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February 17, 2017“Perfection in wisdom!” This was the message of Dr. Timothy Kearns’ lecture during our Cheshire Lecture Series on Liberal Arts or Humanities? Their Differences and Why They Matter: A Thomistic Perspective? this past February 17.
Gathered in our auditorium, we listened as Dr. Kearns explored the differences of between the two. His aim was to help us understand how and what to study in preparation for changing evangelizing culture.
He explained how the Liberal Arts direct and equip man with the skill to achieve human excellence. “What we need to know to become our best is not the facts, but the ability to analyze,” he said. Dr. Kearns’ continued to make clear how through the arts of communication, rhetoric, logic, and arithmetic we are taught how to reason and think critically. In doing so, we are provided with a well-rounded, broader education rather than a specific technical skill. He went on to explain how Humanities is the study of “human past, how people process and record human experience.” Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries. Dr. Kearns concluded by suggesting that although both paths of knowledge are different, they both together lead to the pursuit wisdom in order to fulfill our role as stewards of creation and lead other people to the fount of wisdom who is, ultimately, Christ.