The Journey

by Peter Kreeft

Book Overview

Open this book and begin an epic human journey--the journey toward truth.

Enjoy a delightful and imaginative allegory of timeless wisdom as you travel along the road of true knowledge. Socrates, the thoroughly reasonable and wise philosopher of Athens, will accompany you much of the way. With sharp questions and canny wit he will coach you past the winsome, the wily and the half-wise spin-doctors of error posted along the ancient byways...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830816828
• ISBN13: 9780830816828
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: IVP
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

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.

Delightful

This is a delightfully light read which is deep in meaning. Peter Kreeft makes philosophy exciting.

One of the Best Dialogs and a Worldview Handbook to Boot

Unlike Kreeft's earlier dialogs, this one is written in a richer prose. Instead of just alternating statements, this book is literarily narrated by the persona on the journey. The journey is one through a plethora of worldviews by means of-of course-questioning. Each chapter deals with a different question, often a leading Socratic question which contains the answer in the question itself. Just check out this Table of Contents and I think you'll find it irresistible. 1. THE BEGINNING: To Question Or Not To Question, That Is The Question.2. THE SKEPTIC: Is It True That There's No Truth?3. THE CYNIC: Can't We Be Cynical About Cynicism?4. THE NIHILIST: Is The Meaning Of Life That Life Is Meaningless?5. THE MATERIALIST: what's The Matter With "Nothing But Matter"?6. THE RELATIVIST: Is It Really Wrong To Think There's A Real Right And Wrong?7. THE ATHEIST: Can There Be A Moral Law Without A Moral Lawgiver?8. THE PANTHIEST AND THE DEIST: Is God Everywhere Or Nowhere?9. THE JEW: Could His-Story Be A Non-Prophet Organization?10. THE MESSIAH: Is Jesus Lord, Liar Or Lunatic?The book also has a great Epilogue.Enjoy!By the way, if you click on JOHN H. MORRISON's link and look at his book reviews, it's obvious he's a narrow-minded bigot who can't see past his own naturalist presuppositions (and I accept evolution as God's handiwork).

Wonderful for the seeker

This is a book you can give to anyone who is begining to wrestle the claims of Christianity. A wonderful, non-threatening read that is enjoyable to pick up and read as a novel. Written in the same vain as a C.S. LEwis or Tjolkien. Enjoyed thoroughly.

"Easy" Philosophy, Great Apologetics

I read this book while taking a Socratic Dialogue class with Dr. Kreeft at Boston College. He is a superb lecturer, a clear thinker, and he sets forth his ideas very well in many of his books."The Journey" is a summary of various proposed philosophies of life (connected to their mostly Greek progenitors) and their percieved problems. Although not recommended for detailed study of these ideas, it is meant as a "casual" summary and spurs one into much thinking about life. It is extremely fluid reading, and can be finished in one sitting. Worth reading for all but scholars of Greek philosophy.