The Three Stages of Learning

Hugh compares the learning process to the minting of a coin, with the malleable soul of the learner taking on the likeness of whatever it knows. In another of Hugh's beloved parallels, and in this case a fairly plausible one, the three stages of learning are said to correspond to his three approaches to scripture. Through learning, the soul is reformed, just as monastic culture was being reformed through the efforts of the Victorines and others. For Hugh, these two sorts of reformation are individual and social enactments of cosmic redemption that is at the heart of Christian theology.