ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Peter Kreeft. "Happiness: Ancient and Modern Concepts of Happiness." a talk by Peter Kreeft given in various places at various times.
This article is reprinted with permission from Peter Kreeft.
THE AUTHOR
Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He is an alumnus of Calvin College (AB 1959) and Fordham University (MA 1961, Ph.D., 1965). He taught at Villanova University from 1962-1965, and has been at Boston College since 1965.
He is the author of numerous books (over forty and counting) including: The Snakebite Letters, The Philosophy of Jesus, The Journey: A Spiritual Roadmap for Modern Pilgrims, Prayer: The Great Conversation: Straight Answers to Tough Questions About Prayer, How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis, Love Is Stronger Than Death, Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy Via Plato's Apology, A Pocket Guide to the Meaning of Life, and Before I Go: Letters to Our Children About What Really Matters. Peter Kreeft in on the Advisory Board of the Catholic Education Resource Center.
**For, of course, I am referring to Christ’s eight beatitudes which opened his Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon ever preached, and the one part of the New Testament that is still held up as central and valid and true and good and beautiful even by dissenters, heretics, revisionists, demythologizers, skeptics, modernists, theological liberals, and anyone else who cannot bring himself to believe all the other claims in the New Testament or the teachings of the Church. **
LOL! Straining out the gnats, he says, yet swallowing the camel.
Catholic Ping!
Since we live in the present, how does an ancient concept of happiness really matter? Or anothers concept of happiness for that matter?
i will look through this later - I always like things that go into the fuller meanings of the words. HOWEVER, he touches on one of my big pet peeves in relating the following:
“To our desire for wealth, Christ says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Christ was not talking about money.