The essays in Existentialism and Modern Literature by Davis McElroy were originally written as lectures. McElroy uses the word "God" in the sense that God governs man from within by making each of us a unique experiment in humanity. Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a number of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, took the human subject — not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual and his or her conditions of existence — as a starting point for philosophical thought. The titles of these lectures are "The Problem of Man's Existence," "Modern Literature: A Warning," and "Existentialism and Modern Literature."