The Religious Existentialists and the Redemption of Feeling

This book considers how the movement of existentialism—and the religious existentialists in particular—have contributed to a rethinking of the role of subjective experience for the philosophical enterprise in contrast to the rationalist and idealist traditions. It contributes to a rethinking of the cannon of existentialism.

Traditional philosophizing has generally depended upon logic or reason as its primary or sole access to truth. Subjective experiences such as feelings, the passions, and emotions have typically been viewed as secondary, untrustworthy, or both. They have, at best, been seen as accompanying reason, at worse, as clouding our judgments and misleading reason, thus often becoming unworthy of any significant role or consideration within traditional philosophical research. The Religious Existentialists and the Redemption of Feeling revisits how the movement of existentialism, specifically, the religious existentialists, has contributed to rethinking the role of subjective experience for philosophical enterprise as a whole, in contrast to the rationalist and idealist traditions. This rethinking of subjective experience is what the book characterizes as the redemption of feeling. Expanding our understanding of philosophical thought to include these subjective experiences opens the door for the possibility of a mode of philosophizing that views human experience as philosophically relevant, thus reframing the importance of feelings in general for philosophical inquiry. Through their considerations of a variety of thinkers, the contributors to this collection provide a fresh look at the contributions of twentieth-century existentialists, a rethinking of the very notion of existentialism, and a genuine exploration of the significance of subjectivity.