Zach C's Analysis of "Zeal Without Knowledge"

Zachary Cawley
Dr. Kerry Spencer
Writing 150 Honors
“Zeal Without Knowledge”

In the article “Zeal Without Knowledge”, Hugh Nibley examines the essence of knowledge and the mark it leaves in a religious sense. By examining knowledge in this way, Nibley provides an analysis of knowledge and sets a precept for the importance of its use in religion, especially that of the LDS faith, and brings zeal into this argument. By using in unison an appeal to logos and an appeal to pathos, Nibley gives a successful argument as to why people, mainly a LDS audience, should start thinking rather than put faith blindly into zeal.

Nibley first begins his article putting forth the information that “you can think of only one thing at a time” (207) and that “one thing is clear: the blocked-out signals are the unwanted ones, and the ones we favor are our ‘deliberate choices.’” There is then a lead into the fact that we must think and that the “substance of thought is knowledge.” (209). He continues with the need of knowledge, as “the very nature of man requires he use his to capacity” (210). The laying of the foundation of these facts lies as the main appeal to logos he uses as he leads into an appeal to pathos. By providing a logical base to think about his argument is able to have a strong base so that it wouldn’t matter too much who is in his audience as they wouldn’t be able to refute too much of what comes after.

Following his appeal to logos, Nibley leads directly into an appeal to pathos citing many scriptures and talking much about God. He notes, “a quality in which the Saints have always excelled is zeal” (210) “but God wants more than that” (210). He states that the young are especially susceptible to this, giving specific examples of BYU students and new converts, that feel that their belief and faith in the gospel guides them and stand as enough and as a substitute for knowledge. He then contests the idea behind this belief by asking in the eternal perspective what is it that we can truly take with us after this life. By doing this he is not only able to place a spiritual argument for why LDS members must do what they can to gain knowledge but also a logical one.

There are many relations to zeal and knowledge within this article but the main detail to grasp is that neither can substitute for the either. By using an appeal to logos in unity with an appeal to pathos Nibley provides a strong argument for this and helps LDS members realize that while zeal is a great thing to have, if substituted for knowledge then it leads to pride. But at the same time he asserts that if knowledge is used without zeal then things gained are not the best of what you can achieve.