Is wonder a destination or a doorway to deeper truth?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 13 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The feeling of awe we experience in nature is often treated as a final destination. But for some of history's greatest thinkers, that shiver of amazement is actually a starting point—a profound invitation to move beyond the feeling and into a systematic journey of discovery.

Professor Alister McGrath explores the tension between experiencing wonder and seeking understanding. While some, like the German novelist Goethe, argued that a sense of astonishment should be enjoyed as an end in itself, others view it as a catalyst for inquiry. This perspective traces back to Aristotle, who saw wonder as an invitation to explore, and Thomas Aquinas, who described it as a 'desiderium sciendi'—a longing to know that leads to joy through the fulfillment of understanding.

This journey of discovery often branches into two distinct but complementary paths: science and religious faith. Science excels at explaining the mechanics of the natural world, providing 'neat' answers to how things work. However, McGrath notes a limitation in the scientific method regarding existential meaning. He cites Sir Peter Medawar, a Nobel Prize-winning physician, who distinguished between questions that can be solved by technological advance and 'ultimate questions'—those that lie beyond the capacity of science to answer, such as the meaning of life.

To navigate these realms, McGrath suggests moving past the 'warfare' model of science versus faith. Instead, he proposes frameworks like Mary Midgley’s 'multiple maps of reality,' Christian Smith’s 'multiple narratives about life,' and Roy Bhaskar’s 'multiple levels within reality.' These models suggest that human beings possess an inbuilt intuition that these ultimate questions are both vital and answerable, even if only provisionally. Ultimately, the goal is not just to find a final answer, but to develop a new way of looking at the world.

This lecture is part of a long tradition at Gresham College, which has provided free public lectures since 1597. The institution currently hosts over 1,800 free lectures online, continuing a centuries-old commitment to public intellectual life. theme-perspective mood-reflective difficulty-2 topics [

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