ABSTRACT the Concept of Eternity in Kierkegaard's Philosophical
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ABSTRACT The Concept of Eternity in Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Anthropology Christi Lyn Hemati, Ph.D. Mentor: C. Stephen Evans, Ph.D. This study provides a critical analysis of the meaning of eternity as it relates to the human being in Kierkegaard’s psychological work, The Concept of Anxiety. First, the eternal signifies the divine image implanted in human beings from the beginning of creation, making us spiritual, embodied beings with the capacity for self-consciousness, a God relationship, freedom, everlasting life, and communal fellowship with other persons. Second, the eternal is present both ontologically and normatively in human beings, providing an unchanging criterion and telos of human existence, a task we are responsible to fulfill. Third, eternity signifies perfection; it is the ideal for which we were created. By failing to fulfill this task, we can be said to “lose” the eternal through sin and “gain” it again through redemption. As sinners who are guilty of refusing to fulfill this task, Haufniensis argues that eternity’s criterion can only be fulfilled through faith in Christ’s atonement. This decision in time paradoxically has eternal consequences, and in this sense the eternal signifies transcendence beyond our spatiotemporal world. However, the believer’s eternal decision in time not only determines whether life after death entails eternal happiness instead of eternal damnation; it also has redemptive consequences that begin in temporality, bringing a spiritual continuity and sanctified vision of oneself, others, and the temporal world here and now. Chapter one gives an overview of the significance and conceptual aspects of eternity. Chapter two investigates the predominantly ontological presence of the eternal in the self, specifically in a human being’s original created structure (i.e., before the fall into sin). Chapter three explores the self’s falling away from the eternal, a fall that reveals eternity’s ontological and normative role, as well as what Kierkegaard calls the “demonic” relation to eternity. Chapter four offers a contrast between the Platonic and Christian ways of helping the self regain a proper relationship to eternity, both ontologically and normatively. Chapter five further develops and analyzes the normative implications of Christian repetition and explains how the qualities of inwardness, earnestness, and concretion characterize a proper conception and relationship to the eternal. The Concept of Eternity in Kierkegaard's Philosophical Anthropology by Christi Lyn Hemati, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of Philosophy ___________________________________ Michael D. Beaty, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ C. Stephen Evans, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Robert C. Roberts, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Robert B. Kruschwitz, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Phillip J. Donnelly, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Paul Martens, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2009 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2009 by Christi Lyn Hemati All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. viii CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................ 1 Introducing the Problem .................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Importance of Eternity in Kierkegaard’s Thought: The Virtue of Hope ... 2 Structure and Context of Project ................................................................ 9 Concept of Anxiety and Sickness Unto Death ........................................... 16 Continuities ............................................................................................ 16 Discontinuities ....................................................................................... 22 Ambiguities and Difficulties ...................................................................... 25 Pseudonyms and Indirect Communication ............................................ 25 Eternity of God and Human Beings ....................................................... 31 Synthesis of Temporality and Eternity in Self-Structure ....................... 32 The Characteristics and Roles of Eternity ................................................. 34 CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................... 44 Eternity in the Ontology of the Self ................................................................... 44 Introduction ................................................................................................ 44 Kierkegaard’s Concept of the Human Being ............................................. 47 The Normative Self ................................................................................ 47 The Ontological Self .............................................................................. 50 The Narrative Self .................................................................................. 56 The Relational Self ................................................................................ 61 Eternity in the Pre-Fallen Self .................................................................... 69 iii Analogy between Innocence and Immediacy in Creation ......................... 73 CHAPTER THREE ....................................................................................................... 89 The Fall into Sin as Loss of the Eternal ............................................................. 89 Introduction ................................................................................................ 89 Common Goals of Concept of Anxiety and Sickness Unto Death ........ 89 Defining Sin, Hereditary Sin, Anxiety, and Despair ............................. 94 The Fall into Sin......................................................................................... 100 Anxiety as Expression of the Eternal in Innocence ............................... 102 Presence or Absence of Freedom and the Eternal: Before First Sin ...... 105 Presence or Absence of Freedom and the Eternal: After First Sin ........ 113 Demoniac’s False Notions of Eternity ....................................................... 118 Denial of the Eternal in Man .................................................................. 125 Abstract Eternity .................................................................................... 131 Eternity of the Romantic Imagination .................................................... 138 Metaphysical Eternity ............................................................................ 140 CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................................... 144 Regaining Eternity: Problems with Platonic Recollection ................................. 144 Introduction ................................................................................................ 144 Regaining the Eternal through Knowledge and Recollection .................... 148 Metaphysical Solution: Difficulty of the Instant ................................... 148 Epistemological Solution: Knowledge and Recollection ...................... 158 Regaining the Eternal through Christ, Faith, and Repetition ..................... 165 Metaphysical Solution: Atonement, Transition, and the Moment ......... 166 Epistemological Solution: Sin and Need for Faith ................................ 173 Anxiety, Faith and the Atonement ............................................................. 178 Transferring Anxiety’s Object from Finite to Infinite Goods ................ 183 Fate and Guilt Replaced by Sin and Providence .................................... 187 Atonement and Faith’s Anticipation of Infinity ..................................... 194 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 197 CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................ 199 Eternity as the True Repetition .......................................................................... 199 iv The Concept of Repetition ......................................................................... 199 The Eternal as Present in the Positive Mood of Christian Ideality ........ 206 Eternity as Future in the Negative Mood of Christian Ideality .............. 209 Eternity as the True Repetition .............................................................. 215 Concretion, Inwardness, and Earnestness .................................................. 222 Inwardness ............................................................................................. 224 Earnestness ............................................................................................