Sunday Meditation: The Purpose of Literature is to Please and Instruct

Philosopher Peter Kreeft, a man on a mission -- to teach the truth!

I'm always a little puzzled by those who say they never read fiction and consider it a waste of time. I think I've found just as much (or more) food for meditation in a great novel than many books of non-fiction and their didactic manner of teaching the same thing. Am I more likely to remember the lessons about good and evil, friendship and treachery, courage and cowardice from a book of psychology or from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Shakespeare's Macbeth? 

Philosopher Peter Kreeft describes the purpose of literature as to please and to instruct. His presentation on Lost in the Cosmos, Abolition of Man and several other books is tremendous and well worth a listen -- or two -- or even three. He demonstrates how literature can be either direct or indirect to make a point and teach a lesson. Abolition is an example of direct literature, Lost indirect. Lewis uses logic and reasoning; Percy uses satire, irony, and humor. But both works explain the crisis of modern man, men without chests, that is men who have lost the heart of things.

Question for the Day: Are You Lost in the Cosmos?

Currently I'm reading Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos: the Last Self Help Book. I was intrigued to find out that it's one of philosopher Peter Kreeft's favorite books. Percy is a favorite of mine as well. His novels, in my opinion, fit the description "southern writers weird" -- like Flannery O'Connor. Percy didn't like to think of himself as a southern writer and, in fact, parodied the tradition through the character, Sam Yerger, in The Moviegoer. Nevertheless, I can never separate him from the southern genre.

The Reality of Hell

“The national anthem of hell is, I Did It My Way ”

— Peter Kreeft

The doctrine of hell is not just some dusty, theological holdover from the unenlightened Middle Ages. It has significant consequences. Without ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves; social bonds are broken. People who have no fear of God soon have no fear of man.

Wisdom from Fulton Sheen, Peter Kreeft, and St. Francis deSales

I  recently read a quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen that made me laugh. "The proud man counts his newspaper clippings; the humble man his blessings."

And then the insight....Omigosh! How many bloggers count their visit statistics and views?

Mea culpa! Mea culpa! Mea maxima culpa!

Some days I think about throwing up my hands, deleting my blog, retiring my newsletter and saying with St. Thomas Aquinas, "It's all straw." Actually, if Thomas' magnificent writings were straw, mine are the poop-covered shavings from the chicken coop...or the waste products on the bottom board of the bee hive.

Peter Kreeft's Conversion Story

What better way to explore the Catholic faith than to listen to conversion stories? Peter Kreeft is a favorite writer of mine, a philosophy professor at Boston College. I never knew he was a convert. Today I listened to his conversion story. If you want to be able to defend the reason for the hope that is within you, listen to Peter Kreeft's story. He came to the faith through exercising his intellect and trying to overcome what he considered temptations to his Protestant faith.

The Catholic faith is reasonable. Those who want to portray Catholicism as anti-intellectual don't understand the Catholic faith. Of course, there are mysteries; we cannot understand everything. If we could, then God would not be God. But our faith is reasonable. It is also beautiful as Kreeft indicates when he talks about the beauty of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Catholicity of Shakespeare's plays, and the angelic quality of Palestrina's music.

Rejoice at being a Catholic. And if you aren't one, don't wait another minute to begin exploring the wonder that is the Catholic Church. Don't deny yourself the true presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharistic or your presence with us in fellowship. We're waiting for you!

Metaphysics for Breakfast...Do You Know What an Apple Is?

My husband and I were talking over breakfast about metaphysics. (Doesn't everybody?) Actually, we were trying to come up with a simple definition. Sad to say, I took an entire semester on the topic in college and couldn't define it. Oh, I remember reading excerpts from Sartre, Hegel, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, etc. but I couldn't remember any concise definitions or any of what those philosophers wrote...except, perhaps, Sartre's Nausea which left a nauseating impression about being and nothingness. The dictionary just added  abstraction to the confusion. So I decided to check out my favorite philosopher, Peter Kreeft, and came up with this very simple definition: "Metaphysics means, simply, philosophizing about reality." So does that mean all philosophizing is metaphysical? How does one philosophize about unreality?

Hmm...but today nobody seems to know what reality is. After all if reality is true and what's true for you is not necessarily what's true for me, then does reality even exist? Is this giving you a headache? (No wonder Nietzsche went insane...oh wait...that was syphilis. Now there's reality for you!)

Anyway, if you want to consider metaphysics over lunch, I recommend Peter Kreeft's article, The Apple Argument Against Abortion. It puts metaphysics at the service of truth. And here's just a little appetizer to tickle your taste buds:

I will try to prove the simple, common-sensical reasonableness of the pro-life case by a sort of Socratic logic. My conclusion is that Roe v. Wade must be overturned, and my fundamental reason for this is not only because of what abortion is but because we all know what abortion is. 

This is obviously a controversial conclusion, and initially unacceptable to all pro-choicers. So, my starting point must be noncontroversial. It is this: We know what an apple is. I will try to persuade you that if we know what an apple is, Roe v. Wade must be overthrown, and that if you want to defend Roe, you will probably want to deny that we know what an apple is.

So go at it, philosophers and while you're cogitating have an apple.