Head-dibs

Read Seneca's letter on Shared Knowledge here.

"It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows." (Epictetus) Seems we all know that one person who thinks he or she knows everything. The one person who can't be told anything because they seem to already know. A trait mostly found in teenagers, only some never grow out of it. One night we were discussing a movie when a certain person chirped, "Oh, yeah. Seen it a bunch of times already. I know all about it." We looked at each other and wondered out loud, "how? It hasn't even been released yet?" The response? "Well, I just have." That kind of person. There are two kinds of ignorance: there is one who is not-knowing (ἀγνοεῖς--"agnoia"  or "the agnostic") and the one who is not-learning (ἀμαθίᾳ--"amathia"). Here is our person, the know-it-all. The mind that endangers itself. We might better understand if we divide the not-learning ("ignorant," as it wer...

Richard Mant (1776 – 1848) wrote a commentary on the entire Bible and authored at least a couple dozen hymns, even translating some from the Latin for “modern” use. One particular Latin hymn ("Venantius Fortunatus," 569 AD) was paraphrased by Mant into the beautiful hymn, “See the Destined Day Arise:” “See the destined day arise! See a willing sacrifice! Jesus, to redeem our loss, Hangs upon the shameful cross. Jesus, who but Thou had borne, Lifted on that tree of scorn, Every pang and bitter throe, Finishing Thy life of woe? Who but Thou had dared to drain, Steeped in gall, the cup of pain, And with tender body bear Thorns, and nails, and piercing spear? Thence the cleansing water flowed, Mingled from Thy side with blood; Sign to all attesting eyes Of the finished sacrifice. Holy Jesus, grant us peace In that sacrifice to place All our trust for life renewed, Pardoned sin and promised good. Grant us grace to sing to Thee, In the Trinal Unity, Ever with the sons of light, Ble...

Tertullian (160 - 220 A.D.) wrote the following in his "Apology," addressing the ignorance of the Roman authorities behind the unjust persecution of Christians: " We lay this before you as the first ground on which we urge that your hatred to the name of Christian is unjust. And the very reason which seems to excuse this injustice (I mean ignorance) at once aggravates and convicts it. For what is there more unfair than to hate a thing of which you know nothing, even though it deserve to be hated? Hatred is only merited when it is known to be merited. But without that knowledge, whence is its justice to be vindicated? For that is to be proved, not from the mere fact that an aversion exists, but from acquaintance with the subject. When men, then, give way to a dislike simply because they are entirely ignorant of the nature of the thing disliked, why may it not be precisely the very sort of thing they should not dislike? So we maintain that they are both ignorant while they...

In his book "Abide in Christ", Andrew Murray writes: . . . [T]here are a thousand questions that at times come up, and the attempt to answer them becomes a weariness and a burden. It is because you have forgotten you are in Christ, whom God has made to be your wisdom. Let it be your first care to abide in Him in undivided fervent devotion of heart; when the heart and the life are right, rooted in Christ, knowledge will come in such measure as Christ's own wisdom sees meet. And without such abiding in Christ the knowledge does not really profit, but is most often hurtful. The soul satisfies itself with thoughts which are but the forms and image of truth, without receiving the truth itself in its power. God's way is ever first to give us . . . the thing itself, the life and the power and then the knowledge. Man seeks knowledge first, and often, alas, never gets beyond it! God gives us Christ, and in hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. O let us be content to p...