A review of Socrates Meets Marx. By Peter Kreeft.

Ignatius, 2003.

Peter Kreeft is professional philosopher, a prolific author, and an avid Christian apologist. He has written a number of books using the Socratic method of dialogue and questioning to stimulate thought, correct fuzzy thinking, and challenge our unexamined presuppositions.
 
He is now in the midst of a new series of volumes, entitled Socrates Meets…. The series is designed to help introduce the reader to the major thinkers and their writings. In this book we have Kreeft (via Socrates) analyse and dissect The Communist Manifesto.
 
This book, of course, belongs to that group of books which almost everyone knows about but very few people have actually read. Works by Darwin and Freud could also be mentioned (and one suspects that Kreeft has these authors in the pipeline as well).

So it is quite important that someone who actually knows these Great Books quite well can make them accessible and understandable to the average layperson. These volumes do a very good job of distilling the contents and ideas of the Great Books, making them easy to understand and digest. The format of a debate or dialogue between Socrates and his antagonist makes for enjoyable and illuminating reading.

Indeed, the format makes the book fun while helping the reader discover discerning and penetrating insights into the subject of the debate. By uniting a Christian worldview with the probing Socratic method, Kreeft is able to clarify an opponent’s position, and point out the inconsistencies and fallacies therein. He is then in a position to show the superior claims of the Judeo-Christian position, over against that found in their works.

This volume applies solid logic and the timeless truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition to one of the most influential of modern thinkers. It makes for a great introduction to this thinker, as well as an incisive critique of his thoughts. One can only look forward to future volumes in this excellent series.

[317 words]

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