Theism and Existentialism: At Opposite Ends - Essay Example

Theism and Existentialism: At opposite ends? It is popularly believed that Theism and Existentialism are dichotomous in their views. Theism, the oldworld philosophy derived from the Greco-Roman classical view of the world and Existentialism, the dynamic, arrogantly challenging view of early twentieth century indeed seem to be at the two ends of any philosophical arguments. It is, however, interesting to analyze these two in contrast to each other as this throws up some revealing insight into the two philosophies. And just like two ends of a circle ultimately meet, these two also have some deep-veined similarities which are quite startling. To analyze these two, let us start by first understanding each philosophy in simple terms. Christian Theism is the classical Christian philosophy of 17th century. The word “theism” is derived from the Greek word “theos” which means God. The word was first used in this context by Mr. Ralph Cudworth in the 17th Century. Literally speaking, Christian Theism is, in fact, propagation of Monotheism which means that there is only one God. Many argue that Christian Theism is based on Judaism, the Pagan Gods and the old Greek philosophy but this is disputed and, to a large extent, a matter of opinion. The cornerstone of the Christian Theism is that there is one God who has created this world. It also assigns certain attributes to God which are as follows: God is infinite God is personal God is omniscient God is good The first two attributes, when read together gives an apparently contradictory yet interwoven understanding of God. Theism defines God to be personal – which means God has characteristics of a human being. Hence God thinks and acts like a human being, takes interest and is involved in the activities of his creations – that is our universe and us, human beings. At the same time, God is also perceived as infinite and transcendent and therefore one can never truly understand or comprehend his nature. As Sire (2004) frames it “This means that he is beyond scope, beyond measure, as far as we are concerned........All else is secondary”(Sire,“The Universe Next Door”,2004).Theism also defines God to be omnipresent – and thereby always aware of what is happening in this world. God is, hence, present in everything but not the thing itself. And God is also perceived to be good and thereby all his actions are for the good of human beings. This philosophy throws up some interesting thinking and concepts. This inherently assumes that the world is logical and has a co-relation between cause and effect. God has created an underlying order into the universe and therefore the world and the universe is meaningful. Though not a defined Christian Theist, perhaps the best expression of this concept was uttered by Mr. Albert Einstein when he said “You believe in the god who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists....” (qtd in “Einstein – The life and times”, 1972, pg 421). Theism also tends to define goodness”- what is good and what is bad and this becomes a guiding principle of life for humans. Gods omnipresence and being personal also brought in “confession” - a concept where we confess our sins (sins defined in terms of good and evil defined by God) to the omnipresent god. Being omnipresent, by definition, God already knows about the sin but the humans must confess the same to the God to redeem themselves. This is another aspect of the personal touch of God. Theism also defines human beings as created like god and in status, they are little below god. Hence often, a human being is chosen as the mouthpiece of god, the son of god, the messiah who will absolve the world from its sins. Theism, thus talks about a revelation, by which God reveals the true nature of the universe to a selected few and they become the vehicle for his beliefs. And lastly, Theism explains the journey of men as a journey of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Glorification. The humans, created as “good” by God will undergo a fall from grace, will redeem themselves through confession and some actions and eventually this will lead them to a life of glorification. This classical theory, with many variations and variants has been carried forward for centuries by all Christian religious people and also by other monotheism religions with some modifications. The Existential philosophy emphasizes the isolation of the individual experience in an indifferent (absurd) universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of ones acts. Existentialism has two different versions – the Atheistic Existentialism and the theistic Existentialism. The Atheistic Existentialism has dominated the greater part of 20th century and influenced great 20th century philosophers like Sartre and Camus. It is more an intellectual theorization than a philosophy. This form of existentialism propounds that God does not exist but matter does. It rejects any belief that God has created this world and there is any inherent meaning of the world. Instead, this philosophy states that the world and our existence is essentially absurd and human beings must endeavor to find a meaning to their existence (hence the name “existentialism”). It also states that due to this absurd world, man will be subjected to a state of despair and this state of despair will be the starting point of his search for his existence. In a certain way, it also states that one can never know the truth but the striving for truth through his angst is the main purpose of our existence. The Theistic Existentialism is in many ways similar to the Atheistic existentialism except that it does not reject God. The essential philosophy is the world being perceived as absurd and a human beings search for the transcendental truth is same as Atheistic Existentialism. Where it differs from the former is that Theistic Existentialists accept god as the reason for the absurdity of this world. In this, the Theistic Existentialists believe in, what is known as a “leap of faith”. God, to them, exists not because of a reason but because of a faith. Another important aspect of existentialism is the concept of the “objective” world and the “subjective” world. The objective world is the world of material, of facts and laws and chronicles and mechanism. The subjective world, in contrast, is the world of mind, of consciousness, of thoughts, of awareness and of choices. For a long time, every philosophy considered the objective world as the real world and the subjective world as a shadow of the objective world. Existentialism rejects the objective world as absurd and emphasizes the importance of subjective world – which is a world chosen by an individual. . It is, therefore, about the individuals and their choices. A comparison between Atheistic existentialism and Christian Theism is not relevant as there is little or similarity between two schools of thought. The starting point of their differences is from whether god exists or not and eventually takes two completely different routes. It is, therefore more reasonable to compare between Christian Theism and Theistic existentialism which has a certain commonality. Both Christian Theism and Theistic existentialism believe in existence of God. This is obvious as Theistic existentialism, after all, originated from opposing the orthodox nature of the Danish church and not from rejecting church as such. Theistic existentialism also accepts the nature of god as similar to the definition given by Christian Theism; God is infinite, God is personal, God is true, God is Good. Despite these basic principles being the same, the two philosophies take very different approach in finer details which are given below. While Christian Theism accepts the world as perfect as created by the God, Theistic Existentialism views the world as full of contradictions and yet keeps in his faith in God. This belief is based on, what Kierkegaard describes as “the strength of the absurd” or in more simplistic terms, a conscious decision to embrace the subjective world over the objective world. Existence of god is, therefore, a matter of choice based on faith and not based on knowledge or ancient scriptures or revelations. As Macquarrie points out that existentialism “touches on the whole constitution of man as being-in-the-world” while theology “does not deal with intellectual abstractions but always relates to the concrete situations in which men live and act and choose”(qtd in Morleys “John Macquarries Natural Theology”, 2003, pg 22) Christian Theism believes in strictures and commands given by God and this forms a set of moral standards. Existentialism propagates a moral code based on individual understanding of god. Existentialism also reverses the Christian Theism concept of sin, repentance and confessions. While Christian Theism would describe breaking of a rule or code of conduct as sin and thereby confess and repent to move on to the next stage (glorification), existentialism would consider this to be betraying ones own self. Existentialism also challenges importance of history as an actual record of reality. They stress more on the interpretation that history brings onto human beings. Hence resurrection, to a Christian Theist is a matter of history and to be trusted and believed in. To an existentialist, this is merely a symbol of hope in life. Whether this event actually took place is of little or no significance. What perhaps is of greatest significance is the two worlds, the Christian Theists world of objectivity against the Existentialists world of subjectivity. The existentialist sees the objective world as a cold world – where everything is defined, proclaimed and fixed. It is a very cut-and-dried world with no place for individual. The Christian Theist, with their preset rules, scriptures, old and new testaments, well laid out morality can find their place in this world. The existentialist views this world as absurd and revolts against this world. Ethics, the definition of what is good and what is evil also is understood differently by the two philosophies. Ethics, to a Christian Theist, is what has been defined since ages through the ancient learnings, scriptures, elders’ teachings and tradition. It is well defined in several documents. To an existentialist, ethics is the choice of consciously chosen action. Whatever is chosen consciously by an individual from his subjective consciousness is good. As Jean-Paul Sartre aptly summed it as “the choice of authenticity appears to be a moral decision” (qtd in “Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction”, 2006, chapter 4, pg 63) There are some fundamental questions to the definition of ethics as given by Existentialism. One can question whether good and evil can be defined merely as what has been consciously chosen (Good) and what has been forced upon us by the objective world (Evil). Not all consciously chosen acts can be condoned as “good” as this would lead us to accept the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany or similar atrocities committed by people in the past. And the consciously chosen acts which we accept as good are also based on certain inherent principles of good and evil. Perhaps this is where the Existentialist tends to borrow back the principle of goodness to fellow human beings from Christianity. It is not surprising that many of the existentialists including Albert Camus showed intentions of re-thinking about Christianity in the last few years of their lives. Albert Camus, the famous twentieth-century existentialist had once said “In the darkest depths of our nihilism, I have sought only for the means to transcend nihilism” (Duncan, “Christian World View”- Existentialism, 2004) as he tried to find his answers through nihilism moving away from existentialism. So we can see though theism and existentialism are two different lines of thoughts, views and opinions they consist of the same root , that is, both are in search of god, each in their own different way. Proponents of each side have tried to prove their cause worthy. Theism believes in the existence of god and the people around are defined according to the relationship with god. Ultimately theistic existentialism also concludes god is there but arriving in different way and manner. So it is like looking upon one huge tree bearing two branches both claiming to be different from the other but with the same and common root. Citations Clark, W, Ronald. (1972). “Einstein – The Life and Times”. Unter Den Linden. 421. Duncan, Ligon, J. “Christian World View” - Existentialism. July 7 2004. Retrieved on 15 March 2009 from http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/sermons/Worldviews%202004/3b_existent.htm Flynn, R, Thomas. (2006). “Existentialism–A Very Short Introduction”. Authenticity. 63. Morley, Georgina. (2003). “John Macquarries Natural Theology – The Grace of Being”. Heidegger on being Human. 22. Sire, W, James. (2004). “The Universe Next Door”. A Universe charged with the grandeur of God. 26. Read More