 | Christian existentialism: Encyclopedia - Christian existentialism
Christian existentialism
History of Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth
The Apostles
Ecumenical councils
Great Schism
The Crusades
Reformation
The Trinity
God the Father
Christ the Son
The Holy Spirit
The Bible
Old Testament
New Testament
Apocrypha
The Gospels
Ten Commandments
Sermon on the Mount
Christian theology
Salvation · Grace
Christian worship
Christian Church
Catholicism
Orthodox Christianity
Protestantism
Christian denominations
Christian movements
Christian ecumenism
Christian existentialism is a school of thought founded by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. 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 The second was that having a personal relationship with God superseded all set moralities, social structures and communal norms.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.
Because of this, Kierkegaard believed that each person had to individually make the choices that made up his or her existence. No imposed structures - even Biblical commandments - could alter the responsibility of individuals to seek to please God in whatever personal and paradoxical way God chose to be pleased.
Christian existentialists include several contemporary American theologians, such as Paul Tillich, and European philosophers, such as Karl Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel.
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 observes, live an aesthetic life where nothing matters but appearances, pleasures, and happiness. 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. Philosophers, most clergy, and religious figures fall into this sphere. The third and highest sphere is the religious sphere. Kierkegaard upholds that there are only two people to ever enter this sphere, The Virgin Mary and Abraham. To be in the religious sphere, Kierkegaard says that one must give the entirety of themselves to God.
See also
Other related archivesAbraham, Apocrypha, Camus, Catholicism, Christ, Christ the Son, Christian Church, Christian anarchism, Christian denominations, Christian ecumenism, Christian movements, Christian theology, Christian worship, Christianity, Danish, Ecumenical councils, Gabriel Marcel, God, God the Father, Grace, Great Schism, History of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth, Karl Jaspers, New Testament, Nietzsche, Old Testament, Orthodox Christianity, Paul Tillich, Philosophers, Protestantism, Reformation, Salvation, Sartre, Sermon on the Mount, Søren Kierkegaard, Ten Commandments, The Apostles, The Bible, The Crusades, The Gospels, The Holy Spirit, The Trinity, The Virgin Mary, clergy, existentialism, paradoxical, universe
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Christian existentialism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
