Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T16:04:09.751Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Herkunft and Zukunft: Heidegger, Christianity, and Secularization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Daniel M. Herskowitz
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Since the publication of the “earliest” Heidegger’s lectures and notes, it has become undeniable that the trajectory of his philosophy as a whole is thoroughly indebted to his Christian origins. Biographically, the young Heidegger was raised in a devout Catholic home in the rural town of Messkirch in Baden. As he came of age, he aspired to become a priest and began formation in a Jesuit seminary. While his quest for priesthood was cut short, Heidegger remained a passionate disciple of the Catholic faith, publishing polemical and apologetic pieces in various conservative Catholic journals and enrolling as a student of Catholic theology at the University of Freiburg. His initial philosophical training was in neo-Scholasticism and neo-Kantianism, and he wrote his dissertation on psychologism (1913) and his Habilitationsschift on “Duns Scotus’ Doctrine of Categories and Signification” (1915). Increasing dissatisfaction with the assumptions and efficiency of his philosophical commitments and his eventual marriage to the Protestant Elfride Petri in 1917 contributed to his estrangement from Catholicism and adoption of the Protestant confession.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×