A “disputed question,” or disputatio, is a form of writing that provides a well-reasoned answer to a wisdom question. Wisdom questions go beyond the acquisition of knowledge by considering how different kinds of knowledge relate to one another and the ultimate purposes for human action. As such, these questions are life-orienting, unavoidable, and practical; our daily actions, or inactions, embody our answers to these questions. The disputatio distills the process by which one comes to take a well-reasoned stand on such questions. The process involves more than simply weighing pros and cons. Nor is it simply the debater’s quest for victory. Rather, the form unfolds, in five stages, the reasoning for the conclusion that one has reached. The first part is a precisely worded “yes or no” question that must be either affirmed or denied (and is often situated in relation to other relevant wisdom questions). This is usually phrased as “whether” (utrum) something is or is not the case. The second part presents the strongest apparent arguments against the position that will ultimately be taken. This begins with the phrase, “It seems not” (videtur quod non). The third part is the sed contra (“but on the contrary”). This is not a refutation but simply an indication that there are opposing appearances that warrant considering the issue further. The fourth part is the respondeo (“I respond”). This is the point at which the author presents not simply one’s position but the reasoning to support the conclusion. The final part of the disputatio is the “replies to the objections.” These listed points are addressed directly to those contrary appearances identified in the videtur quod non section. Each point begins with the Latin word, ad (“to”), and corresponds to each point of apparent objection to your position. This final section aims not only to refute the opposing view but to explain the partial truth that gives rise to the contrary appearance. This is accomplished by explaining the reasons for both one’s own position and the contrary appearances. A well-composed disputatio will put the arguments for the contrary appearances (videtur quod non), those against the ultimate position taken, in the strongest possible terms. Only in the respondeo section does the author of a disputatio speak in one’s own voice.¹

1) Question: Whether (utrum) the manual arts and fine arts are essential to a Christian liberal arts education that aims to prepare students for the activities of work and worship in the age of information.

2) It seems that they are not (videtur quod non) essential because:

a) In the age of information, the verbal and mathematical arts are sufficient for survival. The liberal arts of word and number are adequate to provide gainful employment in a world where most high-paying jobs are part of the information economy.

b) For Christian formation, the verbal and mathematical arts are sufficient for the study of Scripture that enables both saving knowledge of the gospel (justification) and growth in virtue (sanctification). Scripture emphasizes the importance of knowledge and virtue. The saving sufficiency of living trust in Christ’s truth and goodness does not regard his lack of outward beauty (Isaiah 53).

c) Training in either the manual arts or the fine arts is a self-indulgent luxury that the poor cannot afford. Because of the limited opportunity for practicing these arts, such training should not be insisted upon as an essential aspect of a practical Christian liberal arts education.

d) The liberal arts ultimately serve the highest human ends in serving the quest for wisdom. The manual arts are traditionally called “servile” because they serve only instrumental purposes in meeting bodily needs and are not therefore essential to an education that is oriented toward the highest human good.

3) On the contrary (sed contra):

a) Regarding the fine arts, the prologue to John’s gospel explicitly states that the divine beauty, or “glory,” revealed in the Incarnation, is the means by which God’s “grace and truth” are communicated to humans (John 1:14). In this respect, the expression of divine beauty is integral to the gospel’s communication.

b) Regarding the manual arts, the beginning and the ending of both Scripture and salvation history, in Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 22, indicate that the manual arts are integral to the fullness of human flourishing. For example, Genesis 2:15 presents the tending of a garden as a central feature of human vocation before the entrance of evil into human history. Similarly, Revelation 22:2 indicates that the fullness of human communion with God includes both agriculture and medicine.

4) I respond (respondeo):

Embodied apprenticeship in tangible making—whether in the manual arts or the fine arts—is essential for the kind of Christian grammatical formation that is the foundation for all the liberal arts and is a precondition for Christian prayer and charity.² The experience of tangible making compels learners to reckon with a reality that is outside themselves. As such, experience in these activities does two things: 1) it mimics the Incarnation of the divine Logos; 2) it trains the power of attention (Greek: thumos; Latin: cor) which is the locus of friendship, courage, and charity.

With respect to the first issue, post-industrial conditions of production systematically obscure how artifacts are made.³ We now find it unusual to witness the process by which most of our consumer goods are made—the action by which form is communicated to matter. In most cases today, the making of tangible artifacts has been delegated to algorithmic systems that may be understood entirely by no human in particular. The effect of this is the de-skilling of workers.⁴ Nevertheless, because people are made in t he image of an Incarnate maker, humans persist in the manual arts, even when, for example, there is no economic benefit in making your own furniture, or socks, or music. People continue to do these things because we are made in the image of an Incarnate divine Word. This results in a situation where now the liberal arts and manual arts have, in effect, exchanged social functions, so that manual arts are now pursued as leisure activities. Whether we consider either the manual arts or the fine arts, the crucial issue is that they involve tangible making and, as such, express an aspect of the divine image that consumer culture amputates from our experience.

With respect to the second issue, both the fine arts and the manual arts involve a process of grappling with a reality that is outside oneself. As such, the very process of learning, for example, how to play a musical instrument or why a given piece of wood is or is not adequate to a given purpose requires cultivating powers of attention—the ability to attend and give due regard (honor) to what is not you. Traditionally, this power of attention is the locus of friendship and courage, while its corruption could be manifest in either pride or pusillanimity. Similarly, one can pray to God or love one’s neighbor only to the extent that one can attend to reality that is outside the self. In a digital culture, however, this power is corrupted through our dopamine addiction to distraction—with the expected result of increased isolation and enslavement to fear, not to mention prayerlessness and enmity. By contrast, an apprenticeship in the manual arts or the fine arts provides a crucial antidote to the digital corruption of this power of attention.

In practice, all of the liberal arts depend on the basic grammatical relationship between words and reality. In The Lost Seeds of Learning, I explain that grammar is fundamentally about how to use words in order “to make faithful and appropriate” “renderings of reality."⁵ Whether you consider the names that we call numbers or the ability to persuade other people, our practice of the liberal arts will be effective only to the extent that we grasp how, or even whether, our words gesture to any reality beyond themselves. The corruption of our attention is a corruption of our ability to attend to the realities to which our words gesture. As a result, an apprenticeship in tangible making is essential for a Christian liberal arts education in a digital culture. Without such formation, a liberal arts education is in danger of inducing either self-serving egoism or tyrannical self-projection incapable of giving due regard to any reality outside the self.

5) Replies to objections:

Ad a): Contemporary culture is confused about “practicality” in two ways: 1) we often presume that practicality reduces to money-making; 2) we often presume that all goods are instrumental goods—that there are no entities or actions that are ends in themselves. Survival is a necessary but not sufficient condition for mortal human happiness. Even in regard to employment, the post-digital de-skilling of white-collar jobs means that manual trades will, in fact, be a more reliable source of income.⁶ Beyond that, no matter how a person makes a living, there remains the question of what one is living for—the intrinsic, rather than instrumental, purpose of one’s life. Such wisdom-seeking can be undertaken successfully only to the degree that one learns to reckon with a reality greater than the self.

Ad b): In a digital culture, an education that is limited to the mathematical and verbal arts will often be missing the fundamental connection between the digital signs (whether words, lines, or numbers) and the realities to which they gesture. Although the Incarnate Christ did not have outward beauty (Isaiah 53:2), his life reveals an even greater beauty (glory) that draws people to his grace and truth (John 1:14). Truth and goodness are fulfilled in human life only to the extent that one rightly loves their unity in the person of Christ and fulfills the obligation to love one’s neighbor. In this respect, tangible making is essential in a digital culture for inducing the preconditions for loving God and neighbor.

Ad c): The inability to distinguish between decadent luxury and self-giving beauty is characteristic of our culture. Discernment is indeed required to implement the arts of tangible making in a manner that does not merely inculcate addiction to luxury. Christian educators and schools need to ensure that each student is given some apprenticeship in tangible making and that the experience of beauty is fundamentally connected to God’s self-giving love, rather than the exploitation of neighbors that is characteristic of luxury.

Ad d): Because of the Incarnation, some apprenticeship in tangible making is essential to any Christian education. The seeking of wisdom requires attention to reality. For those living in a digital culture, the liberal arts will serve such wisdom-seeking, regarding the highest purposes beyond mere survival, only to the extent that an apprenticeship in tangible making trains students to give due regard to reality outside themselves.

Notes:

(1) This account of wisdom questions and the role of the disputatio in addressing such questions is indebted to many conversations with Todd Buras in the context of educator seminars that we have led together. We are grateful for the support of Baylor University and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in making those seminars possible.

(2) I use the term “tangible making” to indicate a category that includes both the manual arts and the fine arts. In doing so, I follow the account of such making provided by St. Bonaventure in De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam. For a fuller account of the key concepts and arguments used here, see Phillip J. Donnelly, “Bonaventure on the Arts: Toward a Theology of Verbal Poiesis,” in Art Seeking Understanding, eds. David Lyle Jeffrey and Robert C. Roberts (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2024), 55-74.

(3) I use the term “manual arts” rather than “mechanical arts” because much of contemporary engineering 14 activity is actually a liberal art, insofar as it consists primarily of the use of digital signs (whether words, numbers, lines, or other codes) rather than knowledge of tangible making.

(4) For an account of how this de-skilling happened in the manual arts and is now happening in the arts of number and discourse, see Matthew B. Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work (New York: Penguin, 2009).

(5) Phillip J. Donnelly, The Lost Seeds of Learning: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric as Life-Giving Arts (Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press, 2021), 55.

(6) Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft, 11-36; 126-60. 

Phillip J. Donnelly, PhD, is Professor of Literature for the Great Texts Program in the Honors College at Baylor University. He is the author of The Lost Seeds of Learning: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric as Life-Giving Arts.

Phillip J. Donnelly, PhD

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