I finished reading "The Existentialist's Survival Guide" (How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age) by Gordon Marino, PhD, 2018. It delves into the lives' of persons who are sad, moody, discontented, anxious, depressed, despairing, guilty, self-hating, fearing death, sorrowful ... and how they might bravely deal with these darker conditions according to various Existentialists, especially the Christian apologist, Soren Kierkegaard. These Existentialists are typically quite critical of comfortable contentment, bourgeois conformity, and ordinary "happiness." Mr. Marino is knowledgeable, a skilled writer, down-to-earth, and offers numerous good insights into these themes.
"After a public fray with a popular newspaper, Kierkegaard, an inveterate walker, would be stalked by Copenhagen street urchins, teasingly yelling at him "Enten/Eller"---Either/Or. Either faith or unbelief. According to Kierkegaard, the choice between the sacred and the profane is not one that reason can make. Put another way, if you put all your faith in reason, you have made your choice. Conversely, where faith is concerned, it involves a terrible clash. This is the proverbial fallen tree on the path Kierkegaard repeatedly stresses." - Gordon Marino, p. 237
"In Kierkegaard's time and much more so in our own, there is a tendency to reduce religion to either a gauzy form of spirituality or to something akin to philosophy for dummies --- good, uplifting, and yet untenable stories that would be better served by science and argument."
- Gordon Marino, p. 238
"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world."
- Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach,"
Sincerity and Authenticity by Lionel Trilling
How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise and Respected Persons
