TOWARD DEATH

I am currently reading Being and Time by Martin Heidegger. Even though Heidegger’s made up words can make it a little difficult to follow at times, there is something to it that really connects with me. The central premise centers around Da-sein (there-being) which is the knowing of one’s own being. This Da-sein is the self knowing that shapes an existential identity. Da-sein can be authentic or inauthentic depending on the realization of one’s own possibilities. This, therefore, shapes an ontic (existential) and ontological (deliberate) identity structures. However, it is the temporality of existence that shapes one’s Da-sein. There are many things (or categories) that determine one’s Da-sein including, but not limited to, objective presence and obtrusiveness. A few existential determinants include, but are not limited to, temporality, spaciality, and significance. Ultimately, Heideggar believed that truth is the disclosedness of Da-sein, or that it is related to one’s being in the world. However, this determines that knowing of oneself by being in the world requires that one’s Da-sein is closed in on itself to ensure existential meaning. Additionally, being in the world requires being with others. This causes a certain degree of angst because we not only experience others, but experience ourselves through relating to others who are experiencing themselves who are experiencing us.

The work of Heideggar, while having many critics, is fundamental in the development of existentialism and deconstruction. But it is the underlying message of his work that is most appealing to me. While the identity development is interesting to me because of my own areas of interest, it is his perspective that intrigues me the most. Heideggar’s work seems to be that identity is shaped by how one relates to the reality of moving toward death. In Being and Time Heideggar seems to be arguing that it when we experience the possibility of death (through the death of others or the possibility for one’s self) that it reshapes our own possibilities and understanding of our temporality which in turns shapes our experience with being in the world. However, I am left with questions of spirituality that are frustrating. For example, I believe that existentialism encourages Christians to experience life with minimal concern for what occurs after death. Does that mean, then, that the possibilities of the limitations of life or possibilities of what occurs after death shape our current reality in such a way as to shape the experience? Is that possible without a sacrifice of being in the world? And death of what kind? Is that only physical death or can it include metaphorical death too? As a follower of Christ, I believe that I have already gone through a form of death and that I am in a constant state of death for the purpose of experiencing new life. Does the ever present experience of death open new possibilities or just create new limitations? And when and if we experience the spiritual death of others, then does this create potentially with new spiritual life or do we experience the new possibilities and limitations in ourselves?

“I have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” “I am a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come.” These were the first two verse I memorized. If Heiddegar is correct in his assertion, then our spiritual death that creates new spiritual life isn’t just some supernatural event or paradigm shift, but a part of a process of personal, spiritual, and communal deconstruction that shapes a reality of new possibilities. But it also means that these same things create an ongoing frustration. Existentialism challenges an old perspective of heaven and hell as a reality there and makes it a reality here. It challenges the traditional idea that contentment and replaces it with angst. Da-sein challenges the consumerism of American Christianity and replaces it with an unfixed process. “What am I suppose to do?” is replaced with “Who am I and who is that in relation to self, others, and God?” We are all shaped by our movement toward death- and a death in the most literal of senses. However, we also have the opportunity and burden in Christ to be shaped by the movement of death in the most figurative of senses.