Both faith and intellect begin with the acceptance of the fact that we “do not know.” However, the steps taken after that confession lead in entirely different directions. Faith calls it humility to fill the blank space of the unknown with God’s will and “surrender”; intellect calls it humility to keep “voyaging,” constantly posing questions to bridge that same gap. The clash between these two forms of humility reveals a fundamental conflict regarding how humanity confronts truth.
The Humility of Faith: Erasing the Self Before the Absolute Other
Humility in faith is the act of acknowledging human finitude and ceding the realm beyond those limits to God. Here, the confession “I do not know” leads directly to the resolution “I entrust.” Rather than straining fruitlessly at the point where the ladder of reason fails to reach, the core of religious humility is to gain peace of mind by accepting what lies beyond as divine providence.
However, this form of humility often falls into the dangerous trap of intellectual stagnation. When the phrase “How can a human know everything?” becomes a shield to avoid the pain of inquiry, the humility of faith degenerates into a cowardly shelter for the ego. Erasing oneself to exalt God can, in fact, become a means of evading the responsibility of the question.
The Humility of Intellect: Taking the Helm Toward the Unknown Sea
Conversely, humility in the realm of the intellect is the attitude of admitting that one might be wrong and realizing that what one knows is but a tiny fraction of the whole. Here, “I do not know” is never an act of giving up. Rather, it is an “intellectual tension”—doubting the expiration date of one’s own knowledge and resetting the ladder toward a better truth.
The intellectual being does not cease their exploration simply because they may never reach divine wisdom. Instead, the humble realization that “I do not yet know” becomes the fuel for the next question. The humility of the intellect is not about begging God for answers, but rather the courage to endure the vastness of the answerless void while carving out one’s own path. Like a sailor who never stops navigating while gazing at unreachable stars, the intellect transforms the wall of the impossible into a horizon of inquiry.
The Intersection of Two Clashing Worldviews
Ultimately, the clash between these two humilities comes down to a question of “human courage in the face of the unknown.” If the humility of faith is to drop anchor before a great storm and seek divine mercy, the humility of the intellect is to struggle to understand the mechanism of that storm and refuse to let go of the helm.
While some may call the comfort of entrusting everything to God’s will “humility,” others will call the tenacity to keep raising the ladder “humility.” True intellectual maturity does not consist of covering up questions with the phrase “God knows all,” but in carrying through with the “will to understand” endowed to humanity, even if God exists.
Closing Thoughts
Every moment, we must choose between the “humility of frustration” encouraged by faith and the “humility of struggle” demanded by the intellect. But one thing is clear: it has always been the latter that has driven human progress.
Though climbing the ladder may seem like the arrogance of trespassing into the divine realm, that very “arrogance” is the sole spark that makes a human truly human. To accept the fact that we do not know, yet refuse to toss that ignorance into God’s basket; to shoulder the weight of that ignorance and climb one rung higher—that is the true humility of the intellect, preserving human dignity without falling into the trap of ego-inflation.
The Intellectual Property of Min Jin-sung
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