Description
Book SynopsisThis book is an original philosophic exploration of the meaning of Kierkegaard’s life, his thought, and his works. It makes a bold case for Kierkegaard’s recognition of the concrete existence of the individual, including Kierkegaard himself, as crucial to the spiritual life. Written with delicate insight, and beautifully translated from Hebrew, this work offers valuable new turns to understanding the puzzling life-work of a modern giant of spiritual reflection.
Trade Review”very sound …Kierkegaard’s philosophy, he argues convincingly, sways between the hope of overcoming alienation (despair, anxiety, self-denial) by creating unity and harmony (marriage, repetition, faith), and readopting the experience of alienation as the ultimate meaning of existence, as an unbridgeable gap.” in: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 67/2005
Table of ContentsForeword Preface Introduction PART I: FROM EXISTENCE TO RELIGION ONE First Steps 1. The Voyage To The Self 2. The Development of the Existential Element in Kierkegaard's Thought 3. “What God Wills That I Shall Do TWO The Meaning of Personal Alienation 1. The Experience of Alienation 2. Alienation and Marriage THREE From Existence to Religion 1. Failure as a Turning Point 2. Religion as Escape? 3. Religion as the New Metaphysical Horizon 4. From Existence to Religion FOUR Interlude: The Literary Medium and the Relationship between Existence and Religion 1. Introduction 2. Kierkegaard Living and the Problem of Literary Philosophical Writing 3. The Pseudonymous Writing 4. The Literary Failure and the Implications of a Growing Alienation: The Turn to Religion 5. Methodological Conclusions FIVE Faith as a Contest with Alienation 1. Immediacy: Reflection and Unity 2. The Dialectic of Faith: Unity and Contradiction 3. The Ontological Meaning of Faith 4. Faith and Alienation SIX The Voyage toward Fate 1. Models of Self-Affirmation 2. Endorsing the Biography: Accepting Destiny 3. Freedom and Fate 4.Fate and Destiny: The Voyage toward Fate PART II: FROM RELIGION TO EXISTENCE SEVEN Existence or Religion 1. The Problem 2. Christianity and Existence 3. Obedience and Existence EIGHT From Religion to Existence: The Theological Foundation 1.The Perception of God 2.God and the Relationship with God 3. Decoding God’s Will: “What God Wills That I Shall Do?” 4. The Perception of God and the Religious Demand: A Reconsideration 5. From Religion to Existence: Religious Life NINE Affirming and Denying the World: The Problematic 1. Introductory Remarks: On “Double Reading” 2. The Problematic of Affirming and Denying the World TEN Religious and Existence in Kierkegaard’s Thought: A Summary Works Cited 1. Works by Kierkegaard (with Abbreviations Used in This Book) 2. Secondary Sources About the Author Index
