“I should have said that!”
This thought that goes through the head of virtually every person since upper adolescence as every one of us reflects back upon past conversations where some comment has taken us off guard.
We not only crave the opportunity for that perfect retort when insulted but also that pithy comment, that insightful opinion, that witty turn of phrase. There is a reason why everyone for a time loved those Aaron Sorkin dramas with their punchy repartee as two dynamic characters walked down some hallway.
The dialogue shows us that a truly good conversation was both informative and incredibly entertaining.
You felt smarter, you invested, when two characters sparred with words and each could give as well as took. It is also why podcasts are such a popular medium for information and entertainment, oftentimes simultaneously delivered indistinguishably throughout any particular episode.
This method of dialectic is one of the oldest in educational writing. It dates back to one of Western civilization’s greatest teachers and writers, the philosopher Plato, and his *ahem* character in Socrates. One of the Church’s recent great contributors in this noble tradition of dialectic is Dr. Peter Kreeft.
The focus of Voyage Comics is primarily on the telling of stories in fiction, and all of Dr. Kreeft’s books technically fall under non-fiction. Kreeft’s contributions fit into this mission through his ability to construct realistic, engaging and informative, and fictionalized, conversations between individuals, some real, some fake, some famous, some anonymous.
Dr. Kreeft infuses moderately high level philosophical questions in an organic way through his tightly constructed conversations.
His primary character is the great questioner himself, Socrates, whom Kreeft places in a number of entertaining and instructive hypothetical situations. This enables him to talk about some of life’s, and death’s, biggest questions.
Ironically, some argue that Socrates was already a literary construction of Plato. This is known as “The Socratic Problem.” There is no way to know for sure, but basically people are skeptical that Socrates could win every argument so definitively.
Not only do we get to meet Kreeft’s version of Socrates in his dialogues, but also C.S. Lewis, President Kennedy, Aldous Huxely, JRR Tolkien, Billy Graham, Karl Marx, David Hume, Rene Descartes, Niccolo Machiavelli, Soren Kierkegaard, Immanuel Kant, Jean Paul Sartre, Sigmond Frued, and even Jesus, kind of.
Just like Plato’s depiction of Socrates in his dialogues, with Kreeft we, the readers, have the comfort in knowing it is all a setup…
Socrates questioned his interlocutor about some position, probing deeper until he exposed the position. He illustrated how that position rested on a set of untenable assumptions. Kreeft’s Socrates will examine certain ancient and modern positions that rest on similar assumptions, helping us see with more clarity that faultiness in their reasoning.
Many commentators on the importance of fiction will hover around the idea that the infinite scenarios that the literary world provides for us to encounter in the safe space of a book is the opportunity to empathize with people in all of these dramatic and moving situations.
These experiences become a training ground for our confrontations with similar expectations to empathize with others undergoing stressful, sorrowful or joyful circumstances in “real life” later on. While having the wittiest retort is not inherently the noblest goal, and Kreeft’s fictional conversations don’t focus on “winning” an argument, most people have some desire to contribute thoughtfully and engagingly in the conversations we will certainly find ourselves in as we go through life.
In getting to experience Kreeft’s dialogues, which all focus on the most important and interesting topics a conversation can cover, one is prepared to participate more fruitfully when the “real life” occasion happens.
Culture develops through the open exchange of ideas.
This exchange must happen between people but it also must happen in the context of events. This recipe of people, events and ideas are made meaningful in the context of a story. In the conversations that Kreeft creates, we get the people, though fictionalized, coming with their own premade context by which they determine meaning, exchanging ideas, and we, the readers, are the ones who develop.
Mike Schramm teaches theology and philosophy at the high school and college level in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He earned his MA in theology from St. Joseph's College in Maine and an MA in philosophy from Holy Apostles College. He co-hosts the Voyage Podcast with Jacob Klatte.