Philosophy in Credo: Existential Theology

Theologian and philosopher of religion, born in Renfrew, Renfrewshire, W Scotland, UK.

Swiss Protestant theologian who advocated a return to the principles of the Reformation and the teachings of the Bible.

Jewish theologian, existentialist philosopher, and scholar of Hasidism, born in Austria, whose works include I and Thou (1923), Between Man and Man (1946), and Eclipse of God (1952).

American philosopher and theologian, b. Germany, educated at the universities of Berlin, Tübingen, Halle, and Breslau. In 1912 he was ordained a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He taught theology at the universities of Berlin, Marburg, Dresden, and Leipzig and philosophy at the Univ. of Frankfurt until he was dismissed in 1933 because of his opposition to the Nazi regime.

American religious and social thinker. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he served as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, where he became deeply interested in social problems.

German Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar. He was a professor at Marburg University 1921-51, and during the Third Reich played a leading role in the Confessing Church, a Protestant anti-Nazi movement.

Danish philosopher and religious thinker. Kierkegaard's outwardly uneventful life in Copenhagen contrasted with his intensive inner examination of self and society, which resulted in various profound writings.

From Dictionary of Existentialism
The principal relevance of demythologizing for existentialist thought is connected with the efforts of Rudolf Bultmann to remove the mythical elements from the Bible.

From The Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Ethics
To be, or not to be’ is, for philosophers, not the question at all. For existence seems to be only a second-level property, behind things like being hot, or yellow, or soft. But not, it should be mentioned, for Existentialists.

The power of making choices without the constraint of fate or some other uncontrollable force, regarded as a human characteristic.

From Dictionary of Existentialism
A defining characteristic of existentialist thought is the determination to commence the investigation of reality from the concrete situation of human existence.

From The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
A term most often used in contrast to ‘transcendence’ to express the way in which God is thought to be present in the world.

From The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
A condition that relates an agent to actions of, and consequences connected to, that agent, and is always necessary and sometimes sufficient for the appropriateness of certain kinds of appraisals of that agent.

From Dictionary of Existentialism
Teleology might seem to be opposed to existential thought because it connotes the existence of a final purpose or end. Yet, as religious existentialists have demonstrated, to accept a teleological conception of existence is not incompatible with the claim that humans are free to choose their existence.

From Dictionary of Existentialism
Any discussion of the term “transcendence” for existentialist thought must include the term with which it is most often contrasted: Immanence. The distinction between immanence and transcendence is fundamental, in particular, for Sartre and Beauvoir.

From Philosophy of Science, A-Z
There are two strands in our thinking about truth. The first is to say that truth is an objective property of our beliefs in virtue of which they correspond to the world.