Heidegger’s Position as Christianity in Existential Disguise

Is Martin Heidegger’s philosophy merely an existentialist echo of Christian theology, or is it something altogether different? This idea reveals a fascinating tension, a kind of philosophical Babel in which there is a merging of sacred ideas with the secular. Heidegger once aspired to be a Jesuit priest but became a major figure in 20th-century philosophy.

His work, steeped in metaphysical inquiry, has indeed been accused of veiling Christian truths beneath the guise of existentialism. Yet Heidegger himself, ever the enigma, insisted that his philosophy was not merely a rephrasing of theological ideas but a radical departure from them. Does it matter what Heidegger intended if the results are the same? Even if Heidegger denied his work’s Christian roots, the outcome is the same. Existentialist philosophy, however, is completely incompatible with determinism and the Christian plan for the world.

Heidegger denied logical positivism as forgetfulness of being, as well as the logical foundation of language; however primarily due to inexactness. But inexactness is not a proper basis for dismissing it. Logical positivism in itself cannot be a position, since it is an undeniable “instrument,” and this mirrors the Church fathers’ insistence that divine truth is built into reality, but that this is only discernible through an active engagement. Meaning is found through experience in honesty and truth, not in subjective interpretation based in mortal imperfections. God has a greater plan, it is caked into everything, and it is up to you to live up to this despite the imperfections of your existence and experience, unattached to the basic materialism.

So, if Heidegger’s philosophy is a port of Christian theology into the realm of existential thought, then it is a potentially dangerous conflation that risks reducing the divine to the merely human. Christianity, at its core, can not be existential; it is deterministic. To claim otherwise is to misunderstand the very nature of God’s design. The basic fault here is the same as the Cartesian misunderstanding: in confusing human existence with being instead of a becoming.

Differences are due to imperfections, which all people have, and so the experiential differs from inexactness, the way a pole is ran into the same no matter how fuzzy it may be or may not be to the short-sighted. The ‘thinker becomes’ is a radical improvement for comprehension here over the often misunderstood Cartesian “I think therefore I am,” which will be explored in greater detail in future articles of this series.

If freedom is all about the ability to recognise and accomplish good, then this is the only free will, so free will is God’s. In other words, we succumb to determination in will of either God or imperfect humanity; we exercise our own desires as slaves or those of God as truly free. The truth is humans cannot escape humanistic determinism outside of progress and improvement, which increase accuracy within objective reality.

We are especially improvable. Our improvement is the one thing in which I see little evidence for determinism. Freedom is the ability to recognise and do good. So improving these abilities is what makes us free, liberating through self-knowledge and beyond; the liberating arts. You, as all people, are imperfect, so accept it and do better.

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Existentialism as Babel Tower part 2: Illusive Verifications and Cowardly Confirmations in Language Limits >>