Existentialism: The Philosophy of Despair and the Quest for Hope

by C. Stephen Evans

Existentialism as a movement tries to come to terms with the most personal and ultimate issues that confront human Does life have meaning? Is there any basis for choosing one set of values over another? The author shows that denying the existence of God and His relevance has led modern man into despair. Here he offers hope for the human condition by showing that despair is not the only honest response.

Genres: Philosophy

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

C. Stephen Evans (b. Atlanta , Georgia) is an American historian and philosopher, he is one of the United States' leading experts on Søren Kierkegaard having published six books on Kierkegaard over 25 years. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University. He holds a B.A. with High Honors (philosophy), from Wheaton College, an M.Phil. (philosophy) from Yale University, and a Ph.D. (philosophy) from Yale University.

He has won numerous awards, and reviews manuscripts for several university presses, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, as well as Harper and Rowe. He does the same for several academic journals. He was curator of the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library. He has organized several major conferences. He served five years on the the editorial board for Kierkegaard Monographs and for the International Kierkegaard Commentary Series. He is a past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Søren Kierkegaard Society.

Reviews

[Todd Grassman]

Loved it! I'm an academic philosopher of the analytic tradition, so, existentialism was very sparsely discussed in my training. I heard this book referenced on a podcast, in the context of critiquing the modern, Christian apologetics project. I had always had a vague interest in Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism and one of the rare Christian existentialists, and so this seemed like a good way to get acquainted with existentialism broadly, and Kierkegaard more narrowly, as Dr. Evans is a renowned Kierkegaard scholar. I was not disappointed!

The broad argument of the book is this: Sartre's existentialism and Camus's absurdism both leave us without any grounds for meaning or morality. Kierkegaard's Christian existentialism, however, gives us a strong foundation for both. So, because meaning and morality are central parts of our lives, we should draw nearer to Kierkegaard and further from Camus and Sartre.