The Mystical Sources of Existentialist Thought: Being, Nothingness, Love [Hardcover]

Introduction  1 Kierkegaard: Annihilation in Love  2 Buber and Heidegger: In Search of Ur-Experience  3 Blondel to Bergson: Mysticism and French Philosophy  4 Beauvoir and Sartre: Love and Value in the Phenomenal World  5 Marcel and Camus: Mystery and the Affirmation of the Absurd  6 Weil and Bataille: Mystic Exemplars?  7 Berdyaev: A Mysticism of Freedom  8 Tillich: From Being to Love  Conclusion

At the time when existentialism was a dominant intellectual and cultural force, a number of commentators observed that some of the language of existential philosophy, not least its interpretation of human existence in terms of nothingness, evoked the language of so-called mystical writers. This book takes on this observation and explores the evidence for the influence of mysticism on the philosophy of existentialism.

It begins by delving into definitions of mysticism and existentialism, and then traces the elements of mysticism present in German and French thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book goes on to make original contributions to the study of figures including Kierkegaard, Buber, Heidegger, Beauvoir, Sartre, Marcel, Camus, Weil, Bataille, Berdyaev, and Tillich, linking their existentialist philosophy back to some of the key concerns of the mystical tradition.

Providing a unique insight into how these two areas have overlapped and interacted, this study is vital reading for any academic with an interest in twentieth-century philosophy, theology and religious studies.

This book begins by delving into definitions of mysticism and existentialism, and then traces the elements of mysticism present in German and French thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

George Pattison