A new academic year has begun, and with its arrival comes excitement and anticipation of all the potential growth that lies ahead in our educational endeavors.  If I could put one book into the hands of many Christian students at this time it would be A.G. Sertillanges’ short work The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods.*

The book is especially for students entering college who have an inkling that they were created for an intellectual life—a life of the mind—a life of thinking.  It is also for the late-twenties, early-thirties persons who are inclined towards thinking, but fear they have missed the opportunity to get a higher education that would allow them the leisure or training to think.  It is for mothers who know that God has gifted them with an intellect, but feel they have no time to think between diapers, play, meals, and discipline.  It is for elderly people with a lot of time on their hands who still feel the promptings of intellectual curiosity.  And it is for everyone in-between, and particularly anyone with the instinct, ability, and inner impulse to know what is true.

What I most appreciate about The Intellectual Life is that Sertillanges presents the task of thinking well as a spiritual endeavor.  Thinking is not just a job, or a tool we use to succeed at our jobs; the task of using our minds cannot be limited to a career or a 2-4 year stint at college. Nor should we avoid thinking because we feel confined by limitations of time, money, experience, etc.  Instead, thinking is an activity designed to worship God.  Sertillanges argues that study is a “prayer to truth” because it is “desire and an invocation of the true” (69-70).

The Intellectual Life is both inspirational and practical.  It gives us a clear picture of the ideal, of why someone would choose to embark on a life of thought.  We do so because we were created to think and to love what is true.  Sertillanges presents us with a vision of truth—and the purposeful, resolute pursuit of truth—that is most compelling.  He inspires us to “love truth and its fruits of life, for yourself and others; devote to study and to the profitable use of study the best part of your time and your heart […] do not prove faithless to God, to your brethren and to yourself by rejecting a sacred call” (5).  He reminds us that truth is ever new, and that God does not grow old. Our intellectual life is at heart a pursuit of God.

The book also tells us practical ways we can pursue an intellectual vocation even while working at other careers.  Very few people have the luxury to give up the mundane tasks of daily life we need to survive, and to live happily—to earn money for daily needs, to care for and love the people around us, to serve our communities.  Even fewer can fully devote themselves to an intellectual life.  But very many can and should use their minds for the glory of God.  I have read the book cover to cover three times; each time I read it my life circumstances were different.  Yet each time the book had some practical advice I could apply to those life circumstances. 

As a young graduate student with loads of time dedicated to reading and studying, I was inspired to pursue the virtues of the intellectual.  We need to be honest, prayerful, diligent, and above all delighted with knowing what is true.  As Sertillanges says, “what matters most in life is not knowledge, but character” (235).

As a new professor learning how to teach well, I took seriously Sertillanges’ many exhortations to give up preoccupation with self in service of what is true (209-215). Intellectual work demands a good deal of selflessness and self-sacrifice.  We have to forget ourselves to best serve others with our intellectual work.

As a mother learning how to put her intellectual life into rightful balance with her familial priorities, I am drawing from Sertillanges’ encouragement that only a small amount of time each day, used well, can add up to an impactful intellectual life (11, 95).  The Christian intellectual doesn’t need genius or liberty (both of which I lack), only perseverance and some tactics on how to make the most use of their time. 

In the end, the intellectual life is a spiritual work.  I pray that all who are equipped and called to pursue an intellectual life will see their work in this light.

*A.G. Sertillanges was a Catholic priest; his writing should be read with the individual’s discernment, particularly regarding his exhortations towards Thomism and the work of the Spirit in our lives. 

Work Reviewed: Sertillanges, A. G. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. The Catholic University of America Press, 1992.