EXISTENTIALISM

   a PHILOSOPHICAL movement which emerged shortly before the Second World War united by common concerns, motifs, and emphasis. The most influential exponents were Martin HEIDEGGER, whose Being and Time appeared in 1927, Karl JASPERS, his second volume of Philosophie appeared in 1932, and Jean-Paul SARTRE. All the important leaders were indebted to the writings of Soren KIERKEGAARD--a once neglected Danish author--whose works were not translated into German until early in this century and into English much later. The movement may be characterized as follows. It begins with the conviction that Western PHILOSOPHY since the Greeks has been preoccupied with the idea of ESSENCE, that is with the general and UNIVERSAL features of anything, rather than with concrete. INDIVIDUAL essence being counted more real than EXISTENCE because it is unchanging. Consequently, Western philosophy has been INTELLECTUALISTIC and RATIONALISTIC. It is, therefore, irrelevant as far as illuminating life is concerned because it obscured the TRUTH about human existence rather than illuminating REALITY. Existentialism had a profound impact on NEO-ORTHODOX theologians, like Karl BARTH, Rudolf BULTMANN, Paul TILLICH, and Reinhold NIEBUHR as well as on some Roman Catholics like Gabriel MARCEL and Karl RAHNER. The self, they argued, is a unity of radical FREEDOM and limitedness. FAITH, therefore, is acceptance of this paradoxical unity. But faith is not the possession of a CREED, DOCTRINE, or BELIEF it is the decision to be oneself as this person in this specific situation. Thus decision is made possible by the unconditioned acceptance of the person by GOD which enables each individual to have the courage to be.