ABSTRACT
Raised in a secular home, Alceu Amoroso Lima converted to Catholicism in 1928. His writings were influenced by the ideas of Jacques Maritain, a thinker often quoted in Existentialism and Other Myths of Our Time. From the beginning, Lima makes clear what he means with the term "existentialism" in the title. Influenced by Maritain, Lima claims that the authentic existentialism is the essentialist one of Christian and Thomistic inspiration. In his approach to the reasons why Kierkegaard is considered the founder of existentialism, Lima criticizes the subordination of the abstract to the concrete in Kierkegaard's thought, claiming that this position can lead to a false notion of abstraction, which he regards as an essential element of philosophy. In Lima's book, there can be found examples of misunderstandings about Kierkegaard's person and thought. Lima makes some biographical mistakes, such as when he claims that Kierkegaard was the son of a Protestant pastor, or that he was almost unknown until his death.
