write on a regular basis to ask deeply personal, probing questions. Why do I want to know something? Why am I going about it in this way? Where is this work leading? Where do I hope to be one day? Sertillanges gently guides the reader back to the fundamentals of intellectual pursuit, and, in the process, demonstrates the sheer joy that is the intellectual life.
There is simply too much in this book to praise, so I will have to content myself with pointing out three ways this book affected me, and then I'll give a few of my favorite passages.
1) "Work" is a key word in a discussion of the believer's intellectual life. We must not read, write, study, or teach for selfish reasons, that is, for glory, money, recognition, or to settle some old curiosity. Intellectual work is holy work; it opens us up to the Truth and allows us to present Him to others. Such work takes a lifetime and may garner no real praise from others. That doesn't matter; what does is the pursuit and love and joy of the Truth Himself.
2) Books are the means to an end. They are not substitutes for enjoyment of the Truth. To read for the sake of hoarding knowledge is a terrible abuse. Sertillanges argues that Christian intellectuals read less and, instead, process more via note-taking and contemplation. The point of the intellectual life is not to parrot others' ideas or memorize alien facts, but to internalize the Truth and to become a mouthpiece of the Truth. Love is important above all in this.
3) The Intellectual life, properly lived, is un-selfish. Any scholarly endeavor can become selfish, but a thorough pursuit of the Truth, done for the sake of the Truth, is to be seriously practiced and zealously guarded. The Truth is worth a lifetime.
Finally, I'll include some of my favorite lines from Sertillanges. He is truly a beautiful writer.
- "Study is itself a divine office, an indirect divine office; it seeks out and honors the traces of the Creator, or His images, according as it investigates nature of humanity; but it must make way at the right moment for direct intercourse with Him. If we forget to do this, not only do we neglect a great duty, but the image of God in creation comes between us and Him, and His traces only serve to lead us far from Him to whom they bear witness." (29)
- "Study might be defined by saying that it is God becoming conscious in us of His work. Life every action, intellection passes from God to God, as it were, through us. God is its first cause; He is its last end; on the way, our too assertive self can deflect the movement. Let us rather open our eyes wisely so that our inspiring Spirit may see in us." (131)
- "A book is a signal, a stimulant, a helper, an initiator - it is not a substitute and it is not a chain. Our thought must be what we ourselves are. When we read, our masters must not be a goal for us, but a starting-point. A book is a cradle, not a tomb. Physically we are born young and we die old; intellectually, because of the heritage of the ages, 'we are born old; we must try to die young.'" (173)
- "When one has the necessary dispositions and one's whole soul is in what one is doing, when one studies well, reads well, makes notes well, when one takes unconsciousness and night into one's service, the work that one is preparing is like the seed beneath the sun, or like the child whom its mother brings forth in anguish; but in her joy that a man is born into the world she does not remembers the anguish any longer." (256)
May 13, 2020
How to sum up this book? Instructional, beautiful, and challenging. I believe that I learned more about how to live my life effectively in this book than any others. It built up my confidence in the importance of philosophy and the intellectual life, while also keeping me grounded in that you can and ought to be productive in that intellectual life. I probably made more marks in this book than any other that I have read.
Highly recommended for those wanting to grow in living well, especially in your intellectual life!
Highly recommended for those wanting to grow in living well, especially in your intellectual life!
March 13, 2024
This was a fantastic read- Highly recommend
August 27, 2023
This is my favorite book. It changed the way I see the world, and does so again every time I re-read it. Please, consider reading it yourself if this review piques your interest in the slightest.
When I first read The Intellectual Life, I was concluding my junior year of university. I found it extraordinarily instructive for ordering my life as a student. As a University Scholar with a seemingly meandering academic path, Sertillanges' oft-repeated declaration that "all truths are linked together" (p. 19) came to be an encouraging mantra. While I prepared to write a thesis, his starkly practical reminders (roughly put: sleep, eat, bathe, and REST) were exceedingly well-put. But perhaps the most important aspect of this book was its view of study: study as an act of worship. If God is Truth, and study the pursuit of truth, then it is a liturgical joy to be a student! And what's more, "You have a part only you can play" (p. 28). No one else has your unique and beautiful blend of interests, talents, thoughts, and style. In an ultimate sense, all you need accomplish as a student is to pursue God in creation to the utmost of your ability.
There is simply too much treasure for me to detail here; each chapter presents masterwork insights on life. The only strike I mark against this book is that Sertillanges has a painfully patriarchal view of what is means to be an intellectual, in chapter 3 specifically and in other small comments throughout. He is unintentionally speaking of himself when he says, "[w]e have to be on our guard against [the errors of great men]; in their strength they sometimes err" (p. 162). Note well his errors, but open yourself again to receive the otherwise timeless truths of this small book.
I have re-read this book for the third time as I prepare to enter my first full-time job. I am no longer a student in the vocational sense, but Sertillanges' words are, in some ways, even more important to my life now. If you are a student or an academic, you simply MUST read this book, but I again extend this recommendation to any "who understand this language and to whom the heroes of the mind seem mysteriously to beckon" (p. 11).
When I first read The Intellectual Life, I was concluding my junior year of university. I found it extraordinarily instructive for ordering my life as a student. As a University Scholar with a seemingly meandering academic path, Sertillanges' oft-repeated declaration that "all truths are linked together" (p. 19) came to be an encouraging mantra. While I prepared to write a thesis, his starkly practical reminders (roughly put: sleep, eat, bathe, and REST) were exceedingly well-put. But perhaps the most important aspect of this book was its view of study: study as an act of worship. If God is Truth, and study the pursuit of truth, then it is a liturgical joy to be a student! And what's more, "You have a part only you can play" (p. 28). No one else has your unique and beautiful blend of interests, talents, thoughts, and style. In an ultimate sense, all you need accomplish as a student is to pursue God in creation to the utmost of your ability.
There is simply too much treasure for me to detail here; each chapter presents masterwork insights on life. The only strike I mark against this book is that Sertillanges has a painfully patriarchal view of what is means to be an intellectual, in chapter 3 specifically and in other small comments throughout. He is unintentionally speaking of himself when he says, "[w]e have to be on our guard against [the errors of great men]; in their strength they sometimes err" (p. 162). Note well his errors, but open yourself again to receive the otherwise timeless truths of this small book.
I have re-read this book for the third time as I prepare to enter my first full-time job. I am no longer a student in the vocational sense, but Sertillanges' words are, in some ways, even more important to my life now. If you are a student or an academic, you simply MUST read this book, but I again extend this recommendation to any "who understand this language and to whom the heroes of the mind seem mysteriously to beckon" (p. 11).
December 20, 2019
I would call this book, "The Wise Intellectual". It's about how to maximize your mind towards a creative endeavor. These involve commitment, and finding balance between work, living life, and rest. His suggestion about keeping questions/problems in mind as you go about your day and before going to sleep to tap the unconscious is gold... "constantly at work like a stream beneath which turbines have been installed".
I would read anywhere between 2 and 15 pages before having to stop and think about it. The chapters are short, I recommend reading a few chapters or even a single champter until you start feeling insights flow, then put the book down and go about your day while you contemplate what he says, and connect it to your own life, habits, and existing knowledge. It will be worth your time to take it in and let it simmer... especially since the book is about exactly that process.
Take note, Sertillanges was a French Catholic philosopher and his religious views are weaved throughout his philosophy. Despite this, even an atheist will find value in his practical advice, mindset, and approach to problem solving. Also, his religious beliefs are quite progressive and refreshing.
I would read anywhere between 2 and 15 pages before having to stop and think about it. The chapters are short, I recommend reading a few chapters or even a single champter until you start feeling insights flow, then put the book down and go about your day while you contemplate what he says, and connect it to your own life, habits, and existing knowledge. It will be worth your time to take it in and let it simmer... especially since the book is about exactly that process.
Take note, Sertillanges was a French Catholic philosopher and his religious views are weaved throughout his philosophy. Despite this, even an atheist will find value in his practical advice, mindset, and approach to problem solving. Also, his religious beliefs are quite progressive and refreshing.
October 3, 2016
This is the rule for the Catholic intellectual, though the methodology is sound for any person who wishes to learn from and contribute to the total of human knowledge. It is an exhortation to the person who finds the fire principally in their mind.
One also notices that Father Sertillanges applies what he instructs; his graceful style is a constant pleasure; his apt quotations drive points home like the hammer of a seasoned craftsman.
This work, taken in tandem with Sister Miriam Joseph's Trivium, are invaluable tools for the person who desires "to be admitted into the wine-cellar," the sanctum of what our minds are capable of being.
One also notices that Father Sertillanges applies what he instructs; his graceful style is a constant pleasure; his apt quotations drive points home like the hammer of a seasoned craftsman.
This work, taken in tandem with Sister Miriam Joseph's Trivium, are invaluable tools for the person who desires "to be admitted into the wine-cellar," the sanctum of what our minds are capable of being.
May 28, 2020
A rich meditation and prescription on how to carry out the intellectual life (alas, with a pompous title). A.D. Sertillanges comes alongside the reader and, like William Zinsser does with writing, Sertillanges offers suggestions for how to stay disciplined in study, how to arrange one's work day, how to avoid being overloaded with information, how to write good notes, and how to take breaks from intellectual work. I differed here and there with Sertillanges, such as in his effusive praise of Thomism and more markedly, his rejection of "breadth" for "depth," but I would commend this book to all students and scholars.
August 4, 2020
É um livro religioso. O título não anuncia, mas se você estudar a capa e as informações do autor, percebe que vai ser uma obra mergulhada em religiosidade.
Todo livro é repleto de filosofia cristã e exemplos demasiados. Tudo para encorpar o livro. Por consequência, cada argumento é seguido de inúmeros parágrafos desnecessários.
Porém, o livro possuí trechos interessantes. Contudo, dispersos ao longo de toda a obra. São pontos úteis num aglomerado descartável.
Se você não for religioso, melhor deixar esse livro para outro momento com bastante paciência e tempo disponível.
Todo livro é repleto de filosofia cristã e exemplos demasiados. Tudo para encorpar o livro. Por consequência, cada argumento é seguido de inúmeros parágrafos desnecessários.
Porém, o livro possuí trechos interessantes. Contudo, dispersos ao longo de toda a obra. São pontos úteis num aglomerado descartável.
Se você não for religioso, melhor deixar esse livro para outro momento com bastante paciência e tempo disponível.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2019
I have never read a book like this one.
Certainly dated in some respects, but it’s conversational style and pedagogical tone was engaging from beginning to end. It’s theological assumptions, and methodical suggestions, had a formational value to me in ways I cannot think of another work which similarly carries this effect. I leave this book challenged to become a better, more strategic, and intentional student.
Surely will be revisiting this volume for years to come.
Certainly dated in some respects, but it’s conversational style and pedagogical tone was engaging from beginning to end. It’s theological assumptions, and methodical suggestions, had a formational value to me in ways I cannot think of another work which similarly carries this effect. I leave this book challenged to become a better, more strategic, and intentional student.
Surely will be revisiting this volume for years to come.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 379 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.