THE LIFE OF THE MIND: on the joys and travails of thinking

by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

ISI Books, 2006

250 pages, $25

To order: (800) 526-7022

isi.org/books

“Tell me what you read and I will tell you what you are.” So states Jesuit Father James Schall, longtime professor of political philosophy at Georgetown and one of the finest essayists writing today. His latest book is a series of interrelated essays that explain and reflect, with intellectual depth and warm wit, on what the priest has read, what he thinks about and who he is.

In the hands of a lesser thinker, such an endeavor might have tended toward self-indulgence. But Father Schall, a lover of the “permanent things,” always points beyond himself.

“The life of the mind is indeed concerned with distinguishing lies from truth, error from reason,” he writes. “We want to know these things — what is truth? what is error? what is reasonable? what is a lie? — for their own sakes, because the activity of knowing these things is our life; it is our mind.”

Although he readily acknowledges (and occasionally criticizes) the influence of television and the Internet, Father Schall insists that books should maintain their venerable but increasingly undermined place. “We need to surround ourselves with books,” he insists, “because we are and ought to be curious about reality.”

The breadth and depth of Father Schall’s reading and study is impressive, if not intimidating. But his writing is learned without being stuffy; you never get the sense that he’s dropping names to impress. He’s simply taken up with the joy of discovery and wants to share the wealth.

Some favorites make regular appearances: Jesus, Aristotle, Chesterton, Augustine, Socrates, Samuel Johnson, Plato and various Scripture writers. Even the characters of Charles Schulz’ Peanuts are called upon to demonstrate points, as when he solicits Schroeder and Lucy in a discussion about music, beauty, and the question of “what is?”

Many of the essays focus on Father Schall’s intellectual relationship with a particular book or thinker. In “Books and the Intellectual Life,” he reflects on how often James Boswell’s biography of Samuel Johnson has challenged and delighted him for many decades. “The Metaphysics of Walking” is about Hilaire Belloc’s fight against rationalism and skepticism. And Plato’s Republic — a Schall favorite — is featured in several chapters.

Finally, there are three appendices: an interview about education and knowledge, a piece on “Reading for Clerics,” and a staple of the lifelong book lover: a book list: “Twenty books that awaken the mind.” It comes as a surprise, then, to learn that Father Schall “was not much read to or exposed to books” as a child, and that he didn’t begin a serious reading habit until he entered the Jesuit order at the age of 20.

On one level, The Life of the Mind is a sort of intellectual memoir, a warm invitation to walk alongside a holy priest and wise professor. On another, it is a firm and clear-eyed challenge to think — and to think well — about the great questions: Who am I? Who is God? What is reality? What is good?

Father Schall has no illusions about the weaknesses of man. He knows that we often choose “not to know what is because we do not want to know where such knowledge might lead us.” It is our good fortune that a teacher of his caliber and character is willing to hear and follow the call of that knowledge — which leads, ultimately, to the author of truth and the creator of the mind.

Carl E. Olson is editor of

IgnatiusInsight.com.