Knowledge And Love

Melius est ergo et utilius, idiotas et parum scientes exsistere, et per charitatem proximum fieri Deo quam putare multum scire, et multa expertos in suum Deum blasphemos inveniri, alterum Deum Patrem fabricantes. Et ideo Paulus clamavit: Scientia inflat, charitas autem aedificat; non quia veram scientiam de Deo culparet, alioquin seipsum primum accusaret; sed quia sciebat quosdam sub occasione scientiae elatos ecidere a dilectione Dei, et ob hoc opinare seipsos esse perfectos, imperfectum autem Demiurgum introducentes, abscidens eorum ob hujusmodi scientiam supercilium, ait: Scientia inflat, charitas autem aedificat. Major autem hac non est alia inflatio, quam ut opinetur quis se meliorem et perfectiorem esse eo, qui fecerit, et plsamaverit, et spiramen vitae dederit, et hoc ipsum esse praestiterit. Melius itaque est, sictui praedixi, nihil omnino scientem quempiam, ne quidem unam causam cujuslibet eorum quae facta sunt, cur factim sit, credere Deo, et perseverare eos in dilectione, aut per hujusmodi scientiam inflatos excidere a dilectione, quae hominem vivificat: nec aliud inquirere ad scientiam, nisi Jesum Christum Filium Dei, qui pro nobis crucifixus est, aut per quaestionum subtilitates et minutiloquium in impietatem cadere. Sanctus Ireneaus Lugdunensis, Adversus Haereses, Liber II Cap XXVI Source: Migne PG 7.800a-c

Better it is, therefore, and more profitable, to be one who knows a little and is simple and by means of love comes near to God, than, by thinking one knows much and that one is in many things adept, to be found among those blasphemous against their own God, fabricating another God as Father. And so Paul exclaimed, 'Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.' 1 Not that he denounced a true knowledge of God, otherwise he would have accused himself first, but because he knew that some inflated by the opportunity of knowledge fall away from the love of God, and because they deem themselves to be perfect, introducing an imperfect Demiurge, he cuts off their overweening knowledge, saying, 'Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.' For there is no greater conceit than this, that any one should think he is better and more perfect than He who made and fashioned him, and gave to him the breath of life, and established him in existence. Thus it is better, as I have said, that one should have no knowledge at all of any reason why anything that is has been made, but that one should believe in God, and persevere in His love, rather than, being puffed up by knowledge like this, one should fall away from the love which gives life to man; and that one should seek no other knowledge except Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was crucified for us, than by subtle questioning and hair-splitting one should fall into impiety. Saint Ireneaus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 26 1 1 Cor 8.1