C. Stephen Evans

Sylvia Walsh

In this rich and resonant work, Soren Kierkegaard reflects poetically and philosophically on the biblical story of God's command to Abraham, that he sacrifice his son Isaac as a test of faith. Was Abraham's proposed action morally and religiously justified or murder? Is there an absolute duty to God? Was Abraham justified in remaining silent? In pondering these questions, Kierkegaard presents faith as a paradox that cannot be understood by reason and conventional morality, and he challenges the universalist ethics and immanental philosophy of modern German idealism, especially as represented by Kant and Hegel. This volume, first published in 2006, presents the first new English translation for twenty years, by Sylvia Walsh, together with an introduction by C. Stephen Evans which examines the ethical and religious issues raised by the text.

Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling

Walsh thus reclaims Kierkegaard as a poetic thinker and writer from those who would interpret him as an ironic practitioner of an aestheticism devoid of and detached from the ethical-religious as well as from those who view him as rejecting the poetic and aesthetic on ethical or religious grounds.

Kierkegaard's Existential Aesthetics

Living Poetically

Focusing on the concepts of personality, character, and virtue, this work examines what it means to exist religiously for Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard and Religion

The pseudonymous works Kierkegaard wrote during the period 1843&–46 have been responsible for establishing his reputation as an important philosophical thinker, but for Kierkegaard himself, they were merely preparatory for what he saw as the primary task of his authorship: to elucidate the meaning of what it is to live as a Christian and thus to show his readers how they could become truly Christian. The more overtly religious and specifically Christian works Kierkegaard produced in the period 1847&–51 were devoted to this task. In this book Sylvia Walsh focuses on the writings of this later period and locates the key to Kierkegaard&’s understanding of Christianity in the &“inverse dialectic&” that is involved in &“living Christianly.&” In the book&’s four main chapters, Walsh examines in detail how this inverse dialectic operates in the complementary relationship of the negative qualifications of Christian existence&—sin, the possibility of offense, self-denial, and suffering&—to the positive qualifications&—faith, forgiveness, new life/love/hope, and joy and consolation. It was Kierkegaard&’s aim, she argues, &“to bring the negative qualifications, which he believed had been virtually eliminated in Christendom, once again into view, to provide them with conceptual clarity, and to show their essential relation to, and necessity in, securing a correct understanding and expression of the positive qualifications of Christian existence.&”

Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Christian Existence

Living Christianly

Céline Léon

Even though Kierkegaard insisted on the fundamental equality of the sexes before God, his entire production is highly problematic for feminism. To a great degree, this is due to his tendency to write under a pseudonym. In this collection of 14 articles, contributors take varying stands on the question of whether Kierkegaard's work was indicative of misogyny or misogamy. Topics of discussion include Kierkegaard's notion of the "double nature" of woman and of the "silent woman," his idea of masculine indifference, and his use of irony in his critique of the feminine. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Feminist Interpretations of S¿ren Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard was a Christian thinker perhaps best known for his devastating attack upon Christendom or the established order of his time. Sylvia Walsh explores his understanding of Christianity and the existential mode of thinking theologically appropriate to it in the context of the intellectual, cultural, and socio-political milieu of his time.

Sylvia Walsh

About

Books

Join the club