Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

EXISTENTIALISM

84

on the plight of the concrete individual in
his or her quest for authenticity, that is,
responsibility (as opposed to anonymity)
for one’s actions and values. Existential-
ists typically ascribed a radical freedom
to individuals, and they often wrote of
angst or anxiety in the face of death
and meaninglessness, questioning why

they had been “thrown” into existence.

Many considered “nothingness” to be a

basic category. Key existentialists include

Lequier, Berdyaev, Buber, Rilke, Camus,

B eauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Kierkegaard,

Nietzsche, Unamuno, Ortega, Heidegger,

Jaspers, Bultmann, Marcel, Tillich, Sartre,

and Kafka.