Renunciation as a Tragic Focus was first published in 1954. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Norman J. DeWitt explains, in an introduction to this volume, that these essays are written in terms of a personal humanism.

"Personal humanism," Mr. DeWitt says, "comes from an awareness of a world in which pain is real, and it leads to the traditional virtues of wisdom and justice, terms that are seldom heard in academic...