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Finding Meaning
Essays on Philosophy, Nihilism, and the Death of God
Edited by Steven DeLay
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
The word "nihilism" today is everywhere. A staple of common speech ever since its coinage by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in the eighteenth century, is there any other term of philosophical provenance more descriptive of our times? Finding Meaning: Essays on Philosophy, Nihilism, and the Death of God deepens the longstanding and ongoing debate about the problem of nihilism. Drawing upon a wide range of philosophical and theological schools, traditions, and figures, the eleven specially commissioned essays by international scholars enrich the discussion of how to meet the challenge of nihilism. Fundamental problems and topics include the existence of God, the origins and status of morality, the nature and meaning of history, the relation between reason and faith, the status and role of philosophical knowledge, the place of art and religion in society, the future of modernity, the nature of postmodernity, the perils of technology, the specter of transhumanism, and the history of philosophy from Augustine to Kant and Hegel, Nietzsche to Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, and Heidegger to Sartre and Camus. Based on a popular series of online essays published at London artist and philosopher Richard Marshall's 3:16 AM, Finding Meaning is essential reading for students and scholars of philosophy and theology, and for anyone with a genuine interest in making sense of what it means to be human in an age of nihilism.
Steven DeLay is an Old Member of Christ Church, University of Oxford.
“Finding Meaning is an engaging meditation on the central cultural disease of our time: why we don’t give a damn. Much more than just another shrill reflection on the ills of technology or the decay of democracy, it brings together a diverse set of philosophers who, while not always agreeing, are committed to pushing deeper. Insightful and occasionally poignant, this volume is for anyone interested in thinking carefully and creatively about how we got here and where to go next.”
—Ryan Kemp, associate professor of philosophy, Wheaton College
“A wide-ranging collection of essays concerning our search for meaning in an age of nihilism, Finding Meaning has much that is interesting and novel to say about how we got to where we are and what we might do about it.”
—T. J. Mawson, tutor in philosophy, University of Oxford
“This rich collection of essays revisits our contemporary malaise, which would be rooted in the abiding sense that there is nothing on which to ground ‘meaning.’ The collaborators entertain answers from love of family to the neo-Homeric ‘all things resplendent,’ to aesthetics, and a meditation on primitive Christianity. Through the chapters’ unfolding, we are privy to histories of nihilism, although contemporary responses are not lacking. This collection provides us resources to pursue the multifaceted critiques, and thereby appreciate what was lost and what, found. The journey proves well worth it.”
—Bettina Bergo, professor of philosophy, University of Montreal