Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 78/2016, p. 627-663 KIERKEGAARD LITERATURE FROM 2005 TO 2013 A DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY PART 3 by Paul Cruysberghs (Leuven), Johan Taels (Antwerpen), and Karl Verstrynge (Brussel) This descriptive bibliography is the third and final part of our survey discussing Kierkegaard literature from 2005 to 2013. It deals with authors and currents that influenced Kierkegaard and that were influenced by him. The current text is the successor of a prior survey, published in Tijdschrift voor filosofie 67/2005, no. 4, pp. 767-814. The prior parts of the actual bibliography were published in this journal in 77/2015, no. 2, pp. 373-408 (part 1) and in 78/2016, no. 2, pp. 393-425 (part 2). 9. Kierkegaard in Confrontation Research on authors, both theological, philosophical, and literary, who influenced Kierkegaard or were influenced by him, has been extremely intensive during the past ten years. It is evident that most of the books concern explicit relationships and influences. It might be somewhat surprising however, that there are quite a lot of studies in which Kierkegaard is subjected to comparisons with authors or currents he was not effectively influenced by or he did not influence himself. They do not belong to what the Germans call ‘Einflußforschung’ (Research on Influences). They rather apply a strategy of ‘Conceptual Analogy’, a comparison of authors or tradi- tions, which are not dependant on each other but nevertheless deal with analogous problems. The harvest is impressive. 9.1. Period before Kierkegaard As for the titles dealing with the period before Kierkegaard, they concentrate mainly on classical German philosophy. Some studies, like those on Fichte, Schelling, Schleiermacher, and Schopenhauer are actually proceedings of seminars and conferences doi: 10.2143/TVF.78.3.3194359 © 2016 by Tijdschrift voor Filosofie. All rights reserved. 99531_TSvFilosofie_2016-3_06_Kierkegaard.indd 627 31/01/17 15:56 628 Paul CRUYsbERgHs, Johan TAEls and Karl VERsTRYNgE organised by the Copenhagen Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre; most of the others are based on PhD projects. First of all, we should again mention Jon Stewart’s precious series on Kierkegaard Research. Sources, Reception and Resources, dealt with previously in the first part of our review. Stewart’s edition devoted the two tomes of volume 1 to Kierkegaard and the Bible (2010).1 Both tomes of volume 2 deal with Kierkegaard and the Greek World (2010). Volume 3 deals with Kierkegaard and the Roman World (2009). It is followed by volume 4 on Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Traditions (2008), and volume 5 (3 tomes) on Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions (2009).2 The other volumes deal with Kierkegaard’s contemporaries and with the reception of his ideas in the later centuries (cf. infra). In what follows we apply, where possible, a chronological order (not of the publications, but of the periods or authors dealt with). 9.1.1. Kierkegaard and Greece Peter Thielst, the author of the Danish bestseller Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns (Life is Understood Backwards, but Must Be Lived Forwards),3 presents his little book, Kierkegaard i Grækenland. På øhop i forfatterskabet (Kierkegaard in Greece. Isle-Hopping in the Authorship, 2013) as a tourist guide giving non-initiated readers the opportunity of hopping from one Greek isle to the next (øhop), in casu from one Greek poet or philosopher to the next, from Homer to Aristotle, all of which appear in Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authorship. The book is just a modest introduction without any pretensions. It is one of the typically popular Danish books that appeared on the occasion of Kierkegaard’s 200th birthday. Whereas Peter Thielst’s book on Kierkegaard and Greece is merely introductory, this is not the case with Kierkegaard and Socrates. A Study in Philosophy and Faith (2006) by Jacob Howland, which was mentioned previously as an analysis of the Climacus texts. However, Howland also outlines the significance of Socrates to Kierkegaard’s thought in general. He argues that Socrates, with his ‘philosophical Eros’, paves the way for an existential-philosophical ‘leap’ to religious belief and the (absolute) paradox. Howland’s excellent book concludes with an epilogue that col- lects little-known entries in Kierkegaard’s diaries that refer to Christ and Socrates. Daniel Greenspan’s book on The Passion of Infinity. Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy (2008) is a typical PhD thesis, published in the eminent Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series. Greenspan examines the fate of Greek tragedy. 1 Cf. Paul Cruysberghs, Johan Taels & Karl Verstrynge, ‘Kierkegaard Literature from 2005 to 2013. A Descriptive Bibliography – Part 2’, p. 395. 2 Id., ‘Kierkegaard Literature from 2005 to 2013. A Descriptive Bibliography – Part 1’, Tijdschrift voor filosofie 77/2015, p. 383; p. 405. 3 Peter Thielst, Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 20123. The book has been translated into many languages. 99531_TSvFilosofie_2016-3_06_Kierkegaard.indd 628 31/01/17 15:56 kiERkEgAARd liTERATURE 629 The first chapters of the book deal mainly with Sophocles’ tragedies (especially the Oedipus-Trilogy) and Aristotle’s interpretations of them. In a second part Greenspan connects Kierkegaard’s interpretation of tragedy to Sophocles himself rather than to Aristotle’s interpretation. While comparing Kierkegaard’s conception of tragedy to that of Nietzsche, the author argues that Kierkegaard, more than Nietzsche, takes into consideration the fact that Sophocles appeals to the gods, a theological element that reappears in Kierkegaard’s own reference to the monotheistic God as the divine Other. It is also in a Christian sense that Kierkegaard appreciates the role of passion in tragedy. In the last three chapters Greenspan deals mainly with Kierkegaard’s interpretation of biblical figures. 9.1.2. Kierkegaard and Medieval Thought It should be no surprise that the relationship between Kierkegaard and Augustine has become an explicit object of scholarly research. Both thinkers can be considered as proto-existentialists, and a quick search in the on-line SKS edition shows that Kierkegaard quotes him explicitly up to twenty-eight times. A number of articles on Kierkegaard and the famous Church Father already exist, but, finally, in 2007 Robert B. Puchniak defended a PhD thesis at Drew University in Madison (N.J.) on Kierkegaard and Augustine. A Study in Christian Existence.4 As far as we can determine, Puchniak has not published his thesis. Lee C. Barrett however, has pub- lished his; it appears as the book Eros and Self-Emptying. The Intersections of Augus- tine and Kierkegaard (2013). A first part of the book deals with a basic comparison of Kierkegaard and Augustine. They are presented as two pilgrims on the way home. While analyzing Kierkegaard’s picture of Augustine, Barrett compares Augustine’s restless heart with Kierkegaard’s desire for eternal happiness. In the second part of his book the author deals with specific theological topics: God considered from the viewpoint of boundless love, sin and God’s response to it, Christ, Salvation and the view of both Augustine and Kierkegaard concerning the Church. Barrett concludes by considering both theologians under the heading of ‘Two Edifying Theologies of Self-Giving’. 9.1.3. Kierkegaard and Modern Thought A typical example of the conceptual analogy approach is Blake, Kierkegaard, and the Spectre of Dialectic by Lorraine Clark. The book was published in 1991, but reprinted in 2009. The author focuses on the specific notion of dialectics in both authors, paying special attention to Kierkegaard’s concept of dread and his polemics with romantic irony. Another publication on Blake and Kierkegaard is James Rovira’s Blake and Kierkegaard. Creation and Anxiety, which appeared in 2010. Rovira’s starting 4 Robert B. Puchniak, Kierkegaard and Augustine. A Study in Christian Existence (PhD thesis), Madison (N.J.), Drew University, 2007. 99531_TSvFilosofie_2016-3_06_Kierkegaard.indd 629 31/01/17 15:56 630 Paul CRUYsbERgHs, Johan TAEls and Karl VERsTRYNgE point is a number of basic similarities between the political and cultural situations in England and Denmark. This appears to be a sufficient context for offering a reading of Blake through the spectacles of Kierkegaard’s category of anxiety: “Both England and Denmark [indeed] share three sites of cultural tension: an impulse toward democracy in tension with the ideal of a caring, paternalist, apolitical mon- arch who is father over a united state; science in tension with religion; and nature in tension with the use-value, potential, and necessity of artifice” (p. 9). Other examples of comparative research are Nathalie Gendrot’s L’autobiographie et le mythe chez Casanova et Kierkegaard (Autobiography and Myth in Casanova and Kierkegaard, 2010), that we just mention, and Helga Thalhofer’s “Sans Doute”. Die Ironie Prousts in Bezug auf die deutsche Frühromantik und Sören Kierkegaard (“With- out Doubt”. Proust’s Irony in Reference to German Early Romanticism and Søren Kierkegaard, 2010). As suggested by the title, the latter work deals mainly with Proust’s Recherche. The author looks for similarities and differences between early German romanticism (Friedrich Schlegel in the first place, but also Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger) and Kierkegaard’s Concept of Irony. The role of Kierkegaard in this interesting book, however, is quite arbitrary, functioning more as a point of reference than as a subject of thematic study. Sonja Kolberg’s book, Verweile doch! Präsenz und Sprache in Faust- und Don- Juan-Dichtungen bei Goethe, Grabbe, Lenau und Kierkegaard (Stay for a While! Pres- ence and Language in Literary Adaptations of Faust and Don Juan in Goethe, etc., 2007) has the character of a well-informed PhD thesis in literary criticism. It deals with the notion of “Augenblick” (Decisive Moment) in a number of literary works, in which the legends or myths of Faust and Don Juan show up.