FOUR PROPHETS OF OUR DESTINY

This timely book contains a brief but penetrating study of the message for their time and ours of Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietsche and Kafka. A comparison of the life philosophies of these four men, a consideration of their influence upon one another and upon the thinking of the present generation, make this a book of more than ordinary interest especially to those concerned in philosophy and theology. All four challenged very sharply the comfortable, complacent philosophy of the middle-class European and the efficacy of a church so intimately tied up with the State and so remote from the needs and aspirations of the common people. Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky especially are regarded by existentialist philosophers and neo-orthodox theologians as forerunners of their points of view. Dostoevsky contributed unwillingly to the development of the imperialistic phase of communism, while Nietsche was regarded by Hitler as the philosopher of Naziism. None of these four can be ignored by present day thinkers, and as this volume presents their views in a not too technical exposition it deserves a wide reading.