Nihilism: Its Origin and Nature- with a Christian Answer PDF
Preview Nihilism: Its Origin and Nature- with a Christian Answer
Its Origin and Nature with RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES DITED BY RUTH NANDA ANSHEN $5.00 1 rs^i 1 vLjJUET NIHILISM l>. 0 by Helmut Thielicke In this book Helmut Thielicke lays bare the root of the moral and cultural crisis of our times. Beneath the outward symptoms of confusion and disorder today lie the empti¬ ness, the loss of meaning, the collapse of value which Nihilism feeds upon. Here is a profound new perspective on a basic threat —and an unprecedented opportunity—for the spirit of man. A dvance Comments From Robert E. Fitch, Pacific School of Religion: “Not in several years have I read a book of such power and penetration. Thielicke treats Nihilism in all its phases—personal, political, economic, and cultural—with clarity, force and profundity.” * * * From Donald Macleod, Princeton Theo¬ logical Seminary: “An excellent and incisive work on one of the most important phenomena of our times. Required reading for all who want to understand the relevance of Christianity to modern culture.” '7V' *7v* From Kyle Haselden, Managing Editor of the Christian Century: “The spirit of our age has been captured by the last ‘ism’—Nihilism. To help free his generation Helmut Thielicke addresses this dreadful void with the respect due a worthy opponent and the seriousness owed a deadly foe. To the task he brings, not (Continued on back flap) \o.oi 63 A 0361 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/nihilismitsorigiOOthie NIHILISM Its Origin and Nature — with a Christian Answer RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES Planned and Edited by RUTH NANDA ANSHEN BOARD OF EDITORS W. H. Auden Karl Barth Martin C. D’Arcy Christopher Dawson C. H. Dodd Mircea Eliade Muhammad Zafrullah Khan Alexandre Koyre Jacques Maritain James Muilenburg Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Gershom Scholem D. T. Suzuki Paul Tillich t VOLUME FOUR RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES * NIHILISM Its Origin and Nature — with a Christian Answer by Helmut Thielicke TRANSLATED BY JOHN W. DOBERSTEIN Harper 8c Brothers, Publishers • New York MAY 5, igs? vf NIHILISM: Its Origin and Nature—with a Christian Answer Copyright © 1961 by John W. Doberstein Printed in the United States of America All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Brothers, 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, N. Y. FIRST EDITION C-L Originally published in German as Der Nihilismus, copyright 1951 by Verlag Gunther Neske, Pfullingen. Library of Congress catalog card number: 61-7351 CONTENTS Religious Perspectives: Its Meaning and Purpose 7 Preface to the American Edition 13 I The Absolutization of Nothingness 17 II Nihilism—The Lonely “Ism” 27 III Nihilism—Overt and Disguised 30 IV Nihilism as a Psychiatric Phenomenon 41 V The Breakdown of Selfhood and the Break¬ down of the World 55 VI Nihilism in Law and in Medicine 61 VII The Political Form of the World’s Breakdown 88 VIII The Human Form of the World’s Breakdown 96 IX The Destruction of the Self 105 X The Anxiety of Life 116 1. The Present Situation 116 2. The Ground of Anxiety 129 3. Self-Help Against Anxiety 137 4. The Overcoming of Anxiety 140 XI Fractured Nihilism 148 1. “Naive” Nihilism 148 2. “Reflective” Nihilism 159 XII Where Do We Go from Here? 167 1. Existentialism—A Critique 167 2. Epilogue 175 Notes 179 Index 181 Religious Perspectives VOLUMES ALREADY PUBLISHED I. The Historic Reality of Christian Culture by Christopher Dawson II. International Conflict in the Twentieth Century by Herbert Butterfield III. The Limits of Reason by George Boas
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