Dialectic might better be translated as 'logic', 'paper logic', or 'dialectic disputation'. I think Ambrose's point here, as Newman suggests, is that all the logic in the world can't bring one to true knowledge, that is, knowledge guided by the wisdom of faith.
As Newman writes, "And then I felt altogether the force of the maxim of St. Ambrose, 'Non in dialecticâ complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum;'—I had a great dislike of paper logic. For myself, it was not logic that carried me on; as well might one say that the quicksilver in the barometer changes the weather. It is the concrete being that reasons; pass a number of years, and I find my mind in a new place; how? the whole man moves; paper logic is but the record of it."
"Non in dialectica complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum."
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteor
ReplyDelete"God has not deigned to save His people by means of dialectic."
or "God has not deigned to save His people by means of dialectic."
ReplyDeleteDialectic might better be translated as 'logic', 'paper logic', or 'dialectic disputation'. I think Ambrose's point here, as Newman suggests, is that all the logic in the world can't bring one to true knowledge, that is, knowledge guided by the wisdom of faith.
ReplyDeleteAs Newman writes, "And then I felt altogether the force of the maxim of St. Ambrose, 'Non in dialecticâ complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum;'—I had a great dislike of paper logic. For myself, it was not logic that carried me on; as well might one say that the quicksilver in the barometer changes the weather. It is the concrete being that reasons; pass a number of years, and I find my mind in a new place; how? the whole man moves; paper logic is but the record of it."
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/apologia/part6-1.html