This creation of a “God of the philosophers” was, he believed, actually a form of pride. Pascal argued for a fideistic Catholicism that did not presume to create a systematic explanation of God and humanity. Pascal questioned the strict rationalism of contemporaries like René Descartes. Another important writer who anticipated a number of existentialist themes was the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. The most obvious pre-existentialism existentialists, though, would have to be Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, two philosophers whose ideas and writings are explored in some depth elsewhere. Alienation from meaning, value, and purpose is something that will be familiar to anyone who reads much existentialist literature. Other religious figures have dealt with similar issues: fourth-century theologian Saint Augustine, for example, wrote about how humanity has become alienated from God due to our sinful nature. In the above verses the author is exploring the very existentialist theme about how a person can find meaning in life when that life is so short and destined to end.
And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? (Ecclesiastes 5:15, 16). Among the existentialist passages we find:Īs he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, for example, has a lot of humanist and existentialist sentiments in it – so many that there were serious debates about whether it should even be added to the biblical canon. Existentialism has certainly existed in religion as theologians and religious leaders have questioned the value of human existence, questioned whether we can ever understand whether life has any meaning, and meditated on why life is so short.
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