<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his October 22nd blog article, \u201cLifelong Learning\u201d, Bruce McMenomy asked: \u201cWhat does real lifelong learning look like when no one else is looking?\u201d In answer he wrote: \u201cI would say that the chief identifying characteristic is probably humility, a posture of respect for and submission to the truth. Genuine lifelong learning prioritizes the truth above anything having to do with oneself; it requires modesty about one\u2019s own achievements, coupled with a fierce unwillingness to settle for a cheap simulacrum of learning for the sake of appearances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the religious order to which I belong, the Order of Preachers \u2013 or more familiarly known as \u201cthe Dominicans\u201d \u2013 lifelong learning is a spiritual discipline enjoined on all the friars. Our motto is \u201cVeritas\u201d, Truth, and we certainly agree with Dr. McMenomy that lifelong learning\u2019s chief characteristic is humble submission to the truth. But with the Dominicans, a commitment to lifelong study has more to do with our usefulness to others than with \u201cself-improvement\u201d. It was contact with a civilization-killing heresy that spurred St. Dominic to found an Order with a universal license to preach the Gospel for the purpose of winning people over to the beauty of what is actually the case. For a Dominican friar to be thus useful in actuality entails the discipline both of continuous study over a lifetime as well as a radical submission to whatever proves true. In addition, yet another desirous quality for success in our stated purpose of preaching for the salvation of souls is the ability to take each individual seriously as an individual. This is commonly spoken of as \u201ctaking people where they are at\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the favorite stories Dominicans like to tell about our founder relates an incident that occurred when he first accompanied his Bishop, Diego, in a preaching mission to reclaim southern France from the Albigensian heresy. They stopped at an inn where the proprietor was himself an Albigensian. While the bishop went to bed for some well-deserved sleep, his canon Dominic stayed up all night discussing their opposing doctrines. By dawn the innkeeper was convinced of the truth of the apostolic faith and renounced his Albigensian errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The virtue of humility gets a bad rap in our society, and humility before the truth, sadly, has few if any celebrity models. But consider the question, \u201cWho is the real hero in Tolkien\u2019s The Lord of the Rings?\u201d Tolkien himself would have replied: Sam. At first he just seems to provide comic relief. But without his steadfast and determined loving friendship for Frodo, they would never have made it to Mt. Doom, Aragorn would never have taken up the kingship, and Middle Earth would not have gained freedom from Sauron\u2019s evil \u2014 and far from humble \u2014 designs. True humility means acting out of an accurate assessment of who you are, neither inflated with pride nor oppressed by depression. With respect to humility before the truth, it means having an accurate assessment of what you actually know and the boundaries of your own ignorance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his October 22nd blog article, \u201cLifelong Learning\u201d, Bruce McMenomy asked: \u201cWhat does real lifelong learning look like when no one else is looking?\u201d In answer he wrote: \u201cI would say that the chief identifying characteristic is probably humility, a posture of respect for and submission to the truth. Genuine lifelong learning prioritizes the truth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22095,"featured_media":1048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,58,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-formation","category-community","category-edu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22095"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}