I have been thinking about our trip to Italy a few years back. It was a wonderful trip with the family. We spent about 4 days in Rome, staying at a local apartment in the Monti neighborhood, one of the oldest sections in Rome located a few blocks from the Colosseum. We did the “touristy” things as well as our own travel plans.

So when in Rome… we took a tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine chapel. The artwork was exquisite. I find that only now as I look at interpretations and explanations of what we saw, that I truly appreciate that which I saw.

The Stanza della Segnatura, a room once the papal library, contains frescoes by Raphael. Click here for a link about the room. As the video explains, the room depicts the four branches of human knowledge as classified during the Renaissance time. One wall is dedicated to philosophy and sciences. Across the room another wall is painted representing theology. Poetry and Justice “squaring” out the room on the remaining walls. All four areas complement each other.

I like the symbolism of that. No one discipline is higher over the other but through the balance of all, do humans discover the world around themselves. The theologian Karl Barth is purported to have said, “A preacher needs newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other.” I like Barth’s symbolism of seeing, understanding and interpreting the world around you in light of one’s faith.

In light of the assault on our physical, emotional, financial and spiritual health this virus has taken, perhaps we need to revisit the way we view our human understanding, to look at the way we interpret the world through the eyes of all four branches of human knowledge: Perhaps we should have more faith in the sovereignty of a deity, in unanswered prayer and unexplained miracles and certainly we should have more faith in our scientists and medical personnel who follow-trends, look at data and conduct research. So too, we should have more faith in poetry, literature, art, music and the arts as these disciplines can decipher, explain, and transcend our time and space. Along with those three, perhaps we need more faith and commitment to justice for all. It is in our searching in these disciplines do we uncover Truth.

Over the course of human history we have seen when one discipline of human understanding dominates at the expense of the others. When that happens, we as humans become off-kilter. I think of the Inquisition (theology or rather religion gone totally off-kilter); Nazi Germany (justice dominated- or rather injustice due to the silence of the other disciplines); Fall of Roman Empire leading into the Middle ages (many different reasons but the change in social structure didn’t lend to scientific discoveries); The Lost Generation (putting faith and trust into intellectual creativity). For all of these examples, there was more of an emphasis on one area in decision making for the society than another. There wasn’t any balance of Truth which was deadly at the worst and caused disillusionment at the least.

When I enter the Stanza della Santura I think of God in the center of the ceiling- joining all four walls together. Because I believe that all the disciplines flow out of God’s hands. Human intellect and how we categorize our understanding of the world is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. When He is in the apex all other things are balanced around Him. Then, I think the disciplines can be properly aligned to search for meaning and to uncover the truth.

What about you? Have you ever had a trip that stayed with you? That had you think of life in a different way? Where was it or what was the circumstances? What did you discover? How has that shaped your world view?