So, I’m thinking about doing 4unit English for my HSC. I want to explore the relationship between Existentialism and Religion and basically use it as an excuse to research notions of meaning, because i reckon it’s really fascinating :D Romanticism is just in here, because it’s pretty :P
If anyone can name the authors of all these quotes, then… you’re awesome? and no googling allowed!
Romanticism
You must not misunderstand me, darling,
Who can affirm that God exists?
And yet who can deny it?
Is there not One who upholds and enfolds all things,
Including you, me and himself?
Does not the vault of heaven soar above us?
Does not the solid earth lie firm beneath us?
Do I not gaze into your eyes?
Does not creative life infuse your heart and mind,
Weaving eternal mysteries
Seen yet unseen even at your side?
Let that vastness fill your heart;
And when unmitigated bliss is yours,
Call it what you will,
Fate or Heart, Love or God.
For my part, I have no name for it.
Feeling is all that matters.
Names are naught but noise and smoke
That enshrouds the heavenly light.
Existentialism
Atheistic existentialism…declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it. That being is man or, as Heidegger has it, the human reality.
Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards
Religion
Superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition
BYRON, 2 months ago
Damn Imogen (what a loverly name) – you are just way too grown up for an 18 year old!
Imogene Munday
in reply to BYRON’s comment,
2 months ago
thanks :)
i’m 17, not 18 lol :P and i feel ooooold. i’m over half way to 30! i feel a midlife crisis approaching XD (maybe that means i’ll die young, how morbid)
Jan Piller, 2 months ago
Sounds like Faust
Marilyn Brown
,
2 months ago
“Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards” – Inroads By Murray Lewis Miles, Murray Miles
Faith Hunter, 2 months ago
The existentialist one is of course satre.
If you’re into existentialism then maybe next you should check out hermeneutics. Gadamer and then, later (and still at the Sorbonne) Paul Ricouer have done a lot with the groundwork laid by Heidegger.
Also look at Bataille and of course don’t forget Simone!
Jan Piller, 2 months ago
sorry – by Goethe?? Just rings some bells… – the romanticism one. Sorry – don’t recognize the others….
Geoff Coleman, 2 months ago
Wouldn’t have a clue but I think your inclusion of romanticism is inspired – doesn’t romanticism seek to express and bridge the schism between existentialism and spirituality. And religion itself is just the apparatus created by those who want to control the human spiritual impulse and in the process derive power over others from doing so.
Marilyn Brown
,
2 months ago
No, I think it is Faust.
BYRON, 2 months ago
Hey Imogen, that’s enough of that old stuff, 30 aint old. For that matter neither is 42!
BYRON, 2 months ago
Hey Imogen, that’s enough of that old stuff, 30 aint old. For that matter neither is 42!
Faith Hunter, 2 months ago
42? ......... half-baked youngster. Just wait until you get to 43!
Imogene Munday
,
2 months ago
yup, first one is from Faust :)
And Marilyn, Inroads simply quotes that line :) its not by Miles
Marilyn Brown
,
2 months ago
Sorry about that, I can’t help you then.
reflexio, 2 months ago
JP Satre would have to be invovled somwhere in these quotes. Maybe Michel Onfray (Atheist Manifesto).
Pâte Brisée, 2 months ago
Dim, I don’t know what I’m doing for 4U! Have you written your application?? Help!!
Imogene Munday
in reply to Pâte Brisée’s comment,
2 months ago
i haven’t written it yet XD don’t know how i will lol
are you coming tonight?
kafka, 2 months ago
Hi Imogen – The second existential one sound like Malraux – check out this link it might be useful. – good luck!
Catherine Cho, 2 months ago
Dude your subjects are so interesting. I’m like… I want to explore how people kill each other and mutilate each other. Oh yes, I find that fascinating!