Sor Junana Inez de la Cruz 1651-1695
“How without logic would I learn the general and particular methods in which Sacred Scripture is written?
How without physics the many natural questions regarding the nature of sacrificial animals, which symbolize so many of these things already stated (and more that exist)?
How without geometry could one measure the Holy Arc of Testament and the Sacred City of Jerusalem, whose mysterious measures make a cube with all its dimensions, and create that marvelously proportional distributions of all its parts?”
Sor Juana born in a small village in Mexico was the first feminist. She was self taught and had great inclination to study. she believed that her desire to study was fate not free will. She believed that she was put on Earth to be a learner.
She started learning at an early age and wanted to gain as much knowledge as she can. She wanted to understand the world and God’s role in it. She wanted to understand her relationship with God. For her liberal arts and science were a stepping stones toward to understand God’s words.
For her to understand the scripture and God’s words in the scripture one needs to understand all of his or her surroundings and study all the possible science and liberal arts.
Sor Juana is one example of why would someone pursue science. Humans are curious and want answers of God existance and his role in the world. Sor Juana wanted to understand God and his creation but for her to understand God’s words in the scripture she needs to study all the possible science.
“My only desire is to study so I will be less ignorant, for according to St.Augustine some things are learned in order to do something, as a means, and others are learned merely to know them, as an end itself.”
Kimball, B. A. (2010). The liberal arts tradition: A documentary history, Section V Humanist, Scholastic, and Sectarian Strains in the Colonial College, Juana Inez de la Cruz,"The Poet's Reply" (1691). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.