The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

Rating:
Summary: research as a search for truth
Review: I first read this book as an undergraduate and I have reread it several times over the years. I regard it as one of the most important books that I've read. Why? A. G. Sertillanges does more than provide advice about how to organize your life to have time to think and write, although he does that. He argues that research is a vocation to find the truth -- a great calling no matter how small one's own part. His suggestions for organizing your life follow from the seriousness of this vocation, advice that's far more useful than merely how to get the next paper written.

Rating:
Summary: Reflective
Review: Originally published in French, the translator tells us in the preface that the book was widely distributed in France. The first chapter of the book, per se establishes the premise that the intellectual life is a calling from God, one that is sacred and to be held as a trust.
In the second chapter there is a section on the spirit of prayer, among other topics.
Chapter three develops the paradox of solitude and involvement with other people. An intellectual, as is the case with other creative individuals, does both.
Work is the topic for chapter four and the contexts include: continuity of work, work at night, mornings and evening, and moments of plenitude.
A creative scholar must be open to insights around him.
"Ideas emerge from facts; they also emerge from conversations, chance occurrences, theatres, visits, strolls, the most ordinary books" (p. 73).
The remainder of the book fleshes out this discussion of intellectual work.
A reader would leave this book a more thoughtful person from having been exposed to these ideas. I recommend spending time with this author.

Rating:
Summary: The Chalange of Christian Academia
Review: Sertillanges delivers the reader a concentraited dose of sound advice on how to understand and obey the call to Christian scholarship. In addition to pragmatic material on life as an Academic, the author unfolds the truth that knowledge is "nothing more than a slow and gradual cure of our blindness." This insightful book is a must read for anyone who is feels a call to excellence in scholarship.

Rating:
Summary: The Chalange of Christian Academia
Review: Sertillanges delivers the reader a concentraited dose of sound advice on how to understand and obey the call to Christian scholarship. In addition to pragmatic material on life as an Academic, the author unfolds the truth that knowledge is "nothing more than a slow and gradual cure of our blindness." This insightful book is a must read for anyone who is feels a call to excellence in scholarship.