Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Economy of Wonder: Peter Kreeft on Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Economy of Wonder: Peter Kreeft on Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Nov 2, 2026 1:28 PM

In the latest video from For the Life of the World, Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft expounds on the Economy of Wonderand how it intersects with our stewardship of God’s house.

Hipster head-bobbingispermitted:

There’s beauty everywhere. We just don’t see it…Life is a mystery to be lived continuously, not a problem to be solved suddenly…

In this life, we are so full and foolish that we appreciate only a few of these things, since we have more and more slaves that we have to take care of, and therefore we have less and less time every generation — less and less leisure. Our slaves are not made of flesh and blood anymore, thank God, but they’re made of steel and plastic puter chips. We are happiest when we play with endlessly fascinating simple things, like the sea or sticks and stones, instead of with puter games that bore us so quickly that we require new ones every month. This is an image of the human condition.

…Everything that exists has some truth, some goodness, and some beauty. Everything is divine revelation. We are creators because we are created in the image of the Creator. We are artists because God is, and it’s because we dimly know this that we weep with both joy and sorrow when we meet someone pulls up the curtain an inch — the curtain that separates the heavenly vision from the earthly.

…How do we use this to save the world? How do you appreciate beauty? You just love it. How do you appreciate goodness? You just love it. How do you find the truth? You love it. Seek and you shall find. Truth, goodness, and beauty. You just do it. It’s like, “How do you love? How do you pray? How do you live?” Just do it.

For more on the Economy of Wonder, purchase For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, register for Acton University by the end of January and receive a free copy. For routine updates, see the FLOW blog and Oikonomia blog, and follow each on Facebook (here and here).

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The Sheep and the Goats: Work and Service to Others
In this week’s Acton Commentary, “The Sheep and the Goats: Work and Service to Others,” I visit Lester DeKoster’s interpretation of the parable of the sheep and the goats from Matthew 25. Although not many have discussed this as an “economic” parable, DeKoster’s point is that anyone who truly serves another through legitimate work, whether paid or unpaid, can be understood to be a “sheep.” Work, for DeKoster, is “the form in which we make ourselves useful to others, and...
Free eBook: A Prescription for Health Care Reform
With health care moving back to center stage in Washington, we’re publishing Dr. Donald Condit’s Acton monograph A Prescription for Health Care Reform as a free eBook readable in a variety of formats. This excellent work continues to be available for $6 (paperback) in the Acton Bookshoppe. For your free eBook, visit Acton’s Smashwords page. The Condit book will soon be available in the Kindle store (no charge for that, either) and in other eBook retail sites. We’ll keep you...
The Golden Mean and the Problem of Executive Compensation
There was a good deal of discussion in the media over “unfair” pensation, especially in light of the bonuses, golden parachutes, and other forms of remuneration received by CEOs during the bailout. I have yet to hear plaint about CEOs being underpaid, though. But this might change as it es apparent that pensation of executives might well be a way to wriggle out of higher payroll tax liability. Consider the case of CPA David Watson, who “incurred the wrath of...
What Indians and Chinese make of their tycoons
An interesting report in The Economist on the rise of flashy and free spending entrepreneur “gazillionaires” in India and China and how they are perceived: In much of India, life is getting perceptibly better each year. Wealth per person has vaulted by 150% in the past decade, from $2,000 to $5,000. Many Indians think the nation’s entrepreneurs deserve some of the credit. In Dharavi, a slum outside Mumbai, an illiterate mother called Aruna sits in her tiny one-room flat, which...
Pastoring Politicians and the Sanctifying of Success
Lord Acton: “There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.” — Billy Graham says he “would have steered clear of politics” By Chris Herlinger New York, 25 January (ENInews)–American evangelist Billy Graham – who has been called “the pastor for presidents” for having met and prayed with every U.S. president in the last six decades, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama — has publicly acknowledged regret at sometimes crossing the line between...
Risk, Uncertainty, and Rule of Law
When we think of rule of law failure, countries like Zimbabwe and e to mind. But as Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg points out in his latest piece over at Public Discourse, rule of law can also be subtly eroded in wealthy countries. The negative consequences for risk-taking, entrepreneurship, and long term investment, he says, can be far-reaching. Risk is an inherent part of the workings of market economies. But Gregg notes that’s not the same thing as uncertainty: Measurable...
Radio Free Acton: Concealing Christian Identity
Radio Free Acton hits the web once again today, this time featuring an exchange between Hunter Baker, author of The End of Secularism, and Jonathan Malesic, author of Secret Faith in the Public Square: An Argument for the Concealment of Christian Identity. Their conversation continues an exchange begun in the Controversy section of the latest issue of Acton’s Journal of Markets & Morality. Should Christians be overt about their faith when operating in the public square, or should Christian identity...
Journal of Markets & Morality 13, no. 2 (Fall 2010)
The latest issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality (13.2) is now available online to subscribers. This issue features a fine set of articles from Manfred Spieker, Gregorio Guitián, Joseph Burke, and Jim Skillen. It also has the usual range of book reviews, so ably overseen by the journal’s book review editor Kevin Schmiesing. This issue also has two special features. The first is a controversy between Jonathan Malesic, assistant professor of theology at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,...
Talking About Babel
Two more thoughtful reviews of Jordan Ballor’s Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church’s Social Witness are in. Ross Emmett says that, “those concerned about the role of the church in the world today can learn a lot by reading and reflecting on Ballor’s excellent critique of the ecumenical movement’s political economy.” And in the new issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality, Thomas Sieger Derr agrees with Jordan that the ecumenical movement should be “appropriately circumspect in...
CFP: Modern Christian Social Thought (JMM 14.2)
I’ve issued a call for publication for a special issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality to appear in the Fall of 2011 (14.2). The details are below, and you can download and circulate a PDF as well. Call for Publication: Modern Christian Social Thought In recognition of a number of significant anniversaries occurring this year, the Journal of Markets & Morality invites submissions for a special theme issue, “Modern Christian Social Thought” (vol. 14, no. 2). The year...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved