Philosophy & Christ

Sartre and Christianity

Jean-Paul Sartre taught that for human beings ‘existence precedes essence’: we arrive without a fixed nature and must create ourselves by our choices, wholly free and wholly responsible. He exposed ‘bad faith,’ the ways we lie to ourselves to escape that freedom. Christianity agrees that freedom and responsibility are real and that self-deception is a genuine danger. It differs by insisting we are given an essence, made in God's image for love, and that grace frees us from the crushing task of inventing ourselves out of nothing.

What Sartre taught

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 to 1980), the leading atheist existentialist, began from a stark premise: there is no God, and therefore no designer to give human beings a fixed nature or purpose in advance. So for us, he said, existence precedes essence. A paper-knife has an essence before it exists, because a maker planned it; a human being simply exists first, and only afterward, through choices, makes itself into something. We are, in his famous phrase, condemned to be free: free because there is no God to author us, condemned because we cannot escape the total responsibility that freedom brings.

From this he drew the idea of bad faith (mauvaise foi): the countless ways we deceive ourselves to flee our freedom, pretending we ‘had no choice,’ hiding behind roles and excuses. Authentic existence means owning our freedom and its weight. Sartre took responsibility with terrible seriousness: in choosing for myself, he said, I choose an image of what a human being should be. Yet he also confessed the ache of it, calling man a ‘useless passion,’ a longing for a fullness of being we can never quite reach.

Where Christianity agrees

Christianity agrees with Sartre on things many religious people underrate. Human freedom is real; we are not machines or mere products of instinct and circumstance, and our choices genuinely make us. Responsibility is real and heavy; we cannot honestly hide behind ‘I had no choice.’ And bad faith is a piercing description of something Scripture also names: the human genius for self-deception, for excusing ourselves, for refusing to face who we are. Sartre's demand for authenticity, for an end to the lies we tell ourselves, has a real kinship with the biblical call to walk in the light and speak truth in the inward parts.

Where it differs

But Sartre begins from ‘there is no God,’ and everything follows from that empty room. If no one made us, we have no given nature and no given worth; we must manufacture both, alone, forever. Christianity says we do have an essence, and it is good news: we are made in the image of God, made on purpose, made for love. Our worth is not a project we must achieve but a gift we already carry. And where Sartre leaves us with exhausting, unaided freedom, the freedom of a ‘useless passion,’ Christianity offers freedom with a direction and a helper: not freedom from all nature, but freedom to become who we truly are, by grace.

What Christ offers the one condemned to be free

Sartre said we are thrown into existence with no essence and must create ourselves from nothing, and he felt the exhaustion of it. Christianity answers that we were not thrown but given, known before we drew breath:

The freedom Sartre called a condemnation, Christianity calls a gift with a home. We are free not to invent our worth against the void but to receive it, and free to become, by grace, the self we were created to be. The ‘useless passion’ Sartre described, the longing for a fullness we cannot reach on our own, is, Christians say, the ache for God, and it is answered not by heroic self-creation but by a Person who says: you are already known, already loved, come and be free indeed.

Frequently asked questions

What did Sartre mean by 'existence precedes essence'?

That human beings, unlike manufactured objects, arrive with no predetermined nature or purpose. Because Sartre saw no God to design us, he held that we exist first and then create our own essence through our choices, bearing full responsibility for who we become.

How does Christianity differ from Sartre?

Sartre begins from the absence of God, so we must invent our own nature and worth alone. Christianity says we are given an essence, made in God's image, on purpose, for love, so our worth is a gift, not a project. And grace frees us to become who we truly are, rather than leaving us to create ourselves from nothing.

What is 'bad faith' in Sartre, and does Christianity agree?

Bad faith is self-deception, fleeing our freedom by pretending we 'had no choice' or hiding behind roles. Christianity finds this insight true to life; Scripture also exposes our habit of excusing and deceiving ourselves, and calls us instead to walk in the light and face who we are honestly.