Existentialism
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A Review of David Beck’s Fragments: Reflections on Life and Faith throughout the Years
If you are going through a midlife change, or reflect on life at all, you have to read this book. Book reviews are supposed to be brief, but exercising restraint in reviewing David Beck’s “Fragments: Reflections on Life and Faith through the Years” ($15 softcover, $9.99 Kindle US, on Amazon.com), would be inauthentic. Moreover, it Continue reading
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Stories, Experience, and Why David Letterman Held Our Attention
There is a sudden realization that our narrative understanding of ourselves, perhaps wrongly occupies a central place in our attention. Continue reading
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A Cold Winter Day
“…while you may isolate at home for a while, Thou belongs to Me, and I to Thou. And this is no longer a trial.” Continue reading
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Arendt and the Public World Under Threat
We are now at the beginning of the end of the modern university. The same disease that polarizes us makes the University less and less relevant. This is not an economic argument; it is an existential one. (With updated links) Continue reading
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Thankful for Presence, Part 2: Presence in Me
I am thankful for the presence of Christ, who is all and in all. Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat: Existentialism and the Church’s Potential Complacency – Part 4
If … the function of organized religion turns out to be nothing more than to house justification, and canonize, the routines of mass society; if organized religion abdicates its mission to disturb individuals in the depths of their consciences, and seeks instead simply to “make converts” that will smilingly adjust to the status quo, then… Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat Part 3: Mysterious Relationship
Instead of obeying the Word and Spirit of God, the body of those who love one another precisely insofar as they have been freed from facticity and routine, the orderliness of objective mass society, one surrenders at the same time one’s human and one’s religious integrity. Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat, Part 2: Alienation in Mass Society
As we saw from Part 1 in this series of posts (which I encourage you to read before going on), our current systems of knowledge and power are not so much concerned with the authentic identity of concrete persons (you and I). Those systems are primarily concerned with objects of study including such commonplace perspectives Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat: an Existential Response Part 1
Existentialism offers neither attractions nor peril to people who are perfectly convinced that they are headed in the right direction, that they possess the means to attain a reasonably perfect happiness, and that they have a divine mandate to remove anyone who seems inclined to interfere with this aim. Existentialism calls into question the validity,… Continue reading
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Ordered to be Free: a Meditation Learning
“The self exists in the same way as a border between countries, i.e. as a social institution. Both are imaginary boundaries that have a certain pragmatic convenience to them.” Continue reading
About me: I am a career educator and traveler at heart. My written work includes academic writing in philosophy and linguistics, English acquisition, and most intently in the areas of spiritual engagement with reality and what that means for our public lives.
My education is a mixture of formal study in philosophy, political theory, Biblical studies, and history, along with professional teaching certification in TESOL and in cognitive testing, and international teaching.
My travel experiences include a range of countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. I have lived in Canada, the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand. From those places I have traveled to many others besides.
I am a child of the 70’s and a “family man.” That means I have two wonderful kids who have been round the world with me.
Lastly, I am married to a wonderful woman since 2004. She is my partner, my friend, and my muse.
Thanks again for stopping by,
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 