The Thought Experimenting Qualities of Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
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Robert R. Cook S~Ren Kierkegaard
EQ 87:4 (1987), 311-327 Robert R. Cook S~ren Kierkegaard: Missionary to Christendom It was, we understand, Professor Gordon Rupp who coined the usejUl word 'rebunk' to denote a more positive activity than the much more common practice of 'debunking' ideas and people. Mr Cook, a teapher at the Scott Theological College in Kenya, offers an essay which falls into this helpful category of showing us what we may learn from a figure who has not always been appreciated by evangelical Christians. I. A Reappraisal Evangelicals have tended to be very wary of Kierkegaard. His profound influence on the early Barth is well known and the consequent Neo-Orthodox obsessions with God as utterly trans cendent and revelation as irrational and non-propositional have been profoundly regretted. Similarly Bultmann's lamentable disinterest in the Jesus of history can clearly be traced back to Kierkegaard,1 In fact a wide variety of modernist themes are embryonically present in lesser known strands of his thought. For example, does not the following sound like an extract from a Tillich sermon?: '.. while the jesting phrase winds its way drolly through the rest of the conversation, the speaker may privately have a rendezvous with the deity, who is present as soon as the uncertainty of all things is thought infinitely.'2 Or when Kierkegaard asserts that the sincere idol worshipper is enjoying a relationship with the living God for ' ... if only the mode of this relationshp is in the truth, the individual is in the truth even if it should happen to be thus related to what is not true',3 he is surely an unwitting precursor of such religious pluralists asJ. -
Kierkegaard on Selfhood and Our Need for Others
Kierkegaard on Selfhood and Our Need for Others 1. Kierkegaard in a Secular Age Scholars have devoted much attention lately to Kierkegaard’s views on personal identity and, in particular, to his account of selfhood.1 Central to this account is the idea that a self is not something we automatically are. It is rather something we must become. Thus, selfhood is a goal to realize or a project to undertake.2 To put the point another way, while we may already be selves in some sense, we have to work to become real, true, or “authentic” selves.3 The idea that authentic selfhood is a project is not unique to Kierkegaard. It is common fare in modern philosophy. Yet Kierkegaard distances himself from popular ways of thinking about the matter. He denies the view inherited from Rousseau that we can discover our true selves by consulting our innermost feelings, beliefs, and desires. He also rejects the idea developed by the German Romantics that we can invent our true selves in a burst of artistic or poetic creativity. In fact, according to Kierkegaard, becom- ing an authentic self is not something we can do on our own. If we are to succeed at the project, we must look beyond ourselves for assistance. In particular, Kierkegaard thinks, we must rely on God. For God alone can provide us with the content of our real identi- ties.4 A longstanding concern about Kierkegaard arises at this point. His account of au- thentic selfhood, like his accounts of so many concepts, is religious. -
A Reply to Steven Kepnes Jerome Yehuda Gellman Emeritus, Ben
Theological Realism and Internal Contradiction: A Reply to Steven Kepnes Jerome Yehuda Gellman Emeritus, Ben-Gurion University Steven Kepnes’s manifesto on behalf of realism about God, “A Program for a Positive Jewish Theology,” deserves wide praise. Too often in Jewish theology we are witness to what the American philosopher William Alston called “transcendentalitis,” a determined desire to re- frain from saying anything at all about God, which for some folk might be but one small step from or equivalent to agnosticism. I have argued elsewhere for theological realism in Jewish thought and thank Kepnes for this important endeavor.1 Kepnes also endorses positive predi- cations of God, in a rejection of negative theology that allows only negations (God is not this, God is not that). Negative theology is not robust enough for the religious life. In my simplest understanding of the terms, a realist engaging in discourse about God in traditional Judaism affirms that God is real, genuine, actual, and existent independent of our or anyone else’s thinking of God. A non-realist engaging in discourse about God in tradi- tional Judaism denies that God is real, genuine, actual, and independently existent. A non- realist could be a “fictionalist,” thinking of “God” as an imaginative fiction designed to express and encourage one’s commitment to a particular religious way of life.2 Or a non-real- ist might treat “God-talk” as an emotively fitting way to relate to well-appreciated features of life and the world with some combination of gratitude and wonder at being alive, or the like. -
Søren Kierkegaard's View of Faith Found in Fear And
SØREN KIERKEGAARD’S VIEW OF FAITH FOUND IN FEAR AND TREMBLING AND PRACTICE IN CHRISTIANITY David Pulliam Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of Philosophy Indiana University September 2016 ii Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Master’s Thesis Committee __________________________________ Dr. Samuel J.M. Khan, PhD __________________________________ Dr. Cornelis de Waal, PhD __________________________________ Dr. David Pfeifer, PhD iii David Pulliam Søren Kierkegaard’s view of Faith found in Fear and Trembling and Practice in Christianity In this paper I discuss two key works written by Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling and Practice in Christianity, under the pseudonyms Johannes de Silentio and Anti-Climacus respectively. I focus on three questions: what is Johannes view of faith, what is Anti-Climacus’ view of faith and how are these Kierkegaard’s conclusions? I argue that stemming from Johannes’ and Anti-Climacus’ points of view, Kierkegaard’s view of faith is the aligning of the self in a trusting relationship with the God-man. One outside of faith can perceive faith to be a paradox or find faith offensive; one must have faith to avoid offense and overcome the paradox. Chapter 1 focuses on the connection between Kierkegaard and his pseudonyms using his work The Point of View. In this chapter I map out Kierkegaard’s method of communication and the purpose for his use of pseudonyms. Chapter 2 focuses on Johannes’ view of faith in Fear and Trembling. -
The Authenticity of Faith in Kierkegaard's Philosophy
The Authenticity of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Philosophy The Authenticity of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Philosophy Edited by Tamar Aylat-Yaguri and Jon Stewart The Authenticity of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Philosophy, Edited by Tamar Aylat-Yaguri and Jon Stewart This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Layout and cover design by K.Nun Design, Denmark 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Tamar Aylat-Yaguri, Jon Stewart and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4990-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4990-6 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Contributors vi Introduction vii Acknowledgements xvi List of Abbreviations xvii Chapter One Jacob Golomb: Was Kierkegaard an Authentic Believer? 1 Chapter Two Shai Frogel: Acoustical Illusion as Self-Deception 12 Chapter Three Roi Benbassat: Faith as a Struggle against Ethical Self-Deception 18 Chapter Four Edward F. Mooney: A Faith that Defies Self-Deception 27 Chapter Five Darío González: Faith and the Uncertainty of Historical Experience 38 Chapter Six Jerome (Yehuda) Gellman: Constancy of Faith? Symmetry and Asymmetry in Kierkegaard’s Leap of Faith 49 Chapter Seven Peter Šajda: Does Anti-Climacus’ Ethical-Religious Theory of Selfhood Imply a Discontinuity of the Self? 60 Chapter Eight Tamar Aylat-Yaguri: Being in Truth and Being a Jew: Kierkegaard’s View of Judaism 68 Chapter Nine Jon Stewart, Kierkegaard and Hegel on Faith and Knowledge 77 Notes 93 CONTRIBUTORS Tamar Aylat-Yaguri, Department of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, P.O.B 39040, Tel-Aviv 61390, Israel. -
Soren Kierkegaard
For M.A;Semester-3 Contemporary Western Philosophy By Dr. Vijeta Singh Assistant Professor University Department of Philosophy(P.U) Soren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), considered to be the first existentialist philosopher, was of Danish nationality. He was also a theologian, poet, social critic and religious author. Accordingly, his work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction. He made many original conceptual contributions to each of the disciplines he employed. He was a great supporter of freedom and values of human individual. The main philosophical themes and principal conceptions of Kierkegaard’s philosophy are truth, freedom, choice, and God. For him, human beings stand out as responsible individuals who must make free choices. Kierkegaard was born on May 5, 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied Theology and Philosophy from Copenhagen University . Kierkegaard lived the majority of his life alone. He left his native Copenhagen only three or four times, each time to visit Berlin , and never married, though he was engaged for a short time. Kierkegaard is known for his critiques of Hegel, for his fervent analysis of the Christian faith, and for being an early precursor to the existentialists. He is known as the “father of existentialism”. Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual , not society or religion, is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Kierkegaard is said to have inaugurated modern existentialism in the early 19th century, while Jean-Paul Sartre is said to have been the last great existentialist thinker in the 20th century. -
A Love Knowing Nothing: Zen Meets Kierkegaard
Journal of Buddhist Ethics ISSN 1076-9005 http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/ Volume 22, 2015 A Love Knowing Nothing: Zen Meets Kierkegaard Mary Jeanne Larrabee DePaul University Copyright Notice: Digital copies of this work may be made and distributed provided no change is made and no alteration is made to the content. Reproduction in any other format, with the exception of a single copy for private study, requires the written permission of the author. All en- quiries to: [email protected]. A Love Knowing Nothing: Zen Meets Kierkegaard Mary Jeanne Larrabee 1 Abstract I present a case for a love that has a wisdom knowing nothing. How this nothing functions underlies what Kier- kegaard urges in Works of Love and how Zen compassion moves us to action. In each there is an ethical call to love in action. I investigate how Kierkegaard’s “religiousness B” is a “second immediacy” in relation to God, one spring- ing from a nothing between human and God. This imme- diacy clarifies what Kierkegaard takes to be the Christian call to love. I draw a parallel between Kierkegaard’s im- mediacy and the expression of immediacy within a Zen- influenced life, particularly the way in which it calls the Zen practitioner to act toward the specific needs of the person standing before one. In my understanding of both Kierkegaard and Zen life, there is also an ethics of re- sponse to the circumstances that put the person in need, such as entrenched poverty or other injustices. 1 Department of Philosophy, DePaul University. Email: [email protected]. -
Fear and Trembling, Translated and Introduced by Alastair Hannay (Penguin Classics, 1985)
Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Preface Attunement Speech in Praise of Abraham Problemata Preamble from the Heart Problema I Problema II Problema III Epilogue FOR THE BEST IN PAPERBACKS, LOOK FOR THE Søren Kierkegaard 1813-1855 PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0745, Auckland, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This edition published in Penguin Books (UK) 2005 Published in Penguin Books (USA) 2006 Translation copyright © Alastair Hannay, 1985 All rights reserved Reprinted from Fear and Trembling, translated and introduced by Alastair Hannay (Penguin Classics, 1985). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855. [Frygt og bæven. English] Fear and trembling / Søren Kierkegaard; translated by Alastair Hannay. p. cm. — (Penguin great ideas) eISBN : 978-1-101-00714-3 1. Christianity — Philosophy. I. Hannay, Alastair. -
Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter
Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter A Publication of the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library NUMBER 66: December 2016 Contents ‘ ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS 2 BOOK REVIEWS The Isolated Self: Irony as Truth and Untruth in Søren Kierkegaard's On the Concept of Irony by Brian Söderquist 2 Reviewed by Will Williams Kierkegaard and the Refusal of Transcendence by Steven Shakespeare Reviewed by Lucas Piccinin Lazzaretti 5 Unto the Abyss of Despair—Kierkegaard’s Aesthetic Sphere of Existence (走向绝望的深渊——克尔凯郭尔的美学生活境界) by Wang Qi (王齐) 6 Reviewed by Chingshun J. Sheu ARTICLES Philosophical Fragments: The Infinite Comic Drama Anthony Eagan 8 Tribute to David Kangas Martin Kavka 16 Tribute to Per Lønning Rune Engebretsen 18 Editor: Gordon D. Marino Editorial Intern: Lucas Shurson Assistant Editorial Intern: Emily Shimota Managing Editor: Eileen Shimota Assistant Editor: Begonya Saez Tajafuerce Assistant Editor: Rafael García Pavón Assistant Editor: Catalina Elena Dobre Assistant Editor: Leo Stan Assistant Editor: Christina Danko 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS Professor Anthony Rudd will deliver the lecture in spring 2017. International Kierkegaard Conference Though an exact date has not been established yet, the Library will host the Eighth International Kierkegaard Conference in the summer of 2018. Dr. Richard Purkarthofer will give the plenary lecture. In addition, for more information from the Hong Kierkegaard Library and other news from Kierkegaard scholars and related groups around the world, please see the website of the Hong Kierkegaard Library at http://wp.stolaf.edu/kierkegaard/. K. Brian Söderquist. The Isolated Self: Irony as Truth and Untruth in Søren Kierkegaard's On the Concept of Irony Copenhagen: Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre and C. -
Søren Kierkegaard Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Scientific Postscript – Excerpts1 PHIL101 Prof
Søren Kierkegaard Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Scientific Postscript – excerpts1 PHIL101 Prof. Oakes updated: 3/18/13 10:24 AM Section III: How do I know? Reading III.5 Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher who is best known for his interpretation of Christian faith and for his contributions to what would become known as ‘existentialism’. In both cases, a primary focus of Kierkegaard’s work is the immediate quality of our lived experience. What, exactly, is it like to be a human? What constitutes the best form of human life? As we will see, both in the following excerpts and in those in our Ethics section (Section IV), Kierkegaard thinks that our conceptual thought poses a significant potential obstacle to living well – or, more precisely, an obstacle to our living at all, in a sense. Not that Kierkegaard is anti-intellectual in either the theological or ethical context: conceptual thought plays a crucial role in proper human life, he maintains. But we can become “lost” in our concepts, he thinks, and thus fail to live the vital, vivid lives that are otherwise possible for us. In the following passages, Kierkegaard calls attention to this dualism in our relationship with God, the dualism of our objective, conceptual form of thought, on the one hand, and a subjective, “inner” state, on the other. Conceptual thought is the province of reason, and so Kierkegaard first considers belief in God in terms of what reason and the conceptual mind can tell us. Finding this approach unsatisfactory, Kierkegaard then considers belief in God in subjective terms. -
Kierkegaard's View of Religious Pluralism in Concluding Unscientific Ostscriptp
Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies Volume 3 Number 1 Article 2 2011 Kierkegaard's View of Religious Pluralism in Concluding Unscientific ostscriptP Brock Bahler Duquesne University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal Recommended Citation Bahler, Brock "Kierkegaard's View of Religious Pluralism in Concluding Unscientific ostscriptP ." Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 3, no. 1 (2011). https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol3/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Brock Bahler: Kierkegaard & Religious Pluralism 1 Brock Bahler Brock Bahler is a PhD student at Duquesne University where he also works as an editor at Duquesne University Press. His expertise is primarily continental philosophy and philosophy of religion and he has published articles addressing the work of Levinas, Derrida, and Augustine, respectively. Recently, he presented a paper at the Kierkegaard Society at the APA, entitled, “Kierkegaard’s ‘Greatness’: Human Subjectivity as an Ordinary Impossibility.” 2 IMW Journal of Religious Studies Vol. 3:1 Brock Bahler Kierkegaard’s View of Religious Pluralism in Concluding Unscientific Postscript INTRODUCTION While the issue of religious pluralism, or inclusivism, seems implicit throughout the Postscript,1 perhaps even constantly lingering on the fringes, it is not the central question of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous author, Johannes Cli- macus.2 This should make us pause in raising the issue. Before asking whether one can insert any other religion in Climacus’s account of subjectivity, or point- ing to Climacus’s existentialist structure as a metatheory that can be found in any way of being or God-relation,3 it is critical to consider what Climacus him- self writes on the subject. -
Kierkegaard on the Transformative Power of Art Antony Aumann Northern Michigan University [email protected]
Kierkegaard on the Transformative Power of Art Antony Aumann Northern Michigan University [email protected] 1 Kierkegaard’s Therapeutic Project Kierkegaard’s project is first and foremost a therapeutic one. Although he makes theological points and defends philosophical theses, he is not primarily a theologian or philosopher. Instead, he is a “physician of the soul.”1 He aims to help us get better, existentially speaking—to cure us of our spiritual ills. And what he thinks we need to overcome our anxiety and despair is a transformation. In particular, we have to turn our backs on the goal of self-gratification. We must devote our lives to God or the Good rather than ourselves. In sum, Kierkegaard’s prescription for our existential ailments is that we leave behind “the aesthetic life” and head in an ethical or religious direction.2 The central question facing Kierkegaard is thus a practical one. How can he inspire such transformations? How can he get his readers to change who they are at a fundamental level? Following Ryan Kemp and others, I will argue that reason is not the proper tool for the task.3 No mere argument, even if cogent or sound, can move people in the way Kierkegaard wants to move them. Yet, I will maintain that where reason fails, art can succeed. Indeed, to the degree that Kierkegaard ever inspires transformations, it is in virtue of the beauty of his words and the aesthetic appeal of his stories rather than the force of his logic.4 2 Transformational Change To appreciate the challenge facing Kierkegaard, we need to understand the kind of change he wants to effect.