Some of the common questions I get about The Wisdom Pyramid concern the ordering of the levels. Why did I put nature above books? Why books before beauty? And so forth.
The video below explains each level quickly, as does the poster graphic (which I recommend you download, print out and post on your family’s fridge or in your classroom). But beyond checking those out, here are two criteria I had in my mind as I ordered the pyramid the way that I did:
Proximity to God. If God is the giver of wisdom and the standard by which all truth is measured, then it makes sense that the closer something is to God, the more reliable it is as a source of wisdom. From the bottom up in the pyramid, then, the order goes from most directly mediated by God (his spoken word to us in Scripture) to least directly mediated by God (machine-directed social media algorithms). The most proximate-to-God sources are the three at the bottom: God’s Word (Bible), God’s presence among his people (church), and God’s creation (nature).
Time. Time is a great filter for wisdom. In general (though there are exceptions), what stands the test of time has greater potential for nourishing our souls than the junk food ephemera of our ever changing feeds. I ordered the pyramid with that in mind. From the bottom up, it generally goes from most enduring (the eternal Word) to most fleeting (the here-and-gone social media post).
Could arguments be made about how the upper three levels of the pyramid could be rearranged? Certainly. I could be persuaded to flip the position of books and beauty, for example. In the original 2017 version of the pyramid I had beauty on the same level as nature (they indeed share many qualities), ahead of books. For various reasons I changed it for the book version, making nature (“God’s artistic creation”) more foundational than beauty (“Man’s artistic creation”) mostly because the former is more directly proximate to God than the latter, and not subject to willful deception and untruth in the way human-made creation can be.
I do invite the questions and conversations on ordering the levels, however. I think they’re fruitful and interesting! The discussion is part of what it means to be intentional about what we orient our lives and attention around, and understanding why. This is ultimately why I wrote the book.
Watch me explain the levels of the pyramid in this animated video:
Click here to download the Wisdom Pyramid poster.