The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

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Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought offers a passionate and powerful defense of pure intellectualism and the intrinsic value of the intellectual life."—Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed

As for some disadvantages of the book, there are two. First, he offers some outmoded, old-fashioned advices that were practical for the 1900’s, but not the 21st century today. For instance, he says to study Aquinas in Latin, but the average person does not know Latin, nor do they even care about studying it. Most don’t even know about Thomas Aquinas for that matter, and even if they did, they may not want to read his works. Another outmoded advice he offers is for us to gag the newspapers since it distracts us the most. Since much news is seen also through our smart phones, as well as television and Youtube, gagging the newspapers doesn’t seem to be that ideal. Secondly, his advices seem a bit redundant throughout most of the chapters. For instance, he may say that we must not be lazy, but he repeats this throughout his whole book. You will often see him retorting the same thing in different ways with various analogies that talk about the same things repeated from chapter one.An inspirational attestation of the ability of intellectual activity to dignify oppressed lives. . . . Much of this book is beautiful."—Sophie Duncan, Literary Review

Every woman should espouse the career of her husband; the father’s toil is always the center of gravity of the family. In that is productive life, and therefore also essential duty. And this is all the truer as the career embraced is nobler and more laborious. In such a case life in common centers round something very lofty; the wife should take her stand on its height, instead of trying to draw the man’s thought down from it. If you want to have a mind that is open, clear, really strong, mistrust your specialty in the beginning. Lay your foundations according to the height that you aim to reach; broaden the opening of the excavation according to the depth it has to reach…. A specialist, if he is not a man, is a mere quill-driver; his egregious ignorance makes him like a lost wanderer among men; he is unadapted, abnormal, a fool. The intellectual Catholic will not copy such a model (103).Lost in Thought [is] a persuasive defense of learning and intellectual life . . . Hitz’s breadth of knowledge is on display."—Aurelian Craiutu, Los Angeles Review of Books Being a McLuhan-fan, I was astounded by what seemed like direct quotes from McLuhan (of course, it would have been the other way around) in this book. Sertillanges says that “God is a radiant center from which all points on the circumference of time are at an equal distance.” Did McLuhan see Acoustic space as GOD?…is that why he converted to Catholicism, devout Catholicism? More study will have to be done! At least I have a good plan to do that now... As the above quote reveals, Sertillanges sees the intellectual life as essentially a vocation, and in the most spiritual sense of the word. It is, as he says, “a sacred call.” Thus, it is not for everyone, in the same way that a vocation to the religious life is not for all Christians. It is, of course, an obligation for every human being to develop his intellectual life, since the intellect is at the heart of our being, and our job in life is, if nothing else, the care of the soul. Yet the special calling to the intellectual life is distinct from the universal call to soul-craft, just as the call to the religious is distinct from the universal call to holiness. Moreover, it is, like the religious life, only for an elite few: As for the critical evaluation of the book, there are some positive advantages this book contains. First, it includes great, practical advice. For instance, when he speaks of guarding your valuable study time, and not letting anything interfere with it, it reminds a person to guard one’s study time, and think of it as precious. Second, he has great metaphors/analogies to explain his points. One example I can think of is how he calls studying the “prayer for truth.” Lastly, an advantage this book contains is that it is easy to read. The words are comprehensible, his sentences are well-written, and the vocabulary is not too difficult to comprehend.