Spiritual Knowledge

The human intellect is a key aspect of human nature that makes us unique from all other creatures. We share with animals knowledge of the physical world through our senses. However, we also share with angels knowledge of the spiritual world. Unlike the angels human spiritual knowledge is “discursive.” In other words, we gain knowledge by learning it, with the aid of divine grace.The knowledge of angels is infused – it is directly given to them by God as part of their nature.

When people here the world “spiritual,” their minds automatically go to religious or theological ideas. While knowledge about God is certainly the most important and noble of the spiritual knowledge, it is not the totality of it. In fact, the term “spiritual” refers to anything that is not physical – intangible concepts and ideas that our senses cannot detect but that are nonetheless real. For example, spiritual knowledge includes knowing about things like

• freedom
• human dignity
• peace
• truth
• love
• compassion
• equality

These and many other concepts can be known only because of the human intellect. Animals do not know about them, nor do they even care about them.

How we Gain Spiritual Knowledge

If spiritual knowledge cannot be known through our senses, and if we are not like the angels with spiritual knowledge infused into our very natures, how do we gain spiritual knowledge? Human beings gain all knowledge through learning. Because our natures are an integration of body and spirit, our senses are always involved in learning, even spiritual knowledge (reading / writing, discussing, etc). But the main tool for gaining spiritual knowledge is the use of reason, the disciplined use of the intellect. Reason is clear thinking using a standard set of rules. To gain spiritual knowledge, we apply reason to common human experience. We know what freedom is, what love is, what peace is, and how these things properly fit into human life by thinking about human experience.

Using the Intellect to Live a Truly Human Life

So, that’s how the intellect works in human life to make us uniquely human. But how do we use the intellect? What does natural law lead us to do to live a more fully human life? Here are a few ideas that From the Abbey teaches and promotes.

• Become determined to discover Truth rather than blindly accepting propaganda and emotional pleas that are so prevalent in our culture today.
• Read, think and dialog – these three activities are not only important for developing our intellect, they are vital to forming an interior life. If you haven’t read my free article, “Why Reading is Crucial to the Catholic Interior Life,” I invite you to click download it now (directions are at the bottom of this article).
• Learn how to think critically – From the Abbey sells booklets from the Critical Thinking Foundation and can also offer inexpensive, high-quality on-line classes in critical thinking for you. See the bottom of the article for directions on signing up for more information on these classes and browsing our Bookstore selection on critical thinking.
• Develop the virtue of prudence – From the Abbey is developing an on-line series on the virtues, focusing first on the cardinal virtues. You will be able to choose to receive e-mails, listen to pod casts, view on-line lectures and participate in other on-line activities all designed to teach you how to strengthen specific virtues in your life. See the bottom of the article for directions on signing up for more information on this series and browsing our Bookstore collection on virtue.
• Perform a frequent examination of conscience – this means simply examining the choices you have made (with your intellect) and asking yourself if you have chosen the best possible good. This is related to true freedom, which is covered in another article in this series.
• Think about your emotional responses – we’ll talk more about making your emotions more human in a future e-mail.
• Examine the motivations behind your actions – we’ll talk more about making your actions more human in a future e-mail.

These are just a few concrete actions you can take to begin living the natural law in the context of intellectual development. From the Abbey is dedicated in part to intellectual development, so please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you in this area!

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