This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom by Martin Hägglund

4.07 AVERAGE

al_mutaghatris's review

5.0
Such an incredible book that deepens your thinking on each philosopher he takes up. A fantastic synthesis of the life philosophy and political philosophy I already ascribed to.

benplatt's review

4.0
An excellently structured and explained bit of philosophy that never quite justifies the abandonment of all religion that seems to be the logical end of Hagglund's conclusions. Overcoming religious faith, as he advocates in the otherwise excellent conclusion, does not feel as though it follows from the explication of the previous hundreds of pages. His example of MLK Jr. feels like a sticking point for me - how is religious faith not a communally governed set of norms, ala Hegel's God? And for what reason should we abandon that method of deliberation if we can make it democratic? Are "we" (I'm not even sure who I mean by that) able to sustain a world of entirely secular faith with no aspirations for the spiritual eternal? I genuinely don't have answers to these questions, but I'm not quite convinced Hagglund does either. Despite all of that, what he does focus on, the connections between spiritual faith, eternity, and capitalism, are thoroughly compelling.

s__tu's review against another edition

4.0
challenging hopeful informative slow-paced
sorensoren's profile picture

sorensoren's review

4.0
informative reflective slow-paced

harnishjm's review

3.75
challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced
alexsteinkampf's profile picture

alexsteinkampf's review

4.0
hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

bokonon12's review

5.0
challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

blecky's review

4.0
challenging informative reflective slow-paced

wearyoctopus's review

3.75
challenging informative reflective slow-paced
Alternates between life-changingly clarifying and ponderously dull. Would have been twice as powerful at half the length.
jeddcole's profile picture

jeddcole's review against another edition

5.0
challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
Finished what I suspect will be but the first of many reads of This Life by Martin Hägglund. This book, holy shit.

Concise, sensitive, and ambitious: an argument for owning our finite lives and recognizing precisely how capitalism must be overcome in order to be free to do so. 

Read. this. book.