Heidegger's Confessions: The Remains of Saint Augustine in "Being and Time" and Beyond

by Ryan Coyne

Although Martin Heidegger is nearly as notorious as Friedrich Nietzsche for embracing the death of God, the philosopher himself acknowledged that Christianity accompanied him at every stage of his career. In Heidegger's Confessions , Ryan Coyne isolates a crucially important player in this Saint Augustine. Uncovering the significance of Saint Augustine in Heidegger’s philosophy, he details the complex and conflicted ways in which Heidegger paradoxically sought to define himself against the Christian tradition while at the same time making use of its resources.
           
Coyne first examines the role of Augustine in Heidegger’s early period and the development of his magnum opus, Being and Time . He then goes on to show that Heidegger owed an abiding debt to Augustine even following his own rise as a secular philosopher, tracing his early encounters with theological texts through to his late thoughts and writings. Bringing a fresh and unexpected perspective to bear on Heidegger’s profoundly influential critique of modern metaphysics, Coyne traces a larger lineage between religious and theological discourse and continental philosophy.   

Genres: Philosophy, Christianity

312 pages, Hardcover

First published March 23, 2015

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and well-studied examination of Heidegger's conflicted struggle with Augustine, with the nature or essence of religion as part and parcel of philosophy and its rejection of religion as part of its project to examine theoretically objectively and rationally its subject. Coyne concludes with a defining and to my mind original definition of what the term "philosophy of religion" must mean by the very nature of its subject. I found this an impressive examination of Heidegger and a volume of thought that has come at a time when Heidegger's Black Notebooks have been opened and translated, raising increasing controversy about his value as a philosophical icon. Ryan Coyne has hit the mark a without having had those notebooks to read, I think I may fairly assume. He rightly should be in the current controversial conversation about Heidegger, one that rages as I write this brief review of this stunning book.

To be clear and to disclaim a bit here, I am no philosopher though I read bunches of it.