Anti-Climacus

LINK: I mostly agree with Matt Powell on the question of the relation of existentialism to Christianity, except that his idea of what constitutes existentialism seems to be derived overwhelmingly from Camus, as he seems to equate with existentialism the drive towards suicide or self-destruction, which Sartre, for one, would tend to argue against (and as the old joke goes, Camus can-do, but Sartre is Smartre*). He notes the Christian alternative:

"The Christian knows that this world is not all that there is, and that there is life after this world. Further, what's going on now is for the purpose of training us for the future, and so our existence is no longer pointless, and events are no longer our enemy. We have a benevolent God who, by the grace of Jesus Christ and for the sake of His blood, nurtures and cares for us, and use all things for our good, to conform us to the image of His son."

I agree, of course. But I sometimes worry that focusing on the hereafter too much (as my evangelical church did) occasionally miss out on what existentialism can teach. Thus Christian existentialism (Kierkegaard in particular): we are saved by grace, yes, and we know that what we go through on earth is merely an unpleasant prelude to the life eternal. Nevertheless, the world is still filled with pain and suffering, both for ourselves and for others, and a constant attempt to bring good things out of easily corruptible human natures (even our own). And I've always felt that the best, most meaningful passages in the Bible (Job, Ecclesiastes, the "do not worry" portion of the sermon on the mount, and the first twelve chapters of Romans) and religious literature try and come to grips with this. Finding the balance is hard, though.


*I note this because there are only three minorly funny philosophy jokes, and that is one of them. The other two:

Q: How many existentialists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to change it, and the other to note how the bulb is an incandescent beacon of subjectivity in a cosmic netherworld of nothingness.

and:

assume solipsism is true. Explain why more people aren't solipsists.