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Some Reflections on Contemporary Existentialism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Extract
The word ‘existentialism’ has become something of a catchword in religious circles today, and one suspects that it is sometimes a substitute rather than a medium for thought. Most theological teachers must from time to time have received from a pupil an essay in which the words ‘existential’, ‘existentially’ and ‘existentialism’ appear to have been sprinkled from a pepper-pot over an exposition whose meaning would remain unchanged if these words were excised altogether. Nevertheless, usum non tollit abusus, and the following rather unsystematic remarks may perhaps be of some help in elucidating and evaluating a mode of thought and expression which has attracted the interest of some of the more profound, as well as of some of the more superficial, theological and philosophical writers of the present day.
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page 1 note 1 Cf. Being and Some Philosophers, passim. Gilson's retractations in the second edition of this work, in reply to criticisms of Fr L. M. Regis, O.P., and Fr J. Isaac, O.P., are purely verbal; as he himself remarks, sapientis enim est non curare de nominibus.
page 1 note 2 Cf. the illuminating discussion of the history of the verb ‘exist’ (existere) in the Introduction to the French original of Being and Some Philosophers (LÊtre et l' Essence). Existere is ex olio sistere, which is exactly what it is not for modern existentialists!
page 2 note 1 Cf. Kingston, F. Temple, French Existentialism: a Christian Critique p. 194.Google Scholar
page 3 note 1 The Silence of St Thomas p. 58.
page 4 note 1 The Scope of Demythologising p. 93. The brief remarks in the text do not adequately describe Macquarrie's own position. He writes elsewhere: ‘I do not think that this minimal core is simply that there was a Jesus who was crucified, for this in itself would seem to be a matter of no consequence whatever, unless we had some idea of what he was’ (Studies in Christian Existentialism p. 148). I am not sure, however, that he sees the relevance of this to the actual identification of Jesus.
page 5 note 1 The same point is made in a philosophical context by Mitchell, B. G. and by Crombie, I. M. in New Essays in Philosophical Theology ed. Flew, A. and Maclntyre, A., pp. 103, 124.Google Scholar
page 5 note 2 Cited by Fuller, R. H., The New Testament in Current Study p. 73.Google Scholar
page 5 note 3 D. E. Jenkins remarks that ‘it is exceedingly difficult to be clear how far Bultmann makes up his mind that a particular piece of the Gospel record is unhistorical because it is mythological (and therefore could not have happened) and how far he decides on quite other grounds that the passage is unhistorical (i.e. does not recount something which happened) and therefore must have a demythologised meaning if it is to have any meaning for us at all’ (Guide to the Debate about God p. 63).
page 5 note 4 Vindications p. 64.
page 6 note 1 True Humanism p. 63. Cf. a similar remark of Gilson, Christianisme et Phibsophie p. 151.
page 6 note 2 Cf. e.g. Theological Investigations.
page 6 note 3 Cf. The Moment of Truth.
page 6 note 4 Cf. Christ the Sacrament.
page 8 note 1 Studies in Christian Existentialism p. 11.
page 9 note 1 The Scope of Demythologising p. 198.
page 9 note 2 Op. dt. p. 15.
page 10 note 1 Among the multitude of books which have been written about Teilhard I would specially recommend Christopher F. Mooney's Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ.
page 10 note 2 Christian Theology and Natural Science pp. 36 ff. Cf., for a sightly different interpretation of the possibility, Pendergast, R. J. in Downside Review, 01 and 06 1964.Google Scholar
page 10 note 3 The Phenomenon of Man p. 287.