Zeal Without Knowledge

Abstract

This talk was given on request as part of the celebration of Academic Emphasis Week. Once a year, for a whole week, our students are free to turn their minds to things of an intellectual nature without shame or embarrassment. After this cerebral saturnalia, the young people mostly return to their normal patterns: concealing the neglect of hard scholarship by the claim to spirituality and strict standards of dress and grooming. Yet from time to time a student will confess to wayward twinges of thought and find himself wondering, "If 'The Glory of God Is Intelligence' (our school motto) might there not be some possible connection between intelligence and spirituality?" Under temporary license from the Academics Committee, we have presumed to touch upon this sensitive theme.