Desperately Wicked is a historical walk through philosophy guided by Patrick Downey. I’m not a philosopher thus not equipped to critique some of the lines of reasoning presented in the book. I found it a challenge to read, though I did look forward to what and how the wrap-up would play out. Downey’s proof point is that the God of the Bible can alone satisfy our heart’s desires. So he first sets out on the exploration of what our heart desires.
This description ‘God alone can satisfy our desires’, fits very closely to one of my favorite themes. One of my pastor’s growing up described the process as God changing my ‘wanter’. Essentially God changes our wills so that what we want is what God wants and we’re incredibly delighted with it. Another bent on this is John Piper’s Christian Hedonism. The theme again is that we are built to naturally pursue what we want, and God can fill those desires.
Intuitively it makes sense to me that things such as money, family, health and the other classic pursuits don’t satisfy. Though I’m surprised in the day to day world how frequently people focus on something that quite literally, moth and rust destroy. However to take a walk with a philosopher and attempt to do a proof was an interesting experience.
The basic idea of the book is how each philosophical system which doesn’t include the concept of a fallen mankind falls short. Which is why though philosophers tend to build upon each previous piece of work there tends to be a hole somewhere in the logic. On the one hand I guess this gives each new generation of philosophers a job, leaving out the issue of man’s sinfulness or gap of goodness (Patrick Downey manages to avoid the ‘s’ word for a bit into the book) creates a gap that can’t easily be spanned in a logical manner. Downey walks us through Erotic and Thumotic desires. If you’re like me you’d never heard of Thumotic – so here’s Downey’s definition from page 36 “Road rage is thumotic passion. ‘I need to move but he’s in my way.’ Is merely a common frustration in traffic. ‘I, representing sensible people, will punish him for violating universally recognized rules of proper driving!’ Is indignant, thumotic road rage. Grasp the difference and you recognize thumotic passion and you have an inkling of the natural connection between justice and rage.’ Downey does make some of the technical philosophical terms understandable, however this is still a book that requires your thinking cap. Not some fluffy beach read.
The book has a format that took me a while to understand. I couldn’t get comfortable with the inserts of the referenced texts. And some of the texts were lengthy so it was hard to know if I was reading Downey or Plato. Rather than footnote, or quote, there would be a bold line then a section from one of the ancient writers Downey was explaining. When it stayed on a single page, it jumped out at you and was obvious. However some of the longer quotations spanned a page break and I’d be momentarily lost on the page turn. Probably that’s a real trivial bone to pick, but it did cause me problems on occasion.
Over all I’d recommend this book for anyone interested in thinking through methods of thinking. Though I’d never heard the word thumotic, (and the spell check keeps flagging it) giving voice to my sense of ‘rightness’ by forcing me to learn a new word is helpful. Thinking sounds rather dull, but for those of such an aptitude it becomes breath taking when the gap is shown in many philosophical systems via a thoroughly logical presentation. The gap of the desire of the heart, is not explained by the erotic, nor the thumotic nor by any combination of them without being filled with Christ. Basically without Christ the initial premise based upon Jeremiah 17:9, is obvious.. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Of course, only God through Christ can own it and make one entirely delighted.
Reviewed by Ted Anderson
