Description
Book SynopsisSøren Kierkegaard’s authorship exhibits two different trajectories concerning the relation of responsible human agency to sovereign divine agency: one trajectory stresses free human striving, while the other trajectory emphasizes the dominance of divine agency. The first theme led to the view of Kierkegaard as the champion of autonomous existential “leaps,” while the second led to the construal of Kierkegaard as a devout Lutheran who trusted absolutely in God’s gracious governance. Lee C. Barrett argues that Kierkegaard, influenced by Kant’s critique of metaphysics, did not attempt to integrate human and divine agencies in any speculative theory. Instead, Kierkegaard deploys them to encourage different passions and dispositions that can be integrated in a coherent human life, making use of literary strategies to foster the different passions and dispositions that are associated with the themes of human responsibility and divine governance. Kierkegaard on God’s Will and Human Freedom: An Upbuilding Antinomy offers an incisive account of what makes Kierkegaard’s conception of theology as a matter of edification rather than speculation so distinctive and enduringly worthwhile.
Trade ReviewOne of our most trustworthy guides into Søren Kierkegaard offers here a thick description of the Dane’s struggle with the tensive valorization of divine and human agency. Exhibited in the process is Kierkegaard’s rhetorical style of doing theology that privileges practical reason over theoretic reason while emphasizing the necessary involvement of certain forms of passion, disposition, and virtue within religious practice. Readers will be grateful for this refreshing portrayal of Kierkegaard as theologian.
-- Curtis L. Thompson, Thiel College
If you understand how Kierkegaard navigates the problem of grace and freedom, there is a sense in which you understand his approach to Christian writing as such. On this subject, there is no better guide than Lee Barrett. This book situates Kierkegaard’s treatment of the will against the backdrop of previous debates and, even more importantly, models how to read him well.
-- Carl S. Hughes, Texas Lutheran University
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
Sigla for Kierkegaard's Works
Introduction: Kierkegaard and the Tensive Virtues of Resting in God’s Governance and Striving for Eternal Happiness
Chapter One: Kierkegaard’s Contentious Philosophical Background
Chapter Two: Kierkegaard’s Tensive Theological Background
Chapter Three: Kierkegaard and the Later Grace/Free-Will Debate
Chapter Four: Kierkegaard’s Unconventional Practice of Theology
Chapter Five: Active Leaping and Gracious Receiving in Philosophical Fragments
Chapter Six: Concluding Unscientific Postscript and the Truth and Untruth of Subjectivity
Chapter Seven: The Upbuilding Discourses and the Art of Being Nothing while Being Something
Chapter Eight: Preparing for Communion and the Impossibility of Preparing for Communion
Chapter Nine: Authorial Intentions and Divine Governance
Chapter Ten: Repentance Interrupted by Birds, Lilies, and Little Ludvig
Conclusion: The Conceptual Antinomy Becomes a Passional Antinomy
Bibliography
About the Author
