Question VI: How folly is opposed to wisdom

FOOLISHNESS is opposed to Wisdom, which is called false Wisdom by St. Gregory, book 13 of the Morals, chapter 14, cited by St. Bonaventure, book 3 of the Pharetra, chapter 32; by Paul it is called: the wisdom of this world, 1 Corinthians 1; and by Gregory, book 31, chapter 20, it is called: Foolishness before God, before whom is the right judgment of things.

THIS, however, consists in a perverse judgment, which postpones divine things to fleeting ones, as St. Augustine says, book 2 on free choice, chapter 16, and On the quantity of the soul, chapter 19, and book 10 on the city of God, chapter 28; and this is called to be wise in a bad sense, and to be foolish, by St. Bernard, the book on the degrees of humility, degree 1; and on the verse: Behold us, etc., he calls it the accursed wisdom, which supplants, and earthly, animal, diabolical, as the Holy Doctor notes, loc. cit. Pharetra, whom see.

IN THE SAME way it is called such by St. James, chapter 3, as the Holy Doctor excellently expounds, on the gift of Wisdom, chapter 1. It is indeed called diabolical, because it deceives so as to destroy. See St. Thomas, question 46, article 2.

JUST as Wisdom gives savor, sweetness, and taste in divine things; so foolishness in fleeting things. Of this, the second book of Wisdom, where those young men cried out: Come, let us enjoy good things, etc. Let us leave everywhere signs of our joy, as the Holy Doctor expounds, sermon 2 within the octave of the Nativity.

From this it is deduced that foolishness is a sin of the same species as that object which is preferred before God. See also St. Thomas, articles 2 and 3.