Human innovation, if the last 200 years are any indication, appears limitless. The slow ascent of technological progress has soared exponentially upward. We could only have produced such amazing results because of our infinite capacity for curiosity about the world around us.

If this is true, then why could Thomas Aquinas, widely acknowledged both inside and outside Christian history for his intellect, call curiosity a sin?

The answer requires some clarifications and distinctions that get lost in translation.

In the second part of his massive “Summa Theologiae,” Aquinas examines the virtues and vices of human actions. As subcategories of the virtue of temperance, we find the virtue of studiousness and its converse, the vice of curiosity.

Desire for Knowledge Can Be Sinful

Knowledge is our participation in truth, sought by both curiosity and studiousness. However, although knowledge itself is good, the desire to pursue knowledge can be motivated by evil. For example, one can seek knowledge of something in order to use that knowledge to sin.

Knowledge can also be used for evil when it serves as a distraction from one’s responsibilities. While an internet rabbit hole seems like a harmless distraction, add up the time indulged in this distraction and imagine how that time could have been better spent. We’ve all lamented the lost hour of scrolling after it was too late.

One could also seek knowledge from inappropriate sources. Aquinas uses the conjuring of spirits as an example, but you can imagine any number of unsavory sources of natural forbidden knowledge where one can look. Finally, desire for knowledge could be inappropriate for the current stage of one’s life. As an example, imagine a six-year-old pursuing experiential knowledge of driving a car.

Effect of Knowledge

The motivation for seeking knowledge can be sinful, but so can its effect. As a result of knowledge, one can develop a sense of sinful pride over others. This can happen when one turns knowledge itself into a sort of idol. Studying God’s creation should point us closer to God; the problem arises when one sees knowledge of created things, which are a means to the ultimate end of knowledge of their Creator, as ends in themselves.

In his second article on the topic, Aquinas also points out that knowledge is not just intellectual, but sensitive, or relating to the senses. Our minds engage in the act of thinking, but gain data through the body, which can be a slippery slope to sin. First, sensitive knowledge can distract us from higher, more important things and distract from necessary responsibilities. Sensitive knowledge can also be a temptation toward sin, as the body can tempt one toward lust.

This does not make the body itself bad, nor does it make the desire to “know” it inherently bad. Just as intellectual knowledge itself is not bad, but can be sinful or produce sinful effects, so too with sensitive knowledge.

Knowledge in Place of the Knower

While it might seem silly to imagine seeking knowledge as an obstacle to God, the obstacle is found in excessive fascination, even obsession, with “lesser” things at the expense of greater things. Why is the “mad scientist” archetype still a believable premise in science fiction stories? Why is breaking free from simply “observing the world” to actually living in it a common theme in popular culture? These are examples of the sin of curiositas.

The primary cause of our confusion about the sin of curiosity appears to be linguistic. Colloquially, studiousness and curiosity refer now to the intensity with which someone seeks knowledge. Curiosity is a passing intellectual whim. Studiousness means really hitting the books. However, this difference is only one of quantity, but to really understand two different ideas one has to look for a difference in quality.

Language is always evolving. This is not a problem. What is lost, unfortunately however, is the sense of responsibility we should have when pursuing knowledge. Truth is always good and the objective pursuit of it is noble, albeit complicated. Fortunately, Aquinas, and the clarity he provides through his own noble pursuit of the highest truths, gives some direction.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image credit: Flickr-Rafael Anderson Gonzales Mendoza, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0