The Christian existentialists shared a faith in mystery that Heidegger kept in secular form

Evidence

One striking link between these radical ethical thinkers, all on the fringes of our main story, is that they had religious faith. They also granted a special role to the notion of ‘mystery’ — that which cannot be known, calculated or understood, especially when it concerns our relationships with each other. Heidegger was different from them, since he rejected the religion he grew up with and had no real interest in ethics — probably as a consequence of his having no real interest in the human. Yet every page of his late work suggests some direct experience of the ineffable or ungraspable. He too was a mystic. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 634

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how existentialism’s ethical fringe (Marcel, Buber, Levinas) diverged from the Sartre-Heidegger mainstream — a map of the movement’s religious counter-tendency. — connects to: Marcel developed a theological existentialism distinct from Sartre and Heidegger — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 286; Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130; Divine mystery is God’s mode of appearing, not hiddenness from reason (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger framed being as a question meant to astonish rather than to be answered #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 173
• Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death. #expands (0.75) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130
• Divine mystery is God’s mode of appearing, not hiddenness from reason #corroborates (0.72)