Friday. November IV. I965 SCARLET AND BLACK Page Fin 0r . > Bible (Continued from Page 3) cannot be content with solely the 'Biblical approach to the problem of God. “If the Judeo»Christian tradition will continue to be rela- tive, it cannot avoid dialectical ere ‘changa in relation to this ques- tion of the existence of God," Smith said. Critical doubts about religion must be taken seriously, Smith thinkst “In the end, we must all be on the side of dialecticians. it takes a theologian of considerable (standing to avoid dialectical ques tions In his quest for an under- standing of God.” A specialist on American phil- osophy and the philosophy of re- ligion, Dr. Smith has written nu- merous books, including the Spirit or American Philosophy, Reason and God, and a critical text and introduction tn the works of Jun- athan Edwards. The Gates lectures were estab- lished by Grinllell College in 1913 as a tribute to the late President George A. Gatesi Each year the program brings representatives or modern thought on philosophy and religion to the campus. . Your Best Clothes Laundered by Swede} You ll LOOk . ‘ Grime/I LAUNDRY 816 COMMERCIAL Smith lectures 0n Kierkegaard, Analyzes Existential Perspective By IAN BAHL Defining the existential ap- proach to the problem of God, Dr. John Edwin Smith says the first task of the modern theo— logian is to force a reexamina- tion or positivist metaphysics. Smith, chairman of the philoso- phy department at Yale Univer~ sity, was the 1965 Gates Lecturer, and spoke in Herrick Chapel Mon- day night in the second of three lectures on “The Problem of GM.” “We have to plunge in with all the risk involved.” he said, ”and force a reexamination of some of the truncated theories of reality in which the problem of God nev- er gets off the ground, and in which the problem of God is al- ready settled in a negative way." Smith dealt specifically with the Kierkegaardian approach to reale ity, which begins With a presup- position oi God's reality and sees the meaning of existence In the individual human purpose. This purpose must be realized “through knowledge of one's own being." According to Smith, this is “the shock oi being there without be- ing in an the decision.” Recognizing Kierkegaard's fond- ness for driving the individual to an awareness of the universals present in his own particular case, and to an awareness that man may be speaking about himself when applying universals to other men, Smith said, “Most Individu— als tend to move In the direction of the universal vague rather than to their own particular eye.” In order to progress to a subjec» tive state in which the individual eye focuses on the universals, people must be driven to (arm their answers by drawing them from their own questions. Thus, according to Smith, be- coming existential means recog— nizing ”man's nature as a respon- sible moral being who must act and choose, and who can’t avoid the responsibility or this free dom.” Smith cited Kierkegaard‘s dia- lectic of life styles—a way of con- ducting oneself on the basis of one major principle There are three basic life styl the esthetic, the immediate satisiaction oi the pres. ent; the ethical. a call of duty or personal commandment; and the religious, based on raith and trust, “God appears on the scene as a solution to the problems or the first two life styles,” Smith Said. The purely esthetic or ethical life is inadequate, he believes, be- cause “an attempt to live a life of satisfaction of the present mo— ment impels treatment at other beings as objects, until the man himself becomes an object who can't please himself at all, and an ethical call of duty is too enormous a responsibility for man to bear." Man Is propelled into a religious lite style because oi his awareness that he can’t live the others Smith saw the reality of God In Kierkegaard’s approach as “not the same as the problem of exis- tence Dr non-existence of a finite object. The reality of God is bound up with the extent to which the individual recognizes a change within himself and his deliverance from the esthetic and ethical life styles.” If existence is to be re served tor sense objects, and God is not a sensible object, then "God does not ‘exist’; he Is eter- nal." Smith addedfl‘GeiHs real, and exists in the individual, insu- far as God furnishes a ground for his subjective being." The difficulties of Kierkegaard’s View come because “confining the problem to man’s existence runs the risk of losing its relationship to the rest of the world and the Community of individuals," stated Smith. Also, he said, “It is an ac- cepted view that when I think about something, it must be made into an objectt There is nothlng inherent in thinking itself that makes what is being thought about an object. We need to have not only the truth of participation, but also the truth of distance. Man EXISTENTIALISM— (Continued on Page I) DISCOUNT CENTER ’ RECORDS DISCOUNT PRICES 45 RPM — 79‘ 3.98 Value — 2.97 4.98 Value — 3.77 Chocolate Covered Cherries ‘ 39‘ REMINGTON "25" SHAVER s21*" BATH TOWELS 71‘ HAND TOWELS ' 41‘ GHAPANS MR 4 $1.39 vilii. 88‘ CIGARETT ES m 5285 KINGS 5289 WHERE YOU NEVER PAY RETAIL! EVERY DAY DISCOUNT PRICES SAVE YOU MORE [ILADYII REMINGTON SHAVER $1451 MUM CREAM DEODORANT 79: Value 48‘ TOP BRASS Reg. Tube stoo Value 58‘ 816 5th Ave. Grinnell, Iowa STORE HOURSl SOFTEX FACIAL TISSUE 19‘ CREST W/Tooih Brush 19c Valu. 52‘ _ VO-5 20 0:. Spray W/im doll Reg. and Hard $2.35 Value $1 4 9 mm. to 7 pun. Friday 9 mm. to 8 part. Mon.. Tues" Wed.. Thurs.. Sat. 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