Doors in the Walls of the World: Signs of Transcendence in the Human Story

by Peter Kreeft

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." -- Hamlet

After William Shakespeare's Horatio sees the ghost of Hamlet's father, and scarcely believes his own eyes, Hamlet tells him that there is more to reality than he can know or imagine, including ghosts.

Hamlet's statement suggests that the walls of the material world, which we perceive with our senses and analyze with our intellects, have doors that open into the More beyond them. Philosopher Peter Kreeft explains in this book that the More includes "The Absolute Good, Platonic Forms, God, gods, angels, spirits, ghosts, souls, Brahman, Rta (the Hindu ontological basis for cosmological karma), Nirvana, Tao, 'the will of Heaven', The Meaning of It All, Something that deserves a capital letter."

With razor-sharp reasoning and irrepressible joy, Kreeft helps us to find the doors in the walls of the world. Drawing on history, physical science, psychology, religion, philosophy, literature, and art, he invites us to welcome what lies on the other side of these doors, and to begin living the life of Heaven in the here and now.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Faith, Catholic, Religion, Christianity, Christian

127 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2018

About the author

Peter Kreeft is an American philosopher and prolific author of over eighty books on Christian theology, philosophy, and apologetics. A convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, his journey was shaped by his study of Church history, Gothic architecture, and Thomistic thought. He earned his BA from Calvin College, an MA and PhD from Fordham University, and pursued further studies at Yale. Since 1965, he has taught philosophy at Boston College and also at The King’s College. Kreeft is known for formulating “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God” with Ronald K. Tacelli, featured in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics. A strong advocate for unity among Christians, he emphasizes shared belief in Christ over denominational differences.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was 12, I read H.G. Wells’ The Door in the Wall, about a friend who goes mad with the apparently irresolvable search for meaning, and one day sees a door in the wall of a construction site. He opens it, and rushes through it. He plunges to his death.

Such is life, I thought. I started entertaining a Bad Case of the Blues.

And that road took me forever to walk and win, as Tolkien says. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

But Then, when I was 68, THIS book suddenly turned me around from my blues, for it showed me we CAN open a door in the wall to peace.

We CAN crack the hard unyielding egg of depression, too, if only we let a Higher Force take charge. It’s like they say in AA - we’re NOT in control anymore!!

Let that Higher Force do it, friends.

And his “fiat” will lead you to inner serenity, which shows you His ultimate meaning of life is the Right One.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just looking at the cover of this book evokes the imagination. It immediately calls to mind, C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and more recently N.D. Wilson’s 100 Cupboards. But the book also takes me back. When I was in university as a mature student it seems that every month or two my spiritual director was recommending another book by Peter Kreeft. In fact, when I check I had read 14 books by Kreeft in 4 years. But I was greatly surprised to find out that It had over a decade since I had read one of his works. If his works in the last few years are as excellent as this, I need to add them all to my to be read list. This book was an absolutely wonderful read.

Kreeft begins the introduction when addressing how many philosophies of life there are begins with two answers; Answer 1 Three Philosophies of Life, and answer 2 there are only two philosophies. In the first answer the three types are:

1. Wonder begins in surprise.
2. This second kind of wonder—questioning—is wonder in the intellect, guided by the will (the “will to truth”, which is far from automatic).
3. Wonder is consummated in contemplative awe.

And then he states:

“Philosophy not only begins in wonder (#1), it also proceeds by means of wonder (#2) and ends in wonder (#3).
This book is about the third kind of wonder.”

But then he goes on to give a second answer. Again he states:

“When you think about it logically, there are two and only two philosophies of life. For either there are or there are not doors in the walls of the world. Either there is Nothing or Something outside Plato’s Cave.”

And from there Kreeft goes on to explain that premise which is the basis for the rest of the book. He declares:

“A wall is a limit. A door in a wall is a way of overcoming that limit, a way out of the place confined by the walls. The walls here symbolize the physical universe. The doors symbolize escapes from that limit, “morenesses”, transcendences. The point of this book is that there are many doors through the walls of the world, many Jacob’s Ladders through the sky.”

Kreeft then goes on a romp through literature to look at elements of story and elements in stories that breach that wall. The sections in the book are:

I. The Plot: Story as Life
II. The Setting: The Fragility of Time
III. The Characters: The Real Presence of Invisible Friends
IV. The Theme: Joy
V. The Style: Art

But the sections are not weighted equally. In the first section Kreeft gives 10 examples from 10 stories.

Story #1: The Colorado Water Droplet
Story #2: The Bouncing Acorn and the Bouncing Sperm
Story #3: One Grain of Sand
Story #4: The True Causes of World War III
Story #5: The Cheap Egyptian Tailor Who Saved the World
Story #6: Thornton Wilder’s Tapestry
Story #7: Mark Helprin’s Perfect Painting
Story #8: William James’ Dystopian Utopia
Story #9: The “Ridiculous” Point of The Brothers Karamazov
Story #10: H. G. Wells’ “The Door in the Wall”

The section on Characters has four chapters, God, angels, Saints and extraterrestrials. Both the sections on Theme and Style have 5 chapters. But the section on Setting is just a single chapter.

This book was an incredible read. I could hardly put it down. It has made me reflect more on some of my favorite fiction, and inspired me to add some of them back into my to be read pile along with some of the other books Kreeft drew examples from.

This is one of those books I know I will end up reading again. Much like Kreeft’s own Between Heaven Hell, which I read every year for several years in a row. Any series fan of fiction will benefit from read this book! And Christian’s especially will see the veil pulled back a bit and experience fiction, the world visible and the world invisible in a new way after reading this excellent book!

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Peter Kreeft.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2018 Catholic Reading Plan!

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully idiosyncratic meditation on signs of transcendence in our world. Though I first encountered Kreeft as an apologist, here he takes an emotional and intuitive tack, focusing on the profound mysteries of life that all—or most—people experience: wonder, art, joy, suffering, sex, death, and our innate sense of story. Kreeft’s organizing principle is the basic elements of any story—plot, setting, characters, theme, style—a conceit he winsomely elaborates upon.

Kreeft is in his eighties now, and while the book at first struck me as somewhat scattershot, what I came to realize by the halfway point was that this short book is a master riffing, freestyle, on decades of accumulated wisdom. Puns, analogies, extended metaphors, etymologies, thought experiments, comparative religion, scripture, the classics, pop culture—it’s all fair game, and it’s all in here.

This isn’t Kreeft’s best book, but it gave me a lot of cause for reflection and I appreciate his project here. In his own words, he wanted to craft something positive, not negative, intuitive, not argumentative or strictly rational (although he brings plenty of rationality into it). It’s an extended, generous, hopeful appeal to the things we all know—or at least suspect—to be true.

Recommended.

[Derrick Jeter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kreeft says, "If you are an agnostic, you can still apply 90 percent of the sentences in this book; if you are a non-Christian theist, 95 percent; if you are a Protestant Christian, 99 percent, and if you are a Catholic, 100 percent." That's just about right.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This book has been written for Christian readers and tries to give them reasons to go on believing. It's not addressed (in my opinion) to unbelievers, trying to convince them that what Christians say is the Truth.

The book shows tremendous influence by C.S. Lewis. For instance, the following paragraph in part V chapter 3, derives from "Meditations in a toolshed," included in the collection "God in the dock":
The literary critic or music critic is tempted merely to look at the work, but the reader or listener whose heart has been broken by it has looked along it. Think of two people in [Plato's] Cave: one notices that there are windows in the walls and merely looks at them, as features of the Cave. The other looks through them at what is outside the Cave.

Other acknowledged literary influences on this book are "The Lord of the Rings", Plato's Republic, Dostoievsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," and Thornton Wilder's "The bridge of San Luis Rey," among many others.

I don't agree with everything Kreeft says. For instance, in the following fictional paragraph in part III chapter 4 he says this: I then asked a theological question: Were these [extraterrestrial] races fallen like ours or unfallen? And the answer that I heard, or saw, was that they all were as innocent as unfallen Eve. None had come to this place by my road, the long, hard, painful road of rebellion and repentance.

Of course, on this matter, my own position (or belief) is as fictional as Kreeft's. But it's exactly the opposite. I think (or believe) that every possible extraterrestrial intelligence we may find in the future (if any) will be exactly as fallen as we are.

ESPAÑOL: Este libro se dirige a lectores cristianos y trata de darles razones para creer. En mi opinión, no se dirige a incrédulos, tratando de convencerlos de que lo que dicen los cristianos es la Verdad.

El libro muestra una tremenda influencia de C.S. Lewis. Por ejemplo, el siguiente párrafo del capítulo 3 de la V parte deriva de "Meditaciones en un cuarto de herramientas", que está incluido en la colección "Dios en el banquillo":
El crítico literario o musical se sienten tentados a mirar a la obra, pero el lector u oyente cuyo corazón se ha roto gracias a ella ha mirado a lo largo de la obra. Piensa en dos personas que están en la Cueva [de Platón]: una se da cuenta de que hay ventanas en las paredes y las mira, como simples características de la Cueva. El otro mira a través de ellas lo que hay fuera de la Cueva.

Otras influencias literarias reconocidas en este libro son "El señor de los anillos", La República de Platón, "Los hermanos Karamazov" de Dostoievsky y "El puente de San Luis Rey" de Thornton Wilder, entre otras muchas.

No estoy de acuerdo con todo lo que dice Kreeft. Por ejemplo, en el siguiente párrafo de ficción en el capítulo 4 de la III parte, dice esto: Entonces hice una pregunta teológica: ¿Estas razas [extraterrestres] cayeron como nosotros o no cayeron? Y la respuesta que escuché o vi fue que todas ellas eran tan inocentes como Eva antes de caer. Nadie había llegado a este lugar por mi camino, el camino largo, duro y doloroso de la rebelión y el arrepentimiento.

Por supuesto, sobre esta cuestión, mi propia postura (o creencia) es tan ficticia como la de Kreeft. Pero es exactamente la contraria. Creo que toda posible inteligencia extraterrestre que podamos encontrar en el futuro (si es que las hay) tendrá una naturaleza caído, exactamente igual que nosotros.

[Mariangel · Rating 2 out of 5]

For years I have heard good things about Kreeft's books, and this is my first one.

Kreeft is clearly very well versed on C.S. Lewis and Tolkien's books. He acknowledges this sufficiently, but it also shows all through the book, in expressions along his discourse that I could recognize immediately (this is from "The weight of glory", this is from "Beyond Personality", this is from "Perelandra", etc)... as continuous winks to his favorite authors.

He is clearly trying to point, with excitement, at all the marvelous things about God's story and our life's story that he has learned from their books and other authors' too. But I, like Kreeft, had found them previously in Lewis and Tolkien's writings, whose original phrases and insights are the ones already engraved in my mind and cherished in my heart. For a reader who has not read them before, this would be a joyful book full of insights.

[Michal Anne Gillig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently I’m giving out 5 stars this week! I LOVE Peter Kreeft he is awesome and funny. Basically romanticize your life because God is taking you on an epic adventure. Your life is better than Lord of the Rings better then Pride and Prejudice because it’s real. Those stories teach us about reality but as JP2 once said life with Christ is a great adventure! Time to go read another good book!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Peter Kreeft and he remains delightful as ever in this short treatise on the beauty of Christian theism and the incredible depth and meaning it provides for the human story. Kreeft's style is quite accessible and entertaining, and I even found myself laughing out loud at least once almost every time I picked up this book. I can appreciate that Kreeft doesn't take himself too seriously, despite being a legitimately gifted philosopher, and his humility and wit amidst the pride and dryness amongst similar academics is a breath of fresh air to read. While Kreeft's style is accessible to all readers, he still maintains a profound intellectual edge to his work and explains many difficult topics with clarity and conciseness that the reader can easily comprehend. He even showcases moments of true beauty which call to the heart of the reader, inspiring them to appreciate the human story in all its wonder. In this vein, I came away from this book with a greater desire to strive towards a more meaningful life, one in which every door in my world pointed me towards the incredible transcendence awaiting us in heaven.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

"God, indeed, writes straight with crooked lines. The crooked lines make up the walls of the world; the straight writing that is seen through them is the divine fingerprint, the More, the door in the wall."

Doors in the Walls of the World is all about contemplative wonder. And it’s about as metaphysical a work as they come. It explores materialism versus Platonic philosophy, which espouses that matter is but a shadow of something even more real. Kreeft encourages disengaging from the "new" philosophies of modernism and postmodernism, and returning to traditionalism, which believes there is more to life than we can see. Not less than, or just as much as, we can see, as modern philosophies proclaim. He discusses the five elements of story (plot, setting, characters, theme, and style) and how we can find the answers to those elements in reality. Not only that, but through them we see how our story transcends tangible, visible reality.

In Kreeft’s own words:

"The purpose of this book is to turn back the clock on both new philosophies (which are not really new but old and decrepit) and to sing and shout and blow a trumpet to announce the Good News that the old philosophy is alive and young; that there are doors in the pitiless walls of the world; that there is More, not Less, than we think or imagine. or even can think or imagine; to invite us to come out of our little wombs and be born again, to come out of Plato's Cave into an amazingly larger world of real glories, dangers, and adventures, real heavens, hells, and purgatories as great as those of Dante; to meet many kinds of 'extraterrestrials’."

And he succeeds at fulfilling that stated purpose beautifully. There were portions of the work in which Kreeft went almost too metaphysical and cerebral for me to follow, but overall I found this a lovely, thought-provoking look at the story God has been telling through us since He first fashioned our world. My second favorite chapter was the one on the theme of our story: joy. It is also where the most blatantly Catholic theology and doctrines comes most into play. But it was the final chapter—that on the style: art—that resonated the deepest. As all good art does, and beautifully proving Kreeft's points made within said chapter.

Below are some of my favorite lines and passages from the book.

"The great question is: Is there a different kind of reality?
That's the shock of Plato's Cave: outside it there is another kind of reality, not just subjective spirit and objective matter but objective spirit. That's the main point."

"In this strange city, everything is connected and nothing is superfluous. How many acts of good or evil are needed to make a difference, to save or lose your world, or even the whole world? The answer is one: every one of them."

"The medievals had prayed, in their litany, "From a sudden and unprovided death. good Lord, deliver us.' But what the old world had feared. this brave new world had desired: a sudden and unprovided death, a death in one's sleep rather than awake, a death in the dark rather than in the light. For when life is lived in the dark, death is also lived in the dark."

"Prayer, like life, takes time. Half a prayer is only half a prayer, otherwise the second half is superfluous. If prayer makes a difference, then every part of a prayer must make a difference..."

"Everything finite is divided by time."

"The is a spiritual gravity, of which material gravity is the analogy."

"Divine design is either nothing or everything; and if it is everything, then it extends even to randomness and apparent meaninglessness, to the puzzling presence of evil and the absence of scientific proofs. The hypothesis of faith may not be provable, but it is believable. The doors in the walls of the world may be only loose threads, but they are there."

"Sin constricts souls. But suffering stretches souls. We need to be stretched."

"Happiness is partly controllable, as pleasure is; joy is always a surprise, a gift.
Happiness makes us smile; joy makes us weep.
Happiness is obvious; joy is mysterious.
For one moment of joy, we would gladly exchange months of happiness. It breaks our heart, and we bleed. It squeezes our heart, and tears come out. It hollows out our heart and enlarges it."

"As Pascal said, God gives us just enough light to see by, so that seekers find and non-seekers do not. This is neither too little light, so that even seekers do not find, nor too much light. so that even non-seekers find, against their will, as we find the blinding light of the sun at midday. For in that case, we would have no freedom of choice. and the heart would have no role to play, only the head and the eyes."

"That's the "catch": that we must choose to leap into the river of His mysterious grace, into bis arms: that the astonishing blessing of all things working together for good for us depends on our free choice to love Him and to trust Him--that's the catch."

"The tears of artbreak water the growth of the plant of new life. It is Heavenly rain in our desert. Pity the poor person who has never been suddenly struck by its lightning and thunder.
Artbreak is not just a thrill, to relieve the boredom. It is necessary. It gives our heart the empty places into which God can pour Himself. It is Heavenly sculpting, Heavenly surgery."

"Christ said, "I am the door" (Jn 10:9). All the doors we have explored are parts of this door. As all words are parts of the Word. All the doors are Christ in disguise."

[Edoardo Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be the best front cover I've ever seen: it certainly tells the story of what the book is about, possibly even better than the book does itself. The question is: are there doors or is this all there is? Peter Kreeft, a notably clear philosopher, uses this slim book more as a meditation than an exposition, visiting many of the themes he has explored in his previous books - in particular, that beauty is not subjective but the clearest presence in this world of that which lies beyond it. In that sense, the book is not rigorous. As an argument, it will convince no one who does not already think this way. But as a sign... that it might. For, sometimes, people know, without being able to put into words, that there is more, that they are being sold a dud when told to limit themselves to the cares and concerns of this world. They sense it, from the corner of the eye, from intimations of things glimpsed and sensed and felt. This book is about some of these intimations. If you have felt them, then you will know there are doors in the walls of the world. But of course, the only way to know for sure is to pass through the final door, and face death's blank denial, and see then whatever we see.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an encouraging read. When the world around us seems bleak, insane, and dark, this book shows us where the true light is shining.

[Julie Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a big disappointment because I usually love Peter Kreeft's books and the topic is one that continually interests me - how the things of the world bring us closer to God. Things of the world here meaning story, art, music, etc.

However, despite one or two gripping bits (especially Kreeft's vision while on pilgrimage), this book is meandering and lacks focus. Perhaps this is because I was reading The Day is Far Spent by Cardinal Sarah and Kreeft's own Socrates' Children (medieval philosophers) so I inevitably contrasted how clearly those two books took me through different topics even when they were initially hard to grasp. By contrast, this just doesn't measure up.

[Joseph O’Reilly Tynan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Have you not seen that in our days
Of any whose story, song, or art
Delights us, our sincerest praise
Means, when alls said, ‘You Break my Heart’”

[Tom Kopff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read severall of Peter Kreeft's books, and I must say this is my favorite. His use of stories rather than philosophical argument make this book quite charming. His intent is to get us to realize those things in our world that point to the reality we cannot see, the reality that faith also is about. I plan to reread it more slowly so I can reflect more fully on his insights.

[Billie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda "meh" to be honest. There are a few real gems in here (Kreeft is at his absolute best when he is talking directly about joy and transcendence) but overall this is a re-hashing of a lot of established Kreeft themes with fewer direct observations of "doorways" than I was hoping for.

[Josh Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ties beautifully together with Hans Boerma's "Heavenly Participation," and everything Tolkien and Lewis. Kreeft is most likely my favorite Ex-Protestant.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Judith P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

No other book has ever made me smile so big, made my heart beat so fast, made me feel as though I lived in a universe teeming with magic than this one.

I'm not a philosopher. I don't feel as though I am qualified to give a proper review. But I can tell you what I experienced: Childlike wonder, a burning sensation in my chest, and, when passing a friend in the hallway after just reading it, the comment: "you glow while you talk about this book."

I have always been the opposite of a reductionist. I was a child raised on fairytales, raised on the firm, unshakeable belief that existence matters. That life is beautiful. That every individual human being is irreplaceable. In an increasingly relativistic, rationalistic, and reductionistic society, it's hard to hold firmly to those beliefs without feeling like the intellectual lesser. In his characterstic style, grounded in sound philosophy and teeming with references to the classics, Kreeft demonstrates just the opposite: reductionism is not logical, and it is those who believe in beauty that are most fully alive.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When you think about it logically, there are two and only two philosophies of life. For either there are or there are not doors in the walls of the world. Either there is Nothing or Something outside Plato's Cave."

“A wall is a limit. A door in a wall is a way of overcoming that limit, a way out of the place confined by the walls. The walls here symbolize the physical universe. The doors symbolize escapes from that limit, ‘morenesses,’ transcendences. The point of this book is that there are many doors through the walls of the world, many Jacob's Ladders through the sky."

[Julie Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took ages to read this book. But that says more about the thickness of this reader than the thickness of the book.

DOORS is a beautifully lush, rich exploration of the folds and thin places in the veil that separates heaven and earth. Using plain accessible language, Kreeft ventures to explain the unexplainable "play" set in eternity through the inescapable, inexhaustible love of God. I stopped often to copy down lines into my journal. Take your time with this gem. Buy your own copy to take notes and re-read.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always loved Kreft's books. This was the first that underwhelmed a bit. There were excellent moments, and maybe even some life-changing ideas, but there were also not a few sections that just missed the mark. Some of these were places where he took ideas too far. In particular, there was a fair amount of unnecessary sexual analogies to spiritual things. More of his Roman Catholicism was on display in this work, too.

Liked it.

[Alex Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Imagination of Peter Kreeft is second to none. It irrigates his philosophy and prose in a way that makes it spring to life in the most colorful and fruitful way, and this book was no different. Kreeft discusses the wondrous aspects of our consciousness and our universe that point to something transcendent in such a poignant way that makes his mind itself proof of the existence of something beyond his mind.

[Sydney Routh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing in itself can almost bring me to tears. So beautiful. Kinda writes like Peterson
Wow reading this IS a story. Loved the short section on time, REALLY loved the section on joy. Wow speaks right to my heart. Favorite non fiction I’ve ever read.

[Kathy Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another way of looking at transcendence through the eyes of a joy filled and imaginative man. I agree with him in so many areas. The book really got me to thinking about and appreciating God as the creative Father that he is. I loved it.

[Quratulain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

[James Muglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic Peter Kreeft book. Helps us analyze this world's clues into the next world. Definitely one for reading and re-reading.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't what I expected, but it's Peter Kreeft, so well worth the short read. If you read nothing else, read the section on suffering.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever I read a Kreeft book I am filled with gratitude for it.

This book also has the best table of contents I’ve ever seen.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, but I don't actually know how to describe it or articulate what I loved about it, except to say that it spoke Truth directly to my heart. It's a philosophy book, talking about all the different ways we can experience transcendence in this world, and Kreeft's writing style is delightful to read. For a philosopher, he is fairly easy to comprehend, and he makes a lot of references to the Lord of the Rings. Right before this, I attempted to read a book about existentialism that a friend had loaned me, and I only got about twenty pages into that one before I wanted to throw the book at a wall. Kreeft's book was the perfect remedy for my brain (and soul) after that. Highly recommend.