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Christian existentialism is a school of thought often traced back to the work of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855.) It relies on three major assumptions drawn from Kierkegaard's unique understanding of Christianity. The first was that the universe was fundamentally paradoxical, and that the greatest paradox of all was the transcendent union of God and man in the person of Christ. The second was that having a personal relationship with God superseded all set moralities, social structures and communal norms. The third was that following social conventions was essentially a personal aesthetic choice made by individuals.
Accordingly, Kierkegaard believed that each person has to individually make the choices that make up his or her existence. No imposed structures—even Biblical commandments—can alter the responsibility of individuals to seek to please God in whatever personal and paradoxical way God chose to be pleased. Each individual suffers the anguish of indecision until he or she makes the "leap of faith" and commits to a particular choice. Each person is faced with the responsibility of his or her own free will and with the fact that a choice, even a wrong choice, must be made in order to truly live.
Christian existentialists include American theologians, such as Paul Tillich, and European philosophers, such as Karl Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel. Karl Barth added to Kierkegaard's ideas the notion that existential despair leads an individual to an awareness of God's infinite nature.
After Kierkegaard, his individualism later developed into the more familiar existentialism of Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus, who retained the idea of personal choice and responsibility, but discarded the personal connection with God.
Kierkegaard also upheld the idea that every human being exists on one of three spheres (or planes) of existence, the aesthetic, ethic, and religious. Most people, he observed, live an aesthetic life where nothing matters but appearances, pleasures, and happiness. It is in accordance with the desires of this sphere that people follow social conventions. Kierkegaard also considered the violation of social conventions for personal reasons (i.e., in the pursuit of fame, reputation for rebelliousness) to be a personal aesthetic choice. A much smaller group are those people who live in the ethical sphere, who do their best to do the right thing and see past the shallow pleasantries and ideas of society. The third and highest sphere is the faith sphere. To be in the faith sphere, Kierkegaard says that one must give the entirety of oneself to God.
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Christianity | Christian denominations | Christian philosophy | Existentialism | Political theories
"Christian existentialism"