St. Thomas Aquinas’ 4 Ways to Grow in Wisdom: Part 3

St. Thomas Aquinas lays out four simple steps for growing in wisdom: to “listen willingly, seek diligently, respond prudently, and meditate attentively.” This is the third in a four-part series unpacking what he means by that, and how following Thomas’ advice can make us wiser, smarter, and holier. Today… what does it look like to respond prudently?

3. Respond Prudently

Just to catch everyone up to speed, here’s where we have been so far: first, Aquinas tells us how we can listen attentively. Second, he tells us that merely listening isn’t enough – we should diligently seek sound wisdom, in the teachers and elders in our lives, in the wisdom of the ancients, in the wisdom of God’s creation, and (paradoxically) in the wisdom acquired from teaching. But once we’ve listened to wisdom, and acquired wisdom by seeking it, how do we then respond to it?

Aquinas says that a “threefold prudence” is needed (although it’s really a fourfold prudence… for reasons that’ll be clear soon):

1. Know when to speak, and when to shut up. Your response should “correspond to the intellectual ability of the respondent.” Aquinas explains that “if someone were to ask you something that is beyond your intellectual capacity, you would not be obliged to respond.” That’s a gentle way of saying that the prudent man knows when he’s out of his element, and needs to shut up. Aquinas quotes Sirach 5:12, which says the same thing: “if you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, put your hand on your mouth.” But Aquinas’ point about “intellectual ability” is really about a lot more than innate intelligence. Do you know a lot about the subject you’re talking about?

One of the frustrating dimensions to the rise of New Atheism is how much of it involved rejecting silly forms of Christianity. That is, people took their own private interpretations of Genesis (or fill-in-the-blank), and presented it not as their own guesswork or best understanding, but as the Christian teaching on the subject. When that teaching turned out to be foolish, it wasn’t just the person who was discredited: by presenting their view as the Christian view, they managed to take Christianity down with them in the minds of their listeners. St. Augustine complained about this back in the year 415:

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world […] Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

I think that this is a widespread problem (perhaps worse than in the time of Augustine). If you can’t distinguish between “that person thinks my reading of Genesis is wrong” and “that person thinks Genesis is wrong,” that’s dangerous to evangelization, because you have conflated yourself with God.

The correct answer is to know when to put your hand over your mouth, or to just say “you know what, I don’t know.” Augustine’s own views on predestination are extremely controversial, but it’s worth noting that when he presents them, he clearly caveats that he’s not sure if he’s right, and is just making his best interpretation of the Scriptural evidence. That’s prudent, and it means that someone can disagree with aspects of his interpretation without worrying that they’re disagreeing with Christianity.

The rest of us (who can’t pretend to be as wise as Augustine and Aquinas) would do well to emulate that same humility – to know when to shut up, when to say we don’t know, when to admit that we’re just guessing … and when to realize that we’re on solid footing.

2. Answer the person, not the question.  I’ve said before that in apologetics, it’s important to win the person, not the argument. Likewise, we should learn to respond to questions by answering the person, not the question.

After Lazarus dies, his two sisters (Mary and Martha) both approach Jesus with substantially the same question / objection. Martha goes to Jesus and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (John 11:21-22). She seems to be composed, perhaps even a bit accusing, and Jesus responds by talking theology with her, and pointing her to the reality of the resurrection, before revealing Himself as the Resurrection. Martha’s sister Mary doesn’t originally join, because she’s at home crying. She does eventually show up, though, at which point “Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’” (John 11:32). Notice that the question is the same, but the person is in a totally different place. This time, Jesus responds by being “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” and wept (John 11:33, 35). Martha needs a theological answer; Mary needs a hug, and someone to cry with her.

Jesus shows us this prudence in other ways, as well. Aquinas points out that Jesus actually answers a paradox from Proverbs. The paradox is a famous one: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:4-5). Anyone who spends time on the Internet knows this apparent catch-22. When someone says something arrogant and stupid in the comments, do you respond? If so, you risk getting dragged into a long and pointless debate with someone who isn’t interested in the truth… and you make yourself look petty in the process. But if you don’t respond, the troll thinks his argument was so good it was unanswerable. Both responses are unsatisfactory. But Aquinas points out that Jesus finds a third path: “Christ did this well, when others asked him by what authority he performs miracles, he answered them by means of another question.” He’s referring to Matthew 21:23-27:

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you a question; and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or from men?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the multitude; for all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Jesus’ question is perfectly calibrated to reveal that His interlocutors aren’t asking in good faith. They’re trying to trap Him, and that’s why they’re unwilling to vulnerably answer any questions themselves. The prudent man sees this and learns from it.

3. Don’t Get Long-Winded. A prudent response (a) corresponds to the question, and (b) isn’t “embellished with many words.” When someone asks you a question, answer them, but don’t just talk to be talking. Otherwise, Aquinas warns that “the response would be full of wind.” Sometimes, we get long-winded because we want to listen to ourselves jaw. Other times, we sometimes give a long-winded answer because we don’t actually know what we’re talking about. Aquinas’ own writing avoids these traps: he cuts straight to the point, and doesn’t go in for unnecessary rhetorical flourishes. It’s humble and clear, showing us both what he knows and what he doesn’t. And Aquinas suggests it’s because Christ does the same that “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” in the finding in the Temple (Luke 2:47).

4. Meditate attentively. Aquinas’ fourth point is that “the highest degree of prudence is achieved when a man meditates attentively.” But attentive meditation deserves its own exploration, so he’ll save that for the fourth point, as will we.

Next time: for the fourth and final part of our series, what does it look like to meditate attentively? And why does St. Thomas Aquinas point to the Virgin Mary as the biblical model for attentive meditation?