Friday, November 13, 2009

Holy Nerds Club (Oct) - The journey

The Journey by Peter Kreeft is an allegory attempt to discuss philosophical ideas and moral dilemmas in a dream where Kreeft set forth on a journey of truth together with Socrates as his teacher.

In each chapter, the duo meets different famous philosophers of the past who would stop them in their path and pose a philosophical question. Kreeft and his teacher would then reason out these ideas before making a choice to continue on their journey.

Prior to reading the book, I had high expectations of it. For one, I'd heard raving reviews about Kreeft's books. And secondly, I was excited to deepen my knowledge of philosophy after being engaged in Sophie's World. Unfortunately, I hate to say that this "spiritual roadmap for modern pilgrims" had fallen short of my expectations.

In all honesty, Kreeft's style of writing annoyed the hell out of me. I can't quite pinpoint the exact cause of my annoyance, but there's something about his narration style which I found to be flippant, amateurish, and corny.

Secondly, I found that the book - while entertaining and easy to read (I finished it in under three weeks) - was shallow and had oversimplified the Western philosophies which have a more significant impact on today's society than what was portrayed in the book.

Then again, maybe therein lies the problem: that life doesn't have to be that complicated after all.

In any case, I'm still not a huge fan of this book.

I must acknowledge, however, that there were noteworthy points argued by Kreeft which had given me a new perspective to my faith. Is there objective truth? Is there right and wrong? Does God exist - is he everywhere or nowhere? Questions like these have certainly expanded my thoughts and helped in my search for Truth.

At the end of the day, I really wouldn't highly recommend this book, but I do know of many who are fans of Kreeft's work and have applauded The Journey for being an excellent introduction to philosophy.

Whether you decide to pick up this book or not, I think we owe it to ourselves to go in search of the truth - as opposed to just going through the motion everyday for the rest of our lives.

To conclude, here's some food for thought from the bible. Incidentally, it's today's mass reading:

"Yes, naturally stupid are all who are unaware of God, and who, from good things seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have not recognised the Artificer.

Fire, however, or wind, or the swift air, the sphere of the stars, impetuous water, heaven's lamps, are what they have held to be the gods who govern the world.

If, charmed by their beauty, they have taken these for gods, let them know how much the Master of these excels them, since he was the very source of beauty that created them.

And if they have been impressed by their power and energy, let them deduce from these how much mightier is he that has formed them, since through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.

Small blame, however, attaches to them, for perhaps they go astray only in their search for God and their eagerness to find him; familiar with his works, they investigate them and fall victim to appearances, seeing so much beauty.

But even so, they have no excuse: if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master?"

- Wis 13:1-9

Posted by Jo at 10:46 PM