This blog explores both historical and current events guided by the thought of the leading thinkers, past and present, of this school or movement of theology. Refer to the Classic Posts, Great and Contemporary Thinkers, various links of all kinds, in addition to the Archives themselves. David is the founder and manager of this website, but many friends contribute to it on a regular basis.
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Balthasar on Existentialism
"Catholic writers have often tried to imitate the anguished 'existentialist' tone of their Protestant counterparts, but that garment does not fit them any better than his father's top hat fit Little Johnny Upstart" (Balthasar, Grain of Wheat, 120).
That is why Protestant theologians are best when they go back to their joyful forebears (which certainly includes Calvin, and the Awakening fathers, like Edwards), instead of dressing themselves in Nietzsche or Foucault.
It was your recent comments at your site that helped me understand this quote better. I guess my understanding of "existentialism" was more philosophical and did not include the keen desire to be radical that's in vogue these days...
I'm writing a high school course on the history of philosophy and have JUST begun the 20th century. Existentialism is right around the corner.
I've been reading Kevin's blog ever since I found it in the hopes I'm going to have something more positive to say about existentialism than "here's what atheism leads to--on a good day." (Nietzsche, who I admire, is what atheism looks like on caffeine, Kafka is atheism's bad dream, and atheism as it really is is too boring and dreadful to have a spokesman.)
I had to go back to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry to remember what exactly qualifies as existentialism. A couple of things jump out at me:
1. a reaction against academic philosophy and an exploration of the human through literature. - This corresponds very well to the ressourcement trend in Catholic theology from the mid-Twentieth Century on - a key significance of Balthasar's writings has been the turn toward the human experience as recorded in literature (note that he was not a trained theologian but studied Germanistics!).
2. the focus on the problem of human existence. - this no doubt supported such movements as phenomenology and personalism. To me this is the great value of existentialism in its atheistic and Christian forms. Some of the most interesting Christians have been those who have passed through an existential crisis (Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, Peguy, Walker Percy, among others). Luigi Giussani among others returned to authors like Leopardi, Camus, Kafka precisely for their insight into the human condition. Henri de Lubac also wrote a great book called The Drama of Atheist Humanism, which sought to discover the good in modern atheism (he has a chapter on Nietzsche as mystic).
4 comments:
That's great.
That is why Protestant theologians are best when they go back to their joyful forebears (which certainly includes Calvin, and the Awakening fathers, like Edwards), instead of dressing themselves in Nietzsche or Foucault.
It was your recent comments at your site that helped me understand this quote better. I guess my understanding of "existentialism" was more philosophical and did not include the keen desire to be radical that's in vogue these days...
I'm writing a high school course on the history of philosophy and have JUST begun the 20th century. Existentialism is right around the corner.
I've been reading Kevin's blog ever since I found it in the hopes I'm going to have something more positive to say about existentialism than "here's what atheism leads to--on a good day." (Nietzsche, who I admire, is what atheism looks like on caffeine, Kafka is atheism's bad dream, and atheism as it really is is too boring and dreadful to have a spokesman.)
I had to go back to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry to remember what exactly qualifies as existentialism. A couple of things jump out at me:
1. a reaction against academic philosophy and an exploration of the human through literature.
- This corresponds very well to the ressourcement trend in Catholic theology from the mid-Twentieth Century on - a key significance of Balthasar's writings has been the turn toward the human experience as recorded in literature (note that he was not a trained theologian but studied Germanistics!).
2. the focus on the problem of human existence.
- this no doubt supported such movements as phenomenology and personalism. To me this is the great value of existentialism in its atheistic and Christian forms. Some of the most interesting Christians have been those who have passed through an existential crisis (Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, Peguy, Walker Percy, among others). Luigi Giussani among others returned to authors like Leopardi, Camus, Kafka precisely for their insight into the human condition. Henri de Lubac also wrote a great book called The Drama of Atheist Humanism, which sought to discover the good in modern atheism (he has a chapter on Nietzsche as mystic).
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