RELIGIOUS STUDIES 106: 601
SPRING 2002
 

MODERN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT:
EXISTENTIALISM & RELIGION
 
 
 

Existentialism describes the basic approach of a loosely connected group of European thinkers who lived and wrote during the century spanning roughly from 1850 to 1950. Less a "movement" than a general label appplied on disparate philosophers, novelists, theologians, dramatists and critics, existentialism can best be defined as an attitude of rebellion against modern developments in Western philosophy, science and religion.

Philosophically, existentialists stressed the need to raise questions about concrete human issues and human actions rather than the theoretical or scientific search for truth. Sociologically they reacted against what they saw as the growing absurdities of modern life. Faced with the decline of religion in modernity, they first diagnosed what we now take to be a given – the loss of "meaning" in a universe no longer ruled by a benevolent God.

We will engage in a close reading of a number of existentialists on the issue of meaning in the modern world. We will first explore the basics of an existential approach to thinking by reading the key thinkers Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre. In the second half of the course, we will read two explicitly religious thinkers – one Jewish and one Christian – on the questions of faith, human relationships and ethical responsibility.
 
 

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