day no. 15,430: three pointers

I've picked up Three Philosophies of Life by Peter Kreeft again. It is on my short list of re-read books and has been for sometime. It is a faithful friend and one I thoroughly enjoy reconnecting with. Even going a year in between visits, we pick up right where we left off. We are good friends and it takes only a moment to catch up and begin rehashing our favorite memories. 

Here are a few highlights from the opening pages.

There are three philosophies of life:

Life as vanity: Ecclesiastes

Life as suffering: Job

Life as love: Song of Solomon

There are three conditions in which a life can find itself:

Hell - Ecclesiastes

Purgatory - Job

Heaven - Song of Solomon

*Kreeft points out here he is not advocating a theological point about a particular place called Purgatory (Kreeft being a Catholic theologian) but rather making a point about a soul/life being either in a state of hellish torment, heavenly delight or in the process of moving from hellish torment to heavenly delight.

There are three metaphysical moods which provoke a philosophy of life to manifest:

There are three moods that prompt us to ask, "Why is there anything rather than nothing?"

Boredom - Ecclesiastes

Despair - Job

Joy - Song of Solomon

In this sense, Kreeft advocates that Hell is not only straight forward immanent suffering, but also a transcendent suffering of the loss of caring about anything. Physical suffering still seeks relief whereas spiritual/metaphysical suffering gives up believing relief exists or that meaning of any kind can be found. Physical torment still seeks resolution whereas boredom can't be bothered anymore and is beyond caring about changing one's situation.

There are three theological virtues:

Faith - Ecclesiastes

Hope - Job

Charity - Song of Solomon

Faith is the only virtue that can help one escape the total depravity and hellish existence of living a life of vanity. Faith alone can resurrect the dead to a state of living. But this is not the end, it is only the beginning. Once faith has moved one from boredom or apathy to concern, one immediately comes into contact with suffering. The bored soul does not suffer the lack of its progress, but the soul aimed at Heaven suffers the shock of still being so far from it. Hope then becomes the virtue of enduring the difficulties of sanctification. Faith justifies, but hope sanctifies. Charity, or love, then embodies the final stage of glorification. God is love and we are becoming what we behold. If we worship Him, we are becoming more loving as we are conformed to the image of His Son, Love incarnate eternally, perfectly embodied.

Kreeft quotes Chesterton's observation that these three form the trajectory of history overall in addition to the individual's salvation in particular.

"Paganism was the biggest thing in the world, and Christianity was bigger, and everything since has been comparatively small." -- G.K. Chesterton

The search for something more to life was suffered as the most tenacious task of the ancient world. Christianity alone surpassed it in providing an answer larger than the questions it could generate. As a result, every knock-off, store-brand Messiah since is relatively small in comparison. You cannot go back to the bigness of paganism after it has been eclipsed by the giant of Jesus.

Kreeft sums it up this way,

"Job shows us the heights of pre-Christian hope and heroism. Songs of Solomon shows us the spiritual center of the Christian era, and finally, Ecclesiastes tells us the truth about the modern, post-Christian world and world view. Once the divine Lover's marriage offer is spurned, the modern divorcee' cannot simply return to being a pagan virgin, any more than an individual who spurns Heaven and chooses Hell can make Hell into purgatory (hopelessness into hope)." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life