In 1962, Reiner Schürmann began studying at the Dominican school of theology Le Saulchoir, outside Paris. That experience radically shaped his life and work, enabling him to begin to develop many of the ideas for which he would later be known: letting be, life without why, ontological anarchy, and the tragic double bind.

Ways of Releasement contains never before published material from Schürmann’s early period, including selections from an early, more Christocentric version of Wandering Joy and several shorter, impassioned writings in which Schürmann tests his faith against Eckhart’s teaching of the Godhead, Heidegger’s later philosophy, his growing interest in Soto Zen, and the possibilities and limits of language. The volume also contains a report Schürmann wrote about his encounter with Heidegger, a précis of his autobiographical novel Origins, and translations and new editions of later groundbreaking essays. Ways of Releasement concludes with an extensive afterword contextualizing Schürmann’s writings in relation to his thinking and life.