Of course, I have to begin this post with the acknowledgement that I am an ignorant man.
Having gotten that out of the way, I want to spend just a few moments
on the benefits of ignorance. Several years ago I was blessed to have a
conversation with Fr. Thomas Hopko while we waited in line to greet the
new Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America. Fr. Thomas is the
retired Professor of Dogmatic Theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox
Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY. He has taught a generation of
priests.
Our conversation turned to writing. My comment came from my
reflection on the experience of writing this blog. I noted that the more
I write, the less I seem to know. Part of this realization flows from
the fact that I try to restrict my writing to those topics of which I
have some knowledge (experience). His smiling response came immediately:
“Someday you won’t know anything and then you’ll be holy!”
It was not entirely spoken in jest. There are many forms of knowledge
– or many kinds of knowing which our limited language describes as
“knowledge.” For Christians the most dangerous form of knowledge is that
which we simply acquire through reading and study. It is largely just
information. Of course, if you have enough information you can manage
the illusion of actual knowledge.
I know a lot of numbers, but I am not a mathematician. I have met
mathematicians. Most of what they know is not about numbers – strangely.
There is no great sin in ignorance – or at least there is far less
sin in ignorance than in knowledge. The simple truth is that we will not
know anything of value until we first know that we do not know. In the
competitive world of American Christianity, this is hard. It is not hard
for ignorant people to argue – but it is very hard to argue while at
the same time admitting that you are ignorant.
This ignorant man has spent a lot of years acquiring “knowledge”
(falsely so-called). Knowledge of the sort that is readily available is
not at all the same thing as knowing God – the only knowledge that has
worth (though every true form of knowledge flows from that single
knowledge). Somewhere in the course of my life I came to the place of
spiritual exhaustion – I wanted to know God badly enough that I didn’t
want to know something else in His place. So I became an ignorant man.
Today I know very few things. And though I write almost every day –
if you go back and read what I have written you will see that I know
very little. I say many of the same things to different questions, for
they are the answers I know.
Thus when I wrote a while back that I had never seen a case of
righteous anger – I did not mean to say there was no such thing, only
that I’ve not seen it in 57 years of life. I have seen anger that would
seem well justified (the anger a husband has over the senseless murder
of his wife). But I have seen the same anger kill the man who bore it.
I was born into an angry world. “Jim Crow” South was full of anger.
Whites were angry at Blacks and Blacks were angry at Whites. We were
angry at Communism. We were angry about the Civil War. We were angry at
poverty (especially our own). Others were angry at those who were angry
and the injustice of the entire system.
I remember an Abbot, a friend now deceased, who said that after the
Vietnam War many young people came to the monastery – ”They were so
angry about peace,” he observed.
I served as an Anglican priest while the Episcopal Church inexorably
jettisoned its traditional doctrine. I was consumed with anger. My anger
did not save that Church and did me (and likely many others) great
harm.
It is not just anger that works in such a fashion. Any of the
passions could be chosen. An ignorant man is frequently on the losing
end of battles with the passions. It is therefore important for an
ignorant man to be aware of his ignorance. Can such an ignorant man
argue theology? Not to any benefit.
The great good news is that Christ came to save ignorant men. We are
easier to save if we admit our ignorance up front. Our opinions are so
much dead weight. I know very little of God. I know that He is good –
beyond any grasp of my knowing. I know that He loves in the unfathomable
measure of the good God entering Hell in order to bring us out.
I have been in several versions of hell and rescued numerous times.
Ignorant men are always getting themselves into stupid, dark places.
That God is good, that He loves us without measure, that He will go
to any lengths to rescue us – I know a little about these things, though
even of these things I am mostly ignorant. But I will not tire of
speaking this good news. Ignorant men everywhere may be glad to hear it.
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