Sartre on Sin

<em>Sartre on Sin: Between Being and Nothingness</em> argues that Jean-Paul Sartre's early anti-humanist philosophy is indebted to the Christian doctrine of original sin. On the standard reading Sartre's most fundamental and attractive idea is freedom: he wished to demonstrate the existence of human freedom and did so by connecting consciousness with nothingness. Focusing on <em>Being and Nothingness</em> Kate Kirkpatrick demonstrates that Sartre's concept of nothingness (<em>le neant</em>) has a Christian genealogy which has been overlooked in philosophical and theological discussions of his work. Previous scholars have noted the resemblance between Sartre's and Augustine's ontologies: to name but one shared theme both thinkers describe the human as the being through which nothingness enters the world. However there has been no previous in-depth examination of this 'resemblance'. Using historical exegetical and conceptual methods Kirkpatrick demonstrates that Sartre's intellectual formation prior to his discovery of phenomenology included theological elements-especially concerning the compatibility of freedom with sin and grace. <p/>After outlining the French Augustinianisms by which Sartre's account of the human as 'between being and nothingness' was informed Kirkpatrick offers a close reading of <em>Being and Nothingness</em> which shows that the psychological epistemological and ethical consequences of Sartre's le neant closely resemble the consequences of its theological predecessor; and that his account of freedom can be read as an anti-theodicy. Sartre on Sin illustrates that Sartre' s insights are valuable resources for contemporary hamartiology.<br>