The Orthodox Monk & the Dominican Friar

There's the story of an Orthodox monk who lived next to a scholastic Dominican friar.

One day, after dinner, the friar was examining his fork. In true scholastic fashion, he tried to understand the nature and essence of a fork by stripping it down to bare minimals.

"This has 4 tines... if I remove one, leaving 3, will it still be a fork? YES! It picks up food still!"

"This has 3 tines... if I remove one, will it still be a fork? After all, it still pokes and picks up food..."

Finally, with one tine left, and finding that was the bare minimum he needed, he was excited at his discovery and went next door to the Orthodox monk to share his discovery.

"The essence of a fork is a toothpick; for even a toothpick is able to do what a fork does!"

The Orthodox monk, of course, looks very oddly at the scholastic. He says, "The essence of a fork is that it is here to feed us and sustain us so that we may give glory to God - we're better off glorifying God than to try and pick apart the essence of a fork."

They both went back to their houses thinking, "I don't understand this guy..."