Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The quotable Kreeft

Peter Kreeft's writings are full of quotable quotes. He probably intends this, deliberately crafting his writing after mentors like Chesterton. Here are a few from his book, How to Win the Culture War:
The theme of spiritual warfare is never absent in Scripture and never absent in the life and writings of a single canonized saint. But it is never present in the religious education of my "Catholic" college students. Whenever I speak of it, they are stunned and silent, as if they have suddenly entered another world.

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Sexual pigginess and economic pigginess are natural twins. For lust and greed are almost interchangeable words. In fact, America does not know the difference between sex and money. It treats sex like money because it treats sex as a medium of exchange, and it treats money like sex because it expects its money to get pregnant and reproduce.

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The most obvious difference between Christianity and "spirituality" is the fact that Christianity includes commandments, while "spirituality" includes only values.... "Spirituality" has seeped into many churches and private lives like gas from a leak in an underground pipe.

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"Spiritual" people do not believe in Christianity (although most of them think they are Christians), nor do they believe in atheism or materialism; they believe in "spirituality." They think religion -- any religion -- is a good thing not because it is true but because it fosters morality. (But they tend to reduce morality to compassion or "tolerance" -- the virtue Chesterton said is all that remains after a man has lost all his principles.)

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