|
1c30d77
|
Thus the quintessentially "conservative" dogma of Christ's divinity as the pre-incarnate eternal Logos is the basis for the quintessentially "liberal" hope that good pagans can go to Heaven. He is indeed the one and only Way, Truth, and Life, the only Savior. But when Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or even honest agnostics give their heart to truth and goodness; when they make the ultimate value and point and purpose and meaning and end of the..
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
dd4ec5c
|
manifests a good person, a good character, a good habit, and also because good deeds gradually form good habits, good character, good persons.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
709222e
|
Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows nothing of this. Thus all our dignity consists in thought. It is on tho..
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
19996db
|
Christians are good citizens, and take human laws very seriously, for religious reasons, not just for secular reasons. That's why they are better citizens than atheists, and certainly better citizens than moral relativists and subjectivists: they have stronger motives for obedience.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
1004401
|
There--fore what is contrary to human nature is contrary to God's will.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
8373061
|
Our neighbor and our world are the two roads out of Hell, i.e., out of pure egotism, that God has put in everyone's path to make salvation as easy as possible. Although natural lust misuses neighbors as objects rather than persons, using them rather than loving them; and although natural greed misuses things by loving them rather than using them, unnatural lust and greed are really forms of pride, which is the sin from Hell, not from the fl..
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
b46afbe
|
As Buddha said, "All that we are is determined by our thoughts."
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
103fe8f
|
sex for reproduction
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
3082965
|
Good theology is not the knowledge of theology but the knowledge of God. Bad theology is the theology of the theologian who died and went to Heaven and at the gates of Heaven God offered him the choice between Heaven and a theology lecture on Heaven, and he chose the lecture.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
17102ff
|
Heart" here refers especially to deep feeling or emotion. "Heart" means not only (1) intuitive reason ("the heart has its reasons") and (2) will"
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
d348073
|
But if scandal arise from truth, the scandal should be borne rather than the truth be set aside,
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
d4d75c4
|
all power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely")."
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
f62ddf3
|
our ego is not God. In fact, it is often wrong, because it is fallen, foolish, and faithless.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
c66b473
|
Each practical moral virtue has two opposed vices, a "too much" and a "too little" (e.g., cowardice and foolhardiness, or insensitivity and self-indulgence). Theoretical truth also usually contrasts with two opposite errors, e.g., angelism vs. animalism regarding human nature, or deism vs. pantheism in theology, or the denial of free will vs. the denial of predestination. And so too here, with the sacraments. On the one hand, superstition a..
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
71edbaa
|
Sacraments are that literal, that physical. Salvation is very physical. If the woman with the hemorrhage had touched the hem of St. Peter's garment instead of Christ's, her faith alone would not have healed her until it was joined to His body by her touch.--Unless God had willed to heal her that way, of course. God can work outside his sacraments, and often does. There
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
627edcb
|
the species or nature with which we make our choices is fallen, sinful, selfish, and stupid; and we cannot by our own power attain the deepest and final end of our desires, union with God, eternal happiness. Thus,
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
254fc42
|
Of course we should use all our powers, of mind and will and imagination, but not trust in them, for that is trusting in ourselves.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
ab2cea8
|
the Lutheran alternative to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation which is called consubstantiation, in which the bread and wine are not changed but added to, so that Christ becomes really present along with them but they remain.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
636bcc2
|
God said it, that settles it.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
70c80ea
|
his total refusal to be tempted by the prostitute
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
4d65818
|
The transformation of Christ's bodily scars into badges of glory shows us what happens, even in this life, to our souls when we lovingly and trustingly offer our sufferings to Christ and unite them to His. He turns "deformity" into "dignity"."
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
c7d5f5b
|
when a subject corrects his prelate, he ought to do so in a becoming manner, not with impudence and harshness but with gentleness and respect. . . .
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
129f304
|
However, when once perfect happiness has been attained, nothing will remain to be desired because then there will be full enjoyment of God,
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
e0e615f
|
democracy is probably intrinsically the best form of government, not because all men are equal in wisdom and virtue, or because all men are so good and wise that they should be given as much power as possible, but because all men are so foolish and wicked that no one should be given very great power over others.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
ac6e1d3
|
In essentials, unity; in inessentials, diversity; in all things, charity.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
6612932
|
All that exists is metaphysically true and metaphysically good.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
f874328
|
Pure truth is possible, but pure falsehood is not.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
2f11bab
|
For we are not pure spirits who happen to be trapped in bodies. We are not even spirits who only have bodies, for we do not have bodies as we have possessions. We are bodies as well as souls.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
25977a0
|
Not all who listen, believe. If you call the Gospel a crazy fairy tale, a far-too-good-to-be-true myth, an insane extension of wishful thinking, or even a blasphemous lie, I will respect you and argue with you. But if you call it a platitude, I can only pity you, for that means you have never listened to it.
|
|
jesus
jesus-shock
peter-kreeft
|
peter kreeft |
|
4ad8a10
|
Since (1) charity is supernatural, and comes only from the real presence of God in the soul (St. Thomas' paragraph 3), and since (2) all men, and not only Christians, are capable of charity (as has been proved in the paragraph above), it follows that (3) all men are capable of accepting the real presence of God in their souls, even if they have defective or mistaken concepts of God.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
9999030
|
these relativists turn out to be not relativistic at all about one thing: their relativism. That's their one nonnegotiable absolute.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
522d95d
|
And what is consensus? It means a majority of the individuals in a society coming together and agreeing to make their values into laws, or 'society's standards.' A law is enforced only by force. So your 'consensus' really means that some individuals - the lawmakers, whoever they are - the majority of democracy - impose their personal values, their will, on the other's. That's 'judgementalism,' that's imposition. The relativist is accusing t..
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
ea814b1
|
we are participating in His actual work.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
7c0ee24
|
As I said, relativism says there are no absolutes. Absolutely no absolutes.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
9c804a6
|
The deepest healing is the healing of the deepest wound. The deepest wound is the frustration of the deepest need. The deepest need is the need for meaning, purpose, and hope.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
1ce6fa0
|
A great story must have, first of all, a good plot, a great deed, a good work, something worth doing. You cannot write a great story about saving a button on a sweater and nothing more. You can, however, write a great story about saving the world, which is what Tolkien did.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
ee63c0f
|
Like the Fellowship itself, Tolkien's philosophy fights. It conquers what George Orwell called the "smelly little orthodoxies" of political correctness that have twisted and wounded our souls. In other words, it is like the healing herb athelas (see LOTR, p. 193)."
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
f20800e
|
Hell is not populated mainly by passionate rebels but by nice, bland, indifferent, respectable people who simply never gave a damn.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
2b499e4
|
Ai xuong hoa nguc deu co the hat len: Toi da song theo y toi.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
3f8a86a
|
Those who love Tolkien are almost always good people, honest people. Some are Hobbit-like and some are Elvish, but none are Orcish. Not all Tolkien haters are Orcs, but all Orcs are Tolkien haters.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
7df9ae6
|
It is often said that we live in a youth culture. It's a lie. We live in an old culture. We idolize youth because we are old. We are tired and bored. Ancient cultures respected the old because those cultures were young. They were not bored.
|
|
youth
philosophy
culture
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
48bf82e
|
Happiness can get boring, because it is the satisfaction of our desires, and we know what we desire. (Can you desire what you do not know?) Joy never gets boring because it transcends our desires and surprises them with gifts.
|
|
joy
happiness
fulfillment
transcendence
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
5e4eba4
|
Doesn't certainty about a universal negative require omniscience? Don't you have to have knowledge of everywhere to know that there is no X anywhere?
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
dcc2032
|
There is a legend that in every age God spares the world the destruction it deserves only because there are a certain number of Abrahams, righteous men and women who keep the world alive by their righteousness and their prayers, by the mass and the gravity of their righteousness reverberating on the walls of the divine mercy. No one but God knows who these righteous are or how many there are.
|
|
|
Peter Kreeft |