Suicides Existentialists Says Niebuhr

Existentialists can be defined as "people who face calmly the question of suicide," Richard Niebuhr, professor of Philosophy at Yale, said last night.

His lecture, second in a series of three on religious existentialism, was concerned with "Christian Existentialism" and its relationship to other schools of thought.

The problem with all types of existentialist thinking is to communicate with the self existentially, rather than to think about existentialism," Niebuhr said.

Illusory thinking is the main target for Christian and other schools of existentialist thought.

Realms of opinion, culture patterns, and stereotypes must be fought, Niebuhr said. It is a mistake to think in terms of "I think"; the correct interpretation, for existentialists, is "It thinks in me."

Two different schools attempt to combat "illusory thinking," Neibuhr said. The Christian existentialist approach is based on the relationship between selves, while the "positivist" school focuses on defining the precise relationship between things.

In the sentence "I am guilty," the positivist is concerned with the word "guilty," while the Christian existentialist considers "I" the crucial word.

Niebuhr believes the existentialist mode of thinking has been present in Christian writings since Augustine first considered his relationship to God. Luther and Pascal, both questioners of their own being and its place in the universe, sought the same truths for which modern existentialists are striving.

Illusions of the Christian doctrine provide the body of material with which Christian existentialists deal, primarily as they effect the search for security. They attack people who think themselves Christians because they use the Christian language without relating it to their own selves, Niebuhr said.