Editorial

Fighting a war by being a saint

By MARIA OLAGUERA

In the introduction to his latest book, How To Win the Culture War, Dr. Peter Kreeft gives advance warning to the politically correct, the socially tolerant, and the painfully polite who might be reading it. He writes, “This book will probably be censored in Canada as hate speech, like Dr. Laura, and be confiscated at the border. It’s loud and crude, and I’m not sorry.”

Although many of the statements in his book may be deemed politically incorrect, Dr. Kreeft does not come across as intolerant or rude (except, perhaps, to people who believe there is no such thing as truth), for in this book Dr. Kreeft writes nothing but the truth, and he does it with courage, style, and humour.

Throughout its nine chapters he uses strong language as he unflinchingly speaks of “non-negotiables” and “absolutes”: dirty words in today’s relativist society.

He begins by making the compelling statement that we are, in fact, at war: a “spiritual jihad.” He speaks eloquently of the casualties of this war: the “rotting souls,” the ignorant, misled, and the spiritually impoverished; and the “dying children,” born and unborn, the defenceless and innocent victims of the crossfire between lust and greed.

The book is a rousing call to arms and at the same time a battle plan. Indeed, certain parts of it resemble Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. For one thing, both Sun Tzu and Dr. Kreeft seem to be fond of making statements in point form. More important, they both understand the fundamental importance of knowing the enemy.

More than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote, “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

Dr. Kreeft applies the same principle today, first pointing out the folly of mistaking the identity of the enemy, underestimating the enemy’s strength, or denying that there is one. Then, in the present culture war, he names the enemy: both of them.

One he calls the horror outside the soul, and the other the horror inside. In other words, they are the devil and sin: two more words that elicit frowns from secularists and blushes from timid Christians.

After discussing the modern-day horrors caused by the work of the devil and the evil of sin, the worst of which he says is the perversion of sex and sexuality, Dr. Kreeft shines a ray of light. He contends that there is a way to win the war, “for if sin is the enemy, then the Saviour from sin is the answer, and He is infinitely more powerful than His enemy. The weapon that will win this war: this war’s atomic bomb, is saints.”

He reminds us that each of us can become a saint, but in order for that to happen, first we have to really want it. Dr. Kreeft admits that the strategy is as simple and wonderful and terrible as that. “Only saints can save the world. The deepest reason why the Church is weak and the world is dying is that there are not enough saints ... is that we are not saints.”

He offers this sobering insight from William Law’s Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life: “If you will look into your own heart in utter honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not, even now, as saintly as the primitive Christians: you do not wholly want to be.”

He thereby places the onus on you, on me, on himself. He concedes that the struggle to personal sanctity may seem too difficult, the difficulties insurmountable, but he takes heart in the fact that the Holy Father, “one of the most serious and realistic men of our time, is always hopeful, especially for youth and the coming generation.”

There may always be room for hope, but nowhere is there room for timid Christians in Dr. Kreeft’s battle plan, for sainthood means martyrdom, not necessarily the bloody kind, but that which Dr. Kreeft describes as “the martyrdom of dying daily, dying every minute for as long as you live, dying to all your desires and plans, including your pet plans about how to become a saint.”

The Bible richly illustrates the paradox of dying to gain life, figuratively as well as literally, Jesus being the ultimate example. It is Dr. Kreeft’s firm belief that the heroic imitation of Christ is the key to winning the culture war, and win it we must. Win it we will, Dr. Kreeft is certain, ending the book with his three last absolutes: “because truth is stronger than falsehood; love is stronger than hate, and Jesus is Lord, Christ is King.”

Dr. Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and the author of many books, including Between Heaven and Hell, and Christianity for Modern Pagans.