The Existentialists Survival Guide

“When it comes to living there’s no getting out alive. But books can help us survive so to speak by passing on what is most important about being human before we perish. In The Existentialist’s Survival Guide Marino has produced an honest and moving book of selfhelp for readers generally disposed to loathe the genre.” —The Wall Street Journal Sophisticated selfhelp for the 21st century—when every crisis feels like an existential crisis Soren Kierkegaard Frederick Nietzsche JeanPaul Sartre and other towering figures of existentialism grasped that human beings are at heart moody creatures susceptible to an array of psychological setbacks crises of faith flights of fancy and other emotional ups and downs. Rather than understanding moods—good and bad alike—as afflictions to be treated with pharmaceuticals this swashbuckling group of thinkers generally known as existentialists believed that such feelings not only offer enduring lessons about living a life of integrity but also help us discern an inner spark that can inspire spiritual development and personal transformation. To listen to Kierkegaard and company how we grapple with these feelings shapes who we are how we act and ultimately the kind of lives we lead. In The Existentialists Survival Guide Gordon Marino director of the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College and boxing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal recasts the practical takeaways existentialism offers for the twentyfirst century. From negotiating angst depression despair and death to practicing faith morality and love Marino dispenses wisdom on how to face existence headon while keeping our hearts intact especially when the universe feels like it’s working against us and nothing seems to matter. What emerges are lifealtering and in some cases lifesaving epiphanies—existential prescriptions for living with integrity courage and authenticity in an increasingly chaotic uncertain and inauthentic age.