Originally published at The Catholic Thing
“Study,” says St. Thomas, “implies the vehement application of the mind to something” (ST II-II, 166, 1). Nothing easy about study apparently; no curling up in an easy chair with a cup of coffee simply taking it in.
Moreover, this Doctor of the Church says, although study itself is good, incidentally it easily leads to sin, as:
when “one takes pride in knowing the truth,” or “when a man desires to know the truth about creatures, without referring his knowledge to its due end, namely, knowledge of God,” or “when a man studies to know the truth above the capacity of his own intelligence, since by doing so men easily fall into error.” (167, 1).
This last sin is a kind of recklessness – by not knowing your own limits, you place yourself in situations where you can’t but formulate false views, liable to lead others astray also.
A striking corollary of these assertions is that, simply by the nature of the case, atheists can hardly avoid at least material sin when they study. Also, for a Christian there is a burden of proof against studying under non-Christians. Also, how could a Christian practically speaking avoid sin except
