Lexington Books Finite Transcendence: Existential Exile and the Myth of Home

Absurdity, time, death-each poses a profound threat to Being, compelling us to face our limits and our finitude. Yet what does it mean to fully realize and experience these threats? Finite Transcendence: Existential Exile and the Myth of Home presents a thoughtful and thorough examination of these challenges and questions, arguing the universality of the realization of finitude in the experience of exile. By tracing the historical presence and experience of notions of "faith" and "exile" in Western thought from the Ancient Greeks to the present, Steven A. Burr demonstrates the character of each as fundamental constitutive components of what it means to be human. The book discusses essential elements of each, culminating in a compelling account of "existential exile" as a definitive name for the human experience of finitude. Burr follows with a comprehensive analysis of the writings of Albert Camus, demonstrating an edifying articulation of, engagement with, and reconciliation of the condition of existential exile. Finally, based on the model suggested in Camus's approach, Burr discusses responses to exile and articulates the meaning of home as the transcendence of exile. Finite Transcendence is a work that will be of great value to anyone working in or studying existentialism, philosophy of religion, hermeneutics, and social theory, as well as to anyone interested in questions of faith and society, religion, or secularity. Review In this dark yet optimistic book, Steven Burr demonstrates that exile is more than simply a condition of bodily displacement; it is also something basic to the ontological structure of all human existence. Every one of us is in existential exile, longing to find "home" in a world that rebuffs our desires. Burr not only challenges us to confront this ontological truth but also draws on the work of Albert Camus in order to suggest a strategy to find happiness within the limits of our finitude. Penetrating, thorough and clearly argued, Finite Transcendence will be of interest to readers concerned with existential issues related to nihilism, human alienation and the religious quest for wholeness.--John Marmysz, College of Marin Finite Transcendence: Existential Exile and the Myth of Home is a readable and moving analysis of Camus's absurdity in terms of exile.--Julian Young, Wake Forest University About the Author Steven A. Burr has developed and taught courses in the Theology Department at Georgetown University and the graduate liberal studies program at Loyola University, Maryland.