The Hermit’s One Book
A quote from Peter Kreeft:
I have a friend who camps in the Maine woods each summer. One day he met an old hermit who had not lived in “civilization” for forty years. He seemed uncannily wise… and when my friend asked him where he got his wisdom, he pulled from his pocket the only book he had had for forty years. It was a tattered, yellow copy of Ecclesiastes. Only Ecclesiastes. That one book had been enough for him. Perhaps “civilization” is so unwise because nothing is ever enough for it. The old hermit had stayed in one place, physically, and spiritually, and explored its depths; civilization, meanwhile, had moved restlessly on, skimming over the surface of the great deeps. While civilization was reading the Times, he was reading the eternities.
~ Peter Kreeft, in Three Philosophies of Life
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I have a friend who camps in the Maine woods each summer. One day he met an old hermit who had not lived in “civilization” for forty years. He seemed uncannily wise… and when my friend asked him where he got his wisdom, he pulled from his pocket the only book he had had for forty years. It was a tattered, yellow copy of Ecclesiastes. Only Ecclesiastes. That one book had been enough for him. Perhaps “civilization” is so unwise because nothing is ever enough for it. The old hermit had stayed in one place, physically, and spiritually, and explored its depths; civilization, meanwhile, had moved restlessly on, skimming over the surface of the great deeps. While civilization was reading the Times, he was reading the eternities.
~ Peter Kreeft, in Three Philosophies of Life
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posted by Darrell Grizzle | 12:53 AM
2 Comments:
That reminds me of a verse in the Dhammapada, that it's wiser to know a single verse of dharma and practice it, than to know all the Scriptures of the world and not practice.
It also reminds me that my favorite Scriptures are all short: The Isha, Mundaka and Katha Upanishads, the Heart Sutra, the Gospel of Thomas, the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus' farewell in John, The Dhammapada and the Tao Te Ching, the end of Job, and yes, Ecclesiastes..
All together, those would probably be a fraction the size of the New Testament. Maybe it would be easier to focus on the essentials if the canon were shorter. Maybe not.
Jon, those Scriptures you mentioned would make an excellent anthology. I can see a pocket-sized book of these Scriptures. Maybe we should compile it and get it published!
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