Existentialism (2 of 3 notes)

Part One
INTRODUCTION: 5 CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker

This doctrine is called Existentialism because of its radical concern for the individual existing person, rather than for universal essences. Kierkegaard began by asking such questions as, “What is the point of man’s life? .... What sense can he make out of human existence? .... Is it possible to base eternal happiness upon historical knowledge?” Long ago Socrates had presented the paradox that although man could become educated it was impossible for him to actually learn anything. He asked, “How can one learn that which he does not know?” He argued that man has all possible knowledge within him and what we call learning is only recollecting what is already in us. Kierkegaard presented a different answer to this paradox. He agreed that it was true that prior to acquiring knowledge man has no means of recognizing truth when he meets it. But if he does learn anything, something must have happened to him which makes him different than he was before. Instead of knowledge coming by recollection, he explains it as a moment of enlightenment, a sort of miraculous transformation which takes place in the learner at some decisive moment in his existence. And whatever was the cause of this enlightenment Kierkegaard called God. His philosophy was one of scepticism and uncertainty. Man by himself can know nothing. Sense experience and historical information are constantly changing and man cannot tell whether any of this information is true. Man is trapped in an awful predicament: he has no real knowledge and yet he needs to know the meaning of human existence. What is he to do? Kierkegaard says that he can decide to remain in darkness or he can take “the leap into absurdity” by blindly believing that there is a God who will, if we desire it, give us enlightenment. But there is no way of knowing what to believe in; there is no evidence for faith: all one can do is to believe in faith alone.

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