"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! ip. apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" Such are the enraptured words of Shakespeare on God's noblest creature. Yet, we know that man is finite, that he can be perfect only insomuch as he approaches the image of the Creator. Of all the God-given powers of man, that which comes nearest to the Divine is the faculty of understanding. It is understanding that, as a property of his immortal soul makes man what he is, that distinguishes him from the brute creation.
The term understanding has a broad range of meaning. In its wider sense it signifies the use of the intellectual faculty, or the sum of mental powers by which knowledge is acquired and retained. It is further defined as the power to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and to adapt means to an end. Again, in its wider acceptation it is the entire power of perception, the power of perceiving and conceiving ideas,' their signification, and relation to other ideas, while, specifically,
All CSB & SJU papers; All SJU & Joint papers: The Record, 1888-current
Title (i.e. issue date)
09-30-1915
Tag1
20080630a
Transcript
Vol. XXVIII
OCTOBER 1915
Number 8
THE GODLIKE FACULTY
"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! ip. apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" Such are the enraptured words of Shakespeare on God's noblest creature. Yet, we know that man is finite, that he can be perfect only insomuch as he approaches the image of the Creator. Of all the God-given powers of man, that which comes nearest to the Divine is the faculty of understanding. It is understanding that, as a property of his immortal soul makes man what he is, that distinguishes him from the brute creation.
The term understanding has a broad range of meaning. In its wider sense it signifies the use of the intellectual faculty, or the sum of mental powers by which knowledge is acquired and retained. It is further defined as the power to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and to adapt means to an end. Again, in its wider acceptation it is the entire power of perception, the power of perceiving and conceiving ideas,' their signification, and relation to other ideas, while, specifically,
