Peter Kreeft - Between Heaven and Hell

Outline to Between Heaven and Hell

The following is meant to be an outline of the logical structure of the argument. The running sidebars in the text also aid the reader in announcing new topics.

This book can be seen either as a confrontation among three worldviews: Christian theism (Lewis), Eastern pantheism (Huxley) and modern Western humanism (Kennedy), or as a defense of the central, unique claim of Christianity (that Jesus Christ is God incarnate) against both modern Western secular objections and ancient Eastern religious objections.

I. Lewis vs. Kennedy

A. Kennedys objections (note Lewiss replies to each one)

1. new Christianity vs. old Christianity

2. Christian values vs. Christ

3. Jesus as man become God vs. Jesus as God become man

4. Objection to miracles and the supernatural

5. Objection to (and misunderstanding of) authority

6. Objection to black-and-white thinking

7. Objection to objective truth

8. Objection to proofs in religion

B. The argument: four ways to put the same basic argument

1. Jesus is aut deus aut homo malus (either God or a bad man).

He is not a bad man.

Therefore he is God.

Proof of the first premise: A mere man who claims to be God is a bad man, not a good man. He is either a liar (if he doesnt believe his claim) or a lunatic (if he does).

Thus Jesus is either Lord, Liar or Lunatic.

2. Sages (the wise) are trustable.

Jesus is a sage.

Therefore Jesus is trustable.

And trustable people tell the truth, especially about themselves.

Therefore Jesus tells the truth, especially about himself.

But Jesus says he is God.

Therefore it is true that he is God.

3. How can we classify Jesus?

Reasons for classifying Jesus as a sage:

a. practical wisdom (prajna), insight into the human heart and character

b. practical love, altruism, compassion (karuna), selflessness, charity

c. creativity, unpredictability, interestingness, multidimensionality, unclassifiability

Lunatics have exactly the opposite three characteristics: platitudinous, egotistic and boring

4. What are all the possibilities about Jesus?

a. He didnt ever claim to be God as the Gospels say: Jesus is a MYTH

b. He did claim to be God.

i. By God he meant Brahman (the God of Hinduism): Jesus is a GURU

ii. By God he meant YHWH (the God of Judaism)

1. The claim is false

a. He knew it was false: Jesus is a LIAR

b. He didnt know it was false: Jesus is a LUNATIC

2. The claim is true: Jesus is the LORD

II. Lewis vs. Huxley

A. First objection: Jesus never claimed to be God; the texts are not to be trusted.

Lewiss answers:

1. There is much textual evidence for the Jesus of the Gospels and none against it; no evidence for any earlier, original, merely human Jesus, and no evidence for a later dating of the texts that claim divinity or miracles.

2. There is no motivation for the invention of the lie of a divine Jesus; those who taught it gained nothing by it and lost everything.

3. There is not enough time to have a legend of a divine Jesus arise and be believed, for eyewitnesses of the real Jesus would still be alive to contradict the new legend of Jesus.

4. Christianity is not like any other myth.

a. If it is a lie, it is the biggest lie ever told.

b. The style of the Gospels is realistic eyewitness description, not myth (compare real mythic writings); if it is not true, the apostles invented the modern literary genre of realistic fantasy eighteen centuries ago.

5. If Jesus did not claim to be God, the liar or lunatic argument can be applied to whoever invented the legendary claim of the divine Jesus:

a. If they believed that Jesus really did claim to be God when in fact he never did claim that, then they were very stupid. Not likely for Jews to confuse God with a man!

b. If they knew Jesus didnt really claim to be God, they were the greatest liars in historyand to what purpose? What advantage? Martyrdom does not prove truth, but it proves sincerity.

B. Second objection: Jesus may have claimed to be God, and in fact was God, but so are all of us. Jesus was a Hindu-type guru, a pantheistic mystic. Jesus was the guru to the Jews, but both his friends and his enemies failed to understand his true, inner, mystical, esoteric meaning, fastening instead onto his external, literal, exoteric, public words.

Lewiss answers:

1. Christianity, like Judaism, is an exoteric, public, open religion, not an esoteric one.

2. Jesus taught theism, not pantheism. He was a Jew, not a Hindu.

3. If he tried to teach the so-called perennial philosophy of pantheism, he was the least successful teacher of it in history, for he explicitly contradicted it on at least six points:

a. God is personal ( I am ), not impersonal.

b. God is the transcendent Creator, other and distinct from nature. Nature is neither God nor illusion, as it is in pantheism.

c. God is knowable by divine revelation in visible deeds and written words. Religion is Gods search for man, not just mans search for God.

d. God is good, not evil and not beyond good and evil. He has a will and gave a law.

e. Jesus taught sin and salvation; that we do not have divine life by nature, but must receive it from God by grace.

f. Those who do not accept this gift by faith will not be saved; there is hell, because there is created free will.