Wonder finds itself in odd and serendipitous places. In an excerpt from an interview found in the Winter 2022 issue of Rattle (a quarterly devoted to poetry) the conversation takes “a deep dive into the divided brain” with psychiatrist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist, who explains the role the two hemispheres of the brain, with their completely unique perspectives on the world, and play in creativity. They also discuss how the modern world has come to be dominated by the left hemisphere’s narrow focus and how poetry is on antidote to “the matter with things.”

At one point McGilchrist responds to the question, “how much of creativity is getting back to that childlike state of wonder? Suddenly the conversation shifts from the science and the search for all things understandable – to kneeling at the altar of what cannot be known:

I think one does have to rediscover that sense of wonder. In fact, all one’s life one needs to try and recover a sense of awe and wonder which one had earlier in life, and feeble attempts to understand the world, which we idolize and think are so clever, drive out the more astute wisdom of the one who is simply awestruck…

I sometimes distinguish between a kind of unknowing and ignorance: Ignorance is what you have before you know anything, then you start knowing stuff, and finally you need to come out the other side of knowing with a kind unknowing which is worth all that knowing and more.

It’s slightly like how the innocence of a saint is not the innocence of a child. You have to go through the experience of being an adult in the everyday world, and then, if you’re lucky, be able to recover that very special innocence.

The Worshipful Awe of the Lord is the Beginning

Scripture is replete with “the more astute wisdom of the one who is simply awestruck”. What is often translated as “the fear of the Lord” in the Bible may be better understood as worshipful awe, holy dread, or radical amazement. Scripture repeats this is “the beginning of wisdom” – the true starting point of becoming wise – a wisdom characterized by humility, teachability, and yes, worshipful awe.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it this way:

Awareness of the divine begins with wonder… Wonder or radical amazement is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.

This stands in contrast to the brash judgementalism of those who insist on locking down and separating every strand of nuance. In the way that materialists must kill to dissect its field of study, there is a kind of religiosity that kills what it dissects of the spiritual life. But in fact it is no longer life, no longer living, and no longer spiritual.

Therefore, this Lent let me encourage us to turn our attention to the passion of the Christ, to contemplate His life, death, and resurrection, and to rediscover a sense of wonder found in the person of Jesus. As the writer of Proverbs encourages:

Turn your ear to wisdom
    and apply your heart to understanding—
indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

Let’s begin…