This important collection of lectures and essays was regarded by Gabriel Marcel as the best introduction to his thought. Outstanding in the richness of its analyses and in its application of Marcel's "concrete approach" to philosophical problems, Creative Fidelity not only deals with the perennial Marcellian themes of faith, fidelity, belief, incarnate being, and participation, but includes chapters on religious tolerance and orthodoxy and an important critical essay on Karl Jaspers.

Known in this country as a Christian Existentialist, Marcel preferred to be called a "Neo-Socratic, " a label suggesting the dialogical, unfinished nature of his speculations. He may best be described as a Reflective Empiricist.

Born in Paris in 1889, the son of a French minister to Stockholm, Marcel frequented literary and political milieus, traveled extensively, and read widely in both German and Anglo-American philosophy. His best known books are Being and Having (1935), Man Against Mass Society (1952), and The Decline of Wisdom (1954).