Friday, 4 May 2007

The Sea Within by: Peter Kreeft

The Sea Within:
Waves and the Meaning of All Things
Peter Kreeft
St. Augustine's Press
ISBN 1587317575

I am usually a big fan of Dr. Peter Kreeft, yet this book not only left me flat, it left me baffled at why Kreeft would even write it. Dr. Kreeft is a professor of Philosophy at Boston College and is the author of nearly 60 books. Being a fan, I have read many of them, and this is the first to leave a sour taste in my mouth, or should I say a sour thought in my mind.

It is well known that Kreeft, even at his age, is an avid surfer. In fact it has been said he takes some speaking engagements just for the opportunity to surf. It was strange reading a 70-year-old man talking about the sea having orgasms and the sea as mother and child. For a man who has built a career as a Christian apologist, as a convert to Catholicism who defends the faith, this book reads as if he spent too many days in the sun at the beach and has embraced a naturalistic religion or 'spirituality' of nature not fitting with his body of previous work.

The advance promotions I encountered about this book made it sound like a mystical journey with Peter Kreeft, and to be honest that sounded really cool. However it ended up being a series of ramblings that tried to appeal to everyone. Kreeft uses terms like 'Orenda', an Iroquois term, or 'Toa', then the 'Sea as Koan', The 'Third Eye' and others. What do these terms have to do with the sea or Christianity?

It should be noted that Kreeft, for all his writing production, has published only one article in a peer-reviewed journal. "Zen In Heidegger's 'Gelassenheit'" was published in 1971 in the International Philosophical Quarterly, the philosophy journal published by Fordham University. So maybe all the hype and popularity of him as an author is not all that warranted.

My only personal encounter with Kreeft was via e-mail last year when I was trying to verify a fact in one of his other books. His response was short, brisk and arrogant. Maybe the great man was too busy writing this tripe to respond to a writer from a University Newspaper. Of course when you charge $1500 USD a day for speaking engagements, plus travel and board, maybe you think you can get away with almost anything. I once heard of a Led Zeppelin quote, about Zepellen 4 AKA 'Coda', that the reason the band's name was not on the album's original release was because with their popularity they believed they could crap on a recording and it would sell because it was Zeppelin. That is how I feel about this book. This book reads like a personal indulgence into ramblings of an old man, and though many will criticize me for my critique of Kreeft, I cannot recommend this book to you in good conscience.

(First Published in Imprint 2007-05-04 as 'Hate It' in the 'Love it / Hate It' Book review column.)


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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