Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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Existentialism understandably emerged after horrors WWI in Europe, called the ‘war
to end all wars.’ In the wake of this great insanity came a time when people were forced
to face as never before, the new horrors man had unleashed upon itself. It “sprang up in
Germany after the First World War; it flourished in France immediately after the second”
(Brown, 1968:181). Existentialism eventually made its way to North America, though it
is still primarily considered a Continental philosophy.
There are two kinds of existentialism, Christian and atheistic, though both streams
reject the modernist agenda with its assumptions about a Newtonian or perfectly ordered
universe. Existentialists in general proposed that truth was relative, subjective and
personal; that ultimate truth was either unknowable, or nonexistent. Thus, individuals
must create their own truth, or reality, in this vast meaningless universe in which we live.
This truth-relativism is a primary characteristic of both existentialism and
postmodernism.
Existentialism, especially in its atheistic form, acknowledged science as an objective
discipline, but refused to attribute to it the ability to answer questions of ultimate
meaning. In fact, nearly all existentialists have long argued that science could not provide
answers about humanity’s greater purpose -- our raison d'être. Many religionists
suggested some notion about mankind’s greater purpose and gave some ethereal hope, or
expectation for the future. Yet, ‘inevitable progress’ via technological advancement was
modernity’s eschatology and the great driving force behind Western civilization.
Existentialism is neither a religion, nor a belief construct. Like postmodernism, it
offers no answers, establishes no ethics, nor provides any real enlightenment, or guidance.
“Existentialism is not a philosophy but a label for several widely different revolts against
traditional philosophy” (Kaufmann, 1975:11). It is not a school of thought, as it were, nor
is it reducible to a set of tenets. Existentialism both identifies and promotes the anguish,
or angst, and helplessness that inevitably leads to loneliness, despair, and nihilism. The
existentialist is typically very distrustful and sceptical, though certainly not to the degree
the postmodernist is. Existentialism says that a “proposition or truth is said to be
existential when I cannot apprehend or assent to it from the standpoint of a mere spectator
but only on the ground of my total existence” (Brown, 1968:182).
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa