Outlining "The Intellectual Life" of A.D. Sertillanges, O.P.
In this section, I break down the parts of a highly influential if now forgotten book "The Intellectual Life" by the Dominican priest and theological scholar A.D. Sertillanges.
My intellectual focus is theological semiotics--- specifically, sign systems in general and topoi/commonplaces in particular as a pedagogical reality of meaningful inter-generational exchanges in the shaping of theology (esp. for transmitting and developing doctrine)--- and how it can assist a self-awareness about appeals to tradition (and the limits of such appeals) through ecclesiastical, social, and natural history. I do so with the hope of encouraging liturgical enracinement for Christian families and clergy during the postliberal apocalypse. If "meaning is use" (and the effective transfer of tradition is tied to enduring practices and settings), then the context of practice certainly does matter in telling the cultural History of Christianity.
That said, I am very frightened of becoming hyperspecialized...and too strange for my fellow man. This is because weirdness is given value for its own sake, so much so that it has been commodified. It is my opinion that most people are only superficially weird. I fear delving too far into my curiosities and becoming truly strange as in the sense of being estranged from humanity. Every form of solitude that I have the luxury of enjoying is meant for my return to everyone else.
The broadening of the intellect and, more importantly, the cultivation of intellectual habits then to aid in the moral and spiritual life are what interest me most of all.
To this end, I turn to the Great Tradition as well as the renaissance of Christian Paideia as aids to this end of not simply knowing my world but loving what God intends of it.
Above all, I see this book as a "must" for Catholic families who want to prepare themselves as pedagogues to teach their own children in a holistic fashion.
That is why I have provided an outline of its major parts along with its greatest maxims and reflections.