Awakenings: A Translation of Marcel's Autobiography

by Gabriel Marcel, Peter S. Rogers

The publication of this translation of Gabriel Marcel's autobiography, En chemin, vers quel eveil? is timely because of the renewed relevance and importance of his life and work to the postmodern situation. The relation of his autobiography to his productive projects is clearly tied to the unifying thread of creativity, which, as the primary dimension of the mystery of being, gives rise to his music, drama, and philosophical reflection. This autobiography fosters the retrieval of the sense of the mystery of being, thus reorienting philosophy as an awakening of the creativity at the heart of this sense of being. His narrative is a serious and creative interpretation of the unified sense of his life and work.

Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) was a philosopher, drama critic, playwright and musician. He converted to Catholicism in 1929 and his philosophy was later described as “Christian Existentialism” (most famously in Jean-Paul Sartre's “Existentialism is a Humanism”) a term he initially endorsed but later repudiated. In addition to his numerous philosophical publications, he was the author of some thirty dramatic works. Marcel gave the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen in 1949–1950, which appeared in print as the two-volume The Mystery of Being, and the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1961–1962, which were collected and published as The Existential Background of Human Dignity.