Heidegger's thinking has an underlying unity, this book argues, and has cogency for seemingly diverse domains of modern culture: philosophy and religion, aesthetics and literary criticism, intellectual history and social theory. "The theme of mortality--finite human existence--pervades Heidegger's thought," in the author's words, "before, during, and after his magnum opus, Being and Times , published in 1927." This theme is manifested in Heidegger's...