The Temptation of being too clever

The persistent temptation of intellectual pursuit is that we become satisfied with being clever instead of living life better. The reason we have been gifted with reason and knowledge is that we may learn to better live and love and experience the abundance of the world we inhabit. Through us the universe has become aware of itself, as we consciously harness the powers of creation to strive ever onward into countless forms of Truth and Goodness and Beauty. Through us God experiences every possible form of life, and gives Godself in love to every particular situation and person, suffering in love with all of our pains, and rejoicing in love with all of our joys. For Christians this is embodied in the One who embodied Divine Logic and Reason in the form of a human servant, that we all might be joined to the Divine Life of God. It is a tragic loss to view the mind as an end in itself, and knowledge as a kind of trophy that sets us apart from others as a source of pride. This disconnects us from the very reason we are gifted with Reason in the first place: For connection, for relationship, for Love.

There is a difference between (a) the aesthetic satisfaction that one's mind gains from the conformity of one's inner self to the objective reality how things really are in the world, (b) the exultation of one's mind and inflating one's sense of worth beyond others for having attained that conformity, especially if that sense of inflated worth in comparison to others leads one to degrade the worth of others accordingly. Which it what a sense of being "too clever by half" is all about. It is a specifically intellectual form of pride that demeans others for not grasping what you have grasped. 

Thus, the proper attitude toward intellectual accomplishment comes from (a) a realistic sense of how that understanding was attained; and (b) a sense of the proper end toward which that understanding ought to be aimed. In reference to (a), we understand by grace, not by effort; Even our ability to put in disciplined effort to understand is because of a prior set of causes (such as nature and nurture) that we had no control over. To this we may add other natural gifts or gifted teachers which we did not control. Thus we are a vessel-- an intellectual vessel-- for grace to flow through. Which leads to (b) the proper end of intellectual achievement. This is largely a meditation on what I wrote above, which could be summed up by simply saying: However we are blessed by Divine grace, that blessing is intended to be used to bless others, not to be hoarded (cf. Phil. 2 and the kenotic purpose of Christ).