The Contribution of Søren Kierkegaard for the present times

2016

This project presents a comparative philosophical approach to understanding key elements in the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard by juxtaposing his works with the philosophy and theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church.. The primary aim of the project is to look at three key areas of Kierkegaard’s philosophy that have been either underrepresented or misunderstood in the literature. These three areas are: Kierkegaard’s views on sin and salvation, Kierkegaard’s epistemology, and Kierkegaard’s philosophy of personhood. The dissertation ends with an epilogue that briefly explores a further area where this comparative approach might provide fruitful results, namely Kierkegaard’s views on collective worship. I argue that the revolutionary nature of Kierkegaard’s break with prevalent views in the Western Christian traditions (Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) have not always been fully appreciated due to the fact that he is most often read through the lens of either Western Christianity o...

Selected Works of Cornelio Fabro, volume 2, 2020

Pre-publication draft, please cite the published version. In this introduction, I attempt to do three things: (i) to introduce briefly Fabro’s Thomistic approach to Kierkegaard’s writings; (ii) to highlight the ecumenical aspects of Kierkegaard’s Christian spirituality; and (iii) to explore Kierkegaard’s use of Aristotle as the background to Kierkegaard’s view of subjectivity and ethico-religious truth. My claim is that rather than viewing Kierkegaard as the irrational antithesis of a Thomist approach, Fabro discovered in Kierkegaard’s writings an important resource for his Thomist project. To better understand the uniqueness of Fabro’s approach to Kierkegaard’s writings, it is necessary to take a brief look at Fabro’s view of Kierkegaard’s spirituality and metaphysics.

Prairie Bible Institute My focus in this paper is on the theological value of the philosophy of nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard. My task is to address Kierkegaard's philosophical compatibility with and contribution to Christian theology and the significance Kierkegaard may (not) have for the tasks of the Christian theologian. What frames this issue for my purposes here is the supposed irrelevance of Kierkegaard to theology, as some would have it, while others take an even dimmer view, arguing that Kierkegaard leaves theology in an irrationalist and subjectivist quagmire and that he is best avoided by Christian thinkers.

A short draft paper with some key aspects of the philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkegaard.

Religion, 1983

Actually the revolution is much closer than we think. The last band of free thinkers (Feuerbach and all related to him) has attacked or tackled the matter far more clearly than formerly, for if you look more closely, you will see that they actually have taken upon themselves the task of defending Christianity against contemporary Christians. The point is that established Christendom is demoralized, in the profoundest sense all respect for Christianity's existential commitments has been lost. .. Now Feuerbach is saying : No, wait a minute-if you are going to be allowed to go on living as you are living, then you also have to admit that you are not Christians. .. it is wrong of established Christendom to say that Feuerbach is attacking Christianity; it is not true, he is attacking the Christians by demonstrating that their lives do not correspond to the teachings of Christianity. .. What Christianity needs for certain is traitors. .. (JP 6523) To many familiar with the early Kierkegaard's brilliant dialectics, his anatomy of the self and his philosophical and theological innovations, the polemical negativity of his later years has remained enigmatic .' The Kierkegaard of such frequently read works as Eitherl0r, Fear and Trembling, the Philosophical Fragments and their Concluding Unscientific Postscript, among others, seems radically transformed in both the published works and the labyrinthine journal pages of the years 1848-55. Most especially, in his public attack on the Danish church and society in 1854-55, Kierkegaard does indeed appear to be a `traitor' to much of what he had respected and written in the previous years, though traitorously faithful, he claimed, to New Testament Christianity. He reviles his former spiritual father, the Danish primate and bishop of Zealand, Jakob Peter Mynster. He ridicules the clergy of the Danish church, condemns them as profiteering shopkeepers with a Sunday monopoly, falsifiers of the gospel, ultimately castigating them as `cannibals' who live off the state, their

The Heythrop Journal, 2007

Faith and Philosophy, 2004