The Sea Within: Waves and the Meaning of All Things

Peter Kreeft isnÔÇÖt just another major Renaissance man. Author of dozens of works in theology, philosophy, and logic, including a unique series of books designed to introduce major philosophers using the Socratic Method, Kreeft also created Socratic Logic, from St. AugustineÔÇÖs Press, a non-symbolic logic text that bills itself as using Socratic method, Platonic questions, and Aristotelian principles.

Above all, though, if you ask him, Peter Kreeft is a surfer . . . not necessarily of the ÔÇ£Hey, DudeÔÇØ variety, but rather as an adjunct to his lifelong love affair with the sea. In The Sea Within, Kreeft presents, in words both crystalline and compelling, why his longing is the longing of all, and why people who never swim (and may not even care much for sand and heat) are drawn to the ocean, just to sit and watch the waves pound the shore in one great heartbeat of nature. And he addresses the question: ÔÇ£why the waves without raise waves of wonder within.ÔÇØ

Drawing on his experience as teacher, theologian, philosopher, and wannebe beach bum, Kreeft unlocks the mysteries that lie at the core of each of us, of our need for wave-like recurrence, for connection, for wholeness with being, and why we find it so well, even if unspoken, even if unconsciously, in the sea and the surf.

Kreeft wears his learning lightly, with a happy heart and without the self-consciousness that one might have in explaining a love affair between persons, for this love affair each of us shares with all of us. The Sea Within offers much to be savored more than memorized, much to make us remember and desire, for as the prophet says, ÔÇ£Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.ÔÇØ

Published in a handy pocketbook size, The Sea Within is a satisfaction to the hunger we all feel and perhaps didnÔÇÖt know we felt, but will bring us back to the place we have always been, the sea within.