Saturday, 30 September 2006

The Journey - Peter Kreeft

The Journey:
A Spiritual Roadmap for Modern Pilgrims
Peter Kreeft
IVP Press
ISBN 0830816828

This is a great little book. It is enjoyable, imaginative and delightful. It is an allegory in the style of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan or Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis. It follows Peter Kreeft and Socrates on a journey out of the Cave and into conscious decision-making. They are in search of true knowledge and knowledge of truth - if we can know truth. Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College, a popular lecturer and author, and this is one of his best books.

This book is written around 10 dialogues with 12 historical figures: Epicurus, Protagoras, Diogenes, Gorgia, Democritus, Thrasymachus, Xenophanes, Pharmenides, Aristotle, Moses, Joshua and C.S. Lewis. Each of these men represent a school of thought, or a philosophy that has resurfaced again and again throughout history.

Through those 10 dialogues each answer a different question and each question leads to others. They are:
  1. Shall I question? Shall I go on this quest for truth at all?
  2. If I question, is there hope of answers, or should I be a skeptic? Is there objective truth?
  3. If there is any objective truth, is there objective truth about the meaning of life?
  4. If there is an objective truth about the meaning of life, is it that life is meaningless, “vanity of vanities”?
  5. If life has real meaning, is it spiritual and not merely material?
  6. If it is spiritual, is it moral? Is there a real right and wrong?
  7. If there is a real right and wrong, a real moral meaning, is it a religious meaning? Is there God?
  8. If there is a God, is God immanent (pantheism) or transcendent (deism), everywhere or nowhere?
  9. If God is both immanent and transcendent (theism, creationism), are the Jews (who first taught this idea of creation) his prophets, his mouthpiece to the world?
  10. If the Jews are God’s prophets, is Jesus the Messiah?

Each one of these choices is momentous and life changing. They will either lead you into relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or the rejection thereof. This book puts forward all the popular theories for why not to believe at each step along the way.

This is a great little book either to help you know why you believe what you believe or to lead you into a faith based relationship with God.


Book by Peter Kreeft:
C. S. Lewis: A Critical Essay (1969)
Love Is Stronger Than Death. 1979.
Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing (1980)
Yes or No? — Straight Answers to Tough Questions about Christianity (1984)
Making Sense Out of Suffering (1986)
Fundamentals of the Faith, Essays in Christian Apologetics (1988)
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven... But Never Dreamed of Asking (1990)
Making Choices: Practical Wisdom for Everyday Moral Decisions (1990)
You can understand the Old Testament : a book-by-book guide for Catholics (1990)
Summa of the Summa (1990) 
Three Philosophies of Life (1990) 
Prayer: The Great Conversation (1991)
Back to Virtue (1992) 
Shorter Summa (1993) 
Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees (1993)
Your Questions, God's Answers (1994) 
Handbook of Christian Apologetics (with Ronald K. Tacelli) (1994)
C. S. Lewis for the Third Millennium (1994) 
Shadow-Lands of C.S. Lewis: The Man Behind the Movie (1994)
The Angel and the Ants: Bringing Heaven Closer to Your Daily Life (1994)
Talking to Your Children About Being Catholic (1995) — A treasure trove of ideas
Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really Know About Them? (1995)
Ecumenical Jihad: Ecumenism and the Culture Wars (1996)
The Snakebite Letters Devious Secrets for Subverting Society (1998)
Refutation of Moral Relativism (1999)
Prayer for Beginners (2000)
Socrates Meets Jesus (1987/2002) 
How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis (2002)
Celebrating Middle Earth: Lord of the Rings (2002) 
Three Approaches to Abortion: a thoughtful and compassionate guide to today's most controversial issue (2002)
Philosophy 101 by Socrates (2002) 
Socrates Meets Machiavelli (2003) 
Socrates Meets Marx (2003) 
The God Who Loves You (2004)
Socratic Logic (2005) 
You Can Understand the Bible (2005) 
Socrates Meets Sartre: Father Of Philosophy Meets The Founder of Existentialism (2005) 
The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (2005)
Socrates Meets Descartes (2007) 
The Philosophy of Jesus (2007) 
Before I Go (2007) 
I Surf Therefore I Am (2008)
Because God Is Real: Sixteen Questions, One Answer (2008)
Jesus-Shock (2008)
Socrates Meets Kant (2009) 
If Einstein Had Been a Surfer (2009) 
Between Allah & Jesus: what Christians Can Learn from Muslims (2010)
Socrates Meets Hume (2010) 
An Ocean Full of Angels (2011)
Summa Philosophica (2012) 
Jacob's Ladder (2013) 
Charisms: Visions, Tongues, Healing, etc. (feat. Dave Nevins) (2013) 
Socrates Meets Kierkegaard (2014) 
52 Big Ideas (2020) 
Practical Theology (2014) 
Letters to an Atheist (2014) 
Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy Via Plato's Apology : (Forty Things Philosophy is According to History's First and Wisest Philosopher (2014)
I Burned for Your Peace: Augustine's Confessions Unpacked (2016)  
How to Be Holy (2016) 
Catholics and Protestants (2017) 
Between One Faith and Another (2017) 
Forty Reasons I am a Catholic (2018)
The Platonic Tradition (2018) 
Socrates' Children, 4 vols. (2019) 
How To Destroy Western Civilization And Other Ideas From The Cultural Abyss (2021)
The Greatest Philosopher Who Ever Lived (2021)
Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings 3 vols. (2023)
What Would Socrates Say? (2024) 
 

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