Relationship Between The Self And Wisdom Essay Example

Relationship Between The Self And Wisdom Essay Example Relationship Between The Self And Wisdom Essay Relationship Between The Self And Wisdom Essay Essay Topic: Notre Dame We have before us an account of reason, knowledge, wisdom and autonomy connected within the circle of self. In solidifying the relationship between self and wisdom, the need to expand the loop of self to include others is of interest.   The amalgamation of others into the loop of acceptance and preference depends on the relationship between ourselves and others and gives rise to a tacit wisdom. To understand the combination of these three essential concerns, we must be able to understand and recognize the relations, especially those that lead to our acceptance and preference for what others accept and prefer and their reciprocation.Concern with the self alone can seem simply out of place for most today. Meditation, enlightenment and contemplation suggest an inward turn in which, for a time at least, one attends to a higher being therefore to ones own relation to a higher calling in such a way as to become intensely conscious of ones self in trying to reach out to wisdom. Such a con centration on self can seem to mean forgetting the real problems of the world, an escape into isolation or introversion. (Carr, 1989, p2)The self in concert with wisdom embraces a system of being collectively functional within society. However the wisdom within one’s self is ultimately ‘resurrected,’ as depicted in an almost ‘mystical’ element in the quest for wisdom, for it is a creation that knows of a transcendent light and thrives upon its wisdom, and it can retain stability and mature within the emotional intensity of relationship between the self and wisdom. Thus, the self of transformation is embodied in living and thriving not only through the spirit but also through the desire of life.Formally wisdom alone consisted of proverbial sentence or instruction, debate, or intellectual reflection. Thematically, wisdom comprises self defining intuitions about mastering life for human enhancement.   â€Å"Groping after lifes secrets with regard to innocent suffering, grappling with finitude, and quest for truth concealed in the created order.† (Perdue et al, 1993, p169)Today, as new many experience a new and heightened sense of social and political responsibility, a deep spiritual desire pervades contemporary sensibilities to acquire the two issue of concern as well. Many people have turned inward in search of an integrating center within the self that can unite committed work in their own world with a deep and focused interior sense of self, incorporating not only relationship to with wisdom but to others as well.In religious terms, the self is at once metaphysically distinct from God and yet perfectly identified with that self by love and freedom, so that there appears to be but one self. Transcendent experience in this sense is the illumination of wisdom.   In this experience, one somehow enters the reality of things, knows the meaning of ones own transient existence, and relates to all in a sense of obtained wisdo m. â€Å"Part of its fruitfulness for me has been that it acts as a check on theologys being too doctrine-centered, and not taking account of the imaginative and the practical.† (Cunningham, 2003, p30)   In finality, the tradition of wisdom represents the self critical side of the Human existence. Hence an acceptable and recognizable model is for what man consciously strives daily to keep in harmony.   Wisdom and the relationship of self demands integration of rigorous thought with imagination and also practical concerns.Anne E. Carr, 1989 A Search for Wisdom and Spirit: Thomas Mertons Theology of the Self. Publisher: Notre Dame University Press. Place of Publication: Notre Dame, IN. Page Number: 2.Leo G. Perdue, Bernard Brandon Scott, William Johnston Wiseman, 1993 In Search of Wisdom: Essays in Memory of John G. Gammie.. Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press. Place of Publication: Louisville, KY. Page Number: 169.David S. Cunningham, May 3, 2003 Article Title: The Way of Wisdom. Magazine Title: The Christian Century. Volume: 120. Issue: 9. Publication Date: Page Number: 30+.