This module explores the relationship between religion and existentialism. Is that relationship a deep antagonism or a blood kinship? For some key figures, existentialism takes “the death of God" as its point of departure and never looks back. For these authors, existentialism represents an intrinsically atheistic philosophical outlook. Others, however, argue that the problems of existence that existentialism lays bare can only be overcome by a religious approach to life. We will explore this issue through a close reading of key texts in the tradition by figures such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Lévinas. What’s more, we will supplement those readings by viewing and discussing two films inspired by the existentialist tradition, namely, Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011). Students will gain an appreciation of existentialism as a philosophical movement with contemporary relevance and a sense of how that movement bears on humanity’s religious practices.
- Module Supervisor: Matthew Burch
- Module Supervisor: Daniel Watts