Concerning Wonder
Its Usefulness and Necessity
One might suppose that, when it comes to something as childlike and simple as the experience of wonder, one could easily leave behind such preliminaries of analysis, the defining of terms, and litmus tests of inherent value. The inclination to appreciate moments of surprise and bewilderment without rational discipline seems to me to be both good and correct. However, one of the most helpful things I have learned about myself is that I learn best when my presuppositions and prior categories of “knowledge” are challenged by a reality different than one previously held.
It is something of a Socratic principle that you cannot learn, and thereafter know, if you presume that you know and effectively hinder your ability to learn or acquire knowledge. This refrain is taken up by philosophers since at least the time of Plato and, to be sure, up to at least the seventh century C.E. (as witnessed in the writings of Maximus the Confessor) and beyond. It would also seem to be the epistemic foundation of the scientific method (I am open to correction here, since I am no scientist). Nevertheless, historical precedent aside, our title promises to treat of wonder in its usefulness and necessity. What do I mean by that? Allow me to supply a specific example from my own life, and not speak merely in generalities.
In college I learned in my Church History course about early monasticism and the desert fathers and mothers who flourished between the 3rd – 5th centuries C.E. With the peace of Constantine having taken hold, a select-many Christians felt the church was becoming too wealthy and flooded with crowds of common folk. These radicals left the city churches and fled to the outskirts or actual desert regions to take up their cross and follow Jesus (at least that is a simplified but fairly commonplace description of what took place). Not long after I learned about the development of monasticism, I discovered for myself the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (known as the Apophthegmata: a collection of sayings and stories from the desert communities of early monasticism). Available from Cistercian Publications, translated by Sister Benedicta Ward (SLG), I was able to learn eagerly of the lore of the “athletes of God.” I was enthralled to gobble up this book that could only be read piecemeal by any sane individual. Because the Sayings are so diverse, and many of them profound (although they are organized by alphabetical order of author in this collection), even though they are easy to remember, they are also difficult to digest. The literature of this period and context lends itself to the expectation that one might think and meditate on one saying or sentence for many hours, days, etc. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers are not read quickly like the modern novel.
Now let me come to the point of my illustration. For weeks and months I read and labored in study of these Sayings under the presupposition that this collection of tales was something of a one-off, existing in a historical vacuum. I thought we had little other texts to go on when it came to early monasticism. At least I assumed until larger monasteries were built, and writing and copying became more commonplace for monks (or so I thought). I read the Apophthegmata Patrum as if it were something like the fabled gospel-source ‘Q’ or the sayings-of-Jesus Gospel of Thomas, apart from the canonical Gospels, etc. Imagine my surprise when I learned, slowly but surely, that there was a whole host of texts, writings, and books from the same time period witnessing to the lives and flourishing of the desert fathers and mothers in Egypt and Palestine.
Such a discovery spawned unstoppable curiosity in me. Ever since I learned about the other historical testimonies to and even writings by the desert fathers, I have not been able to stop reading them (for those keeping track at home, it’s been about twenty years, and since the material is spiritually dense, and life gets in the way, I haven’t even come close to perusing it all yet). . . .
Perhaps for some this illustration will not make sense or prove anything. Inasmuch as certitude is the mother of ignorance, I would not put it out of the realm of possibility that others experience the world differently than I have. It is not my business to dogmatize the phenomenon of learning or education. Nevertheless, it has really become a commonplace in my own education that surprise and wonder are the catalysts that have catapulted my curiosity into places of great unknown. For me the ability to wonder is key to observation, and being surprised is an asset to learning and memory.
An appropriate way to conclude a short post like this would be a questions to the reader, such as the following:
What has your education and ability to learn and remember things hinged on, in your own experience and practice? How do you learn best, and what helps you learn most?
Has your own wonder or curiosity ever hindered your ability to learn? If so, how?
What, in your experience, has hindered your own wonder, curiosity, and ability to learn? What dampens or discourages learning?