The Wise and the Dull

Admonition 7. The wise of this world are to be admonished in one way, and the dull in another. The wise are to be admonished to give up knowing what they know; the dull are to be admonished to seek to know what they do not know. In the wise, the first thing to be thrown down is this: that they think themselves wise. In the dull, whatever is already known of heavenly wisdom is to be built up; for since they are not proud at all, they have, so to speak, prepared their hearts to support a building. With the wise we should work to make them more wisely foolish, so that they leave behind their foolish wisdom and learn the wise foolishness of God. To the dull we should preach that they pass from what is counted foolishness to true wisdom, as from a place that already lies close to it. For to the first it is said, “If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, so that he may be wise.” But to the second it is said, “Not many wise men according to the flesh,” and again, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame.” The wise are for the most part won over by reasoned argument; the dull are sometimes won better by examples. The wise, no doubt, profit from being left defeated by their own arguments; for the dull it is sometimes enough to learn of the praiseworthy deeds of others. [b]

That is why, when the excellent teacher, who was a debtor to the wise and to the foolish, was admonishing Hebrews of whom some were wise and some rather slow, and was speaking to them of the fulfillment of the Old Testament, he overcame the wisdom of the wise by argument, saying, “What is decaying and growing old is ready to vanish away.” But when he saw that some could be drawn only by examples, he added in the same letter, “The saints were tested by mocking and flogging, and even by chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword.” And again: “Remember those who were set over you, who spoke the word of God to you. Follow their faith, looking at the outcome of their way of life.” He did this so that victorious reason might subdue the one kind, while the gentle force of example might persuade the other to climb to greater things.