The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

by Antonin Sertillanges

Book Overview

"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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813206464
• ISBN13: 9780813206462
• Release Date: August 1992
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.4" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

A Guide to (Christian) Scholarship

This book would make an excellent gift for the student beginning university work and the tired student, professor, or independent researcher who needs a refresher. Sertillanges has advice for everything from being moral to staying healthy to taking good notes, all of it both persuasive and practicable. It's a good guide for scholars of every discipline, so long as they are Christian or warm to Christian ideas. Sertillanges' arguments, especially in the first chapters, rely upon premises like the unity of God's creation and the incarnation of Christ. For instance, in a section entitled "The Intellectual Does Not Stand Alone", the author says "Jesus Christ needs our minds for his work, as on earth He needed His own human mind; we have that measureless honor. We are His members, therefore have a share in His spirit, are therefore His cooperators" (pp.13-14). If you aren't Christian and/or you refuse to listen to any arguments which assume the tenets of the Christian faith are true, then this may not be the book for you. The little sample above gives an idea of Sertillanges' charming prose, and this entire book is full of captivating writing just like it. For some this book will be an edifying one-time read, but for others it can become the cornerstone for a truly fulfilling intellectual life.

A classic text having lost none of its relevance for modern day seekers of Truth

Indispensable for anyone desiring to become a genuine and disciplined scholar; it provides an outstanding roadmap for anyone aspiring to the intellectual life and its mastery. A few of Sertillanges' suggestions are antiquated due to the date of the book's publication. This, however, poses no difficulties for the reader as these patches of "elderly wisdom" are easily updated - substituting the era of the typewriter with the age of digital scholarship. The principles taught in this text remain unchanged over time. After all, it is the task of "one who would know" to refashion the specific, temporal elements of "BEING & DOING" in accordance with the essence and ideals which form the timeless core, indeed the heart, of a life lived in pursuit of the highest things. It is the journey that captivates and grips both spirit and mind with a particular awe; overwhelmingly humbling and dazzling the soul of those who bide the perils of such a life and are rewarded, if they do not succumb to their own pride, with the unexpected, dumbfounding flash of perceiving (or more accurately SEEING) an image, a fleeting shadow of "that which IS" - the act of knowing something for the first time which was not taught to you by another, nor derived as the end product of a line of reasoning.

research as a search for truth

I first read this book as an undergraduate and I have reread it several times over the years. I regard it as one of the most important books that I've read. Why? A. G. Sertillanges does more than provide advice about how to organize your life to have time to think and write, although he does that. He argues that research is a vocation to find the truth -- a great calling no matter how small one's own part. His suggestions for organizing your life follow from the seriousness of this vocation, advice that's far more useful than merely how to get the next paper written.