"If God be God and man a creature made in image of the divine intelligence, his noblest function is the search for truth"
About this Quote
West builds a conditional creed that sounds pious on the surface but smuggles in something quietly subversive: faith, if it means anything, must authorize inquiry rather than obedience. The opening "If" matters. He doesn’t thunder from certainty; he drafts a contract. If God is truly God, and if humans really bear that "image" everyone likes to invoke, then the religious life can’t climax in submission to slogans. It has to climax in thinking.
The phrase "divine intelligence" is doing cultural work. West isn’t picturing God primarily as a monarch or judge but as mind. That reframes theology as epistemology: the sacred is associated with understanding, not tribal loyalty. By calling truth-seeking man’s "noblest function", he elevates the act of questioning to a moral vocation. Not a hobby for skeptics, not an indulgence for academics; a duty tied to human dignity.
Contextually, West wrote in a century when institutional religion was forced to negotiate modern science, totalitarian propaganda, and the Church’s own internal crises. His fiction often stages that collision: conscience versus hierarchy, compassion versus doctrine, private doubt versus public certainty. The subtext here is a rebuke to any system - religious or political - that demands assent while fearing investigation. If your God can’t survive honest scrutiny, West implies, you’re not defending God. You’re defending an anxious human construction.
The line works because it flips the usual bargain: belief doesn’t end the search. It obligates it.
The phrase "divine intelligence" is doing cultural work. West isn’t picturing God primarily as a monarch or judge but as mind. That reframes theology as epistemology: the sacred is associated with understanding, not tribal loyalty. By calling truth-seeking man’s "noblest function", he elevates the act of questioning to a moral vocation. Not a hobby for skeptics, not an indulgence for academics; a duty tied to human dignity.
Contextually, West wrote in a century when institutional religion was forced to negotiate modern science, totalitarian propaganda, and the Church’s own internal crises. His fiction often stages that collision: conscience versus hierarchy, compassion versus doctrine, private doubt versus public certainty. The subtext here is a rebuke to any system - religious or political - that demands assent while fearing investigation. If your God can’t survive honest scrutiny, West implies, you’re not defending God. You’re defending an anxious human construction.
The line works because it flips the usual bargain: belief doesn’t end the search. It obligates it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Morris
Add to List
