The purpose of the seminar is to examine three forms of modern nihilism that condition our understanding of finitude and its original positivity. They represent, in different ways, the antithesis of a metaphysics and a theology of gift called forth by the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, nos. 22-24). The seminar examines the absorption of the finite by the infinite in Hegel’s elucidation of the absolute spirit (classes 1-6); it then studies Nietzsche’s anthropology (classes 7-10); and concludes with an approach to Heidegger’s perception of finitude as man’s encompassing horizon (classes 11-13).
Selected Texts
Franz Kafka, Dearest Father.
Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood.
Andrew Root, The Children of Divorce: The Loss of Family as the Loss of Being.
Albert Camus, The Plague.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche.
Martin Heidegger, The Phenomenology of Religious Life.
Martin Heidegger, Pathmarks.
Faculty
Antonio López, F.S.C.B.
Vice President
Provost
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Rev. López teaches and writes in the areas of trinitarian theology, metaphysics, theological anthropology, and marriage. He serves as editor of Humanum Academic Press and of the English Critical Edition of the Works of Karol Wojtyła and John Paul II, a continuing series from CUA Press.
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