 Peter Kreeft Peter Kreeft is a Catholic apologist for Christianity, professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College, and author of over 45 books including Fundamentals of the Faith, Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven, and Back to Virtue. His ideas draw heavily from religious and philosophical tradition, especially Thomas Aquinas, Socrates, G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. Kreeft is especially known for his writings on Socratic logic, the sea, angels, Pascal, and Heaven, as well as his work on the Problem of Evil, for which he was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his bestseller, The Case for Faith. His essay "The Apple Argument Against Abortion" is influential in pro-life movements. Image File history File linksMetadata Kreeft. ...
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Saint Thomas Aquinas [Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino] (c. ...
Socrates (Greek: ΣωκÏάτης, invariably anglicized as , SÇ’cratÄ“s; 470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who is widely credited for laying the foundation for Western philosophy. ...
For the town of Chesterton in Cambridgeshire, see Chesterton (Cambridge). ...
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ...
In the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god or gods. ...
Former atheist and Christian Apologist Lee Strobel Lee Strobel, a former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, is a Christian apologist and former teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. ...
The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity is a book by Christian apologist and former journalist Lee Strobel. ...
Pro-life advocates make a silent complaint in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Pro-life is a term representing a variety of perspectives and activist movements in bioethics. ...
His family name is pronounced 'krayft', not 'kreeeft' or 'krehft'. [1]
Academic Career Kreeft took his A.B. at Calvin College (1959), and an M.A. at Fordham University (1961). In the same university he completed his doctoral studies 1965. At Yale University, he did post graduate studies. Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ...
Fordham University is a private, coeducational research university[2] located in and around New York City. ...
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Dr. Kreeft has received the following honors: Woodrow Wilson, Yale-Sterling Fellowship, Newman Alumni Scholarship, Danforth Asian Religions Fellowship, Weathersfield Homeland Foundation Fellowship
He joined the Philosophy faculty of the Department of Philosophy of Boston College in 1965. The courses he has taught include Logic, Epistemology, Cosmology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Nursing Ethics, Philosophy of the Person, Philosophy in Literature, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Human Sexuality, The Future of Man, The Creative Person, Death and Dying, Life After Death, Science Fiction, Philosophy of Love, Oriental Philosophy, Now and Zen, Greek Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy, Socrates, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Marcel, Teilhard de Chardin, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Augustine’s Confessions , Aquinas’ Summa , Plato’s Republic , Lost in the Cosmos, Christian Existentialism, Thinking About Religion, The Meaning of Life, Philosophy of Happiness, Philosophy of Love, Peacemaking, Abortion as a Philosophical Problem, Philosophy in Fantasy, Socrates and Jesus, The Three Greatest Men in the World, World Religions, Catholicism: A Philosophical Inquiry; Angels, Devils, Ghosts and Miracles; Three Philosophies of Life; Philosophy in the Bible; Philosophy of Education, Introduction to Philosophy,Philosophy in Cinema, Perspectives in Western Culture [2] This article is about Boston College; for the unaffiliated urban university see Boston University. ...
Conversion story Born a Calvinist who regarded the Catholic Church "with the utmost suspicion," his conversion to Catholicism was prepared by things such as (1) the thought of the relatively small number of Calvinists in view of God's willingness to save many, (2) a simple understanding of God's demands as asking God what he wants us to do, and then doing it, (3) the logic of praying to saints as we ask friends to pray for us, (4) a liking for medieval art and philosophy (Gothic architecture, Thomistic philosophy), (5) reading St. John of the Cross whose writings he viewed as reality "something as massive and positive as a mountain range." Saint John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) (June 24, 1542 – December 14, 1591) was a major figure in the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish mystic and Carmelite friar born at Fontiveros, a small village near Ãvila. ...
A key point was when he was asked by a Calvinist professor to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church that it traced itself to the early Church. He said that on his own, he "discovered in the early Church such Catholic elements as the centrality of the Eucharist, the Real Presence, prayers to saints, devotion to Mary, an insistence on visible unity, and apostolic succession." The Church fathers such as Augustine and Jerome sounded Catholic more than protestant to him. For the first Archbishop of Canterbury, see Saint Augustine of Canterbury. ...
Jerome (ca. ...
The "central and deciding" factor for his conversion was "the Church's claim to be the one Church historically founded by Christ." For he applies C.S. Lewis trilemma -- either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord -- to the Church: "either that this is the most arrogant, blasphemous and wicked claim imaginable, if it is not true, or else that she is just what she claims to be." The term trilemma derives from the much older term dilemma, a choice between two unacceptable options. ...
On the Bible issue, he referred to the church preaching that was the basis of the writing and the Church approval needed to ascertain the contents of the Bible. To this he applied the axiom: "a cause can never be less than its effect. You can't give what you don't have. If the Church has no divine inspiration and no infallibility, no divine authority, then neither can the New Testament." [3]
His conversion took place as he asked God for help, praying that "God would decide for me, for I am good at thinking but bad at acting, like Hamlet." It was then that he says he "seemed to sense" the call of saints and his favorite heroes, to which he assented.
Some excerpts from his writings - Let's get very, very basic and very, very practical about prayer. The single most important piece of advice I know about prayer is also the simplest: Just do it! The major obstacle in most of our lives to just saying yes to prayer, the most popular and powerful excuse we give for not praying, or not praying more, or not praying regularly, is that we have no time. The only effective answer to that excuse, I find, is a kind of murder. You have to kill something, you have to say no to something else, in order to make time to pray.[4]
- Without qualification, without ifs, ands, or buts, God's word tells us, straight as a left jab, that love is the greatest thing there is (1 Cor 13: 13). Scripture never says God is justice or beauty or righteousness, though he is just and beautiful and righteous. But "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). Love is God's essence, his whole being. Everything in him is love. Even his justice is love. Paul identifies "the justice of God" in Romans 1:17 with the most unjust event in all history, deicide, the crucifixion, for that was God's great act of love. [5]
- Ideas are more precious than diamonds. The three most precious ideas I have ever discovered all concern the love of God. [6]
- What is God's Answer to Human Suffering? The answer must be someone, not just something. For the problem (suffering) is about someone (God—why does he... why doesn't he ...?) rather than just something. To question God's goodness is not just an intellectual experiment. It is rebellion or tears. It is a little child with tears in its eyes looking up at Daddy and weeping, "Why?" The hurt child needs not so much explanations as reassurances. And that is what we get: the reassurance of the Father in the person of Jesus, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). [7]
Controversy and Criticism Peter Kreeft although highly popular among Christian philosophers has drawn considerable criticism. His Apple Argument, lauded by many in the Pro-life movement, has often been evaluated negatively by Pro-Choice feminists, liberals, skeptics, and Neo-deconstructionalists.
Adam Bied, a friend and former student of Peter Kreeft, summarized a particular criticism as follows:
"I've probably spent more one on one time with Peter Kreeft than the vast majority of students he has ever had..Dr. Kreeft is a good man and clearly intelligent-yet he is also a man with something of a narrow view in certain regards. He [Kreeft] claims to have proven through reason that Jesus Christ was the "God-man" that the Roman Catholic Church asserts for example. Yet in explaining his trilemma argument he seems to neglect other possible options. Jesus may have (1) not existed at all and that the New Testament is a very eloquent fictional story - like Narnia or Lord of the Rings but better, (2) Jesus may have existed but was misquoted, or (3) Jesus was alive and very popular so his followers decided to write a completely fictional story about a real person. Option one and two if taken seriously are difficult to refute by using conventional philosophy though probably unlikely. Option three might have been something like the ancient Palestinian equivalent of the film "Thirteen Days." In any case Dr. Kreeft seemingly ignores these options." [www.bc.edu/hieghts]
However, in his book Between Heaven and Hell, Kreeft devotes more than half the work to addressing criticism such as the ones written above, following the likes of C.S. Lewis.
Some works He also formulated together with R. Tacelli Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God, what he calls a "cumulative case", and thus "all twenty taken together, like twined rope, make a very strong case," he states. Between Heaven and Hell is a fictional story by Peter Kreeft about President John F. Kennedy, and authors C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) meeting in Limbo or Purgatory and engaging in a philisophical discussion on faith. ...
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ...
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ...
Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was an English writer who emigrated to the United States, living in Los Angeles until his death in 1963. ...
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