{"id":4411,"date":"2011-11-04T22:27:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T02:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2011-11-04T22:27:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T02:27:29","slug":"faust-and-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/11\/faust-and-42.html","title":{"rendered":"Faust and 42"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As we began reading and discussing Goethe\u2019s Faust<\/a>\"\"<\/em> in my freshman seminar class, I decided to raise an even bigger question than the ones that we had been tackling so far this semester. I asked them what the meaning of life is.<\/p>\n

One student raised his hand and said \u201c42.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I had to explain it for some students. But Douglas Adams\u2019 famous treatment of this topic actually fit what I hoped we would talk about nicely. Students proposed answers, in particular \u201chappiness,\u201d in a way that soon made evident that they were not at all sure what the question was \u2013 just like the characters in Adams\u2019 novel The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, who get the answer only to discover that they don\u2019t know what the question is. We\u2019ll be talking more about this next time.<\/p>\n

In the prologue in heaven near the start of Goethe\u2019s Faust<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, the Lord tells Mephistopheles that Faust serves him in confusion, but soon he will achieve clarity. He also suggests that figures like Mephistopheles are necessary in order to keep humans from becoming stagnated and complacent. Could it be that the very notion that there is a state of permanent bliss that we can achieve, and having achieved it cling to it satisfied that we have at last reached our goal, is the confusion that the Lord refers to in Faust<\/a>\"\"<\/em> is not Faust\u2019s state of restlessness, but his mistaken notion that he ought to be able to find satisfaction and leave that restlessness behind?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we began reading and discussing Goethe\u2019s Faust in my freshman seminar class, I decided to raise an even bigger question than the ones that we had been tackling so far this semester. I asked them what the meaning of life is. One student raised his hand and said \u201c42.\u201d I had to explain it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,80],"tags":[246,2825,3374,4005,4034,4671,7194,7283],"class_list":["post-4411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy","category-religion","tag-246","tag-douglas-adams","tag-faust","tag-god","tag-goethe","tag-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy","tag-meaning-of-life","tag-mephistopheles"],"yoast_head":"\nFaust and 42<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As we began reading and discussing Goethe's Faust in my freshman seminar class, I decided to raise an even bigger question than the ones that we had been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/11\/faust-and-42.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faust and 42\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As we began reading and discussing Goethe's Faust in my freshman seminar class, I decided to raise an even bigger question than the ones that we had been\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/11\/faust-and-42.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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