Kierkegaard and Spirituality: Accountability as the Meaning of Human Existence

by C. Stephen Evans

Overview

We live spiritually when we live in the presence of God.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is often read for his contributions to Christian theology, but he also has much to offer about spirituality—both Christian and more generally human. 

C. Stephen Evans assesses Kierkegaard’s belief that true spirituality should be seen as accountability: the grateful recognition of our existence as gift. Spirituality takes on a Christian flavor when one recognizes in Jesus Christ the human incarnation of the God who gives us being. In this clearly written and substantive book a leading scholar on Kierkegaard’s thought makes Kierkegaard’s contributions to spirituality accessible not only to philosophers and theologians but to pastors, spiritual directors, and lay Christians. 

The Kierkegaard and Christian Thought series, coedited by C. Stephen Evans and Paul Martens, aims to promote an enriched understanding of nineteenth-century philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard in relation to other key figures in theology and key theological concepts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467456630
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Series:	Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	811 KB

About the Author

C. Stephen Evans is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University and director of the Baylor Center for Christian Philosophy. He is also Professorial Fellow at the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at the University of St. Andrews and at the Institute for Religion and Critical Enquiry at Australian Catholic University. His numerous books include A History of Western Philosophy, God and Moral Obligation, Kierkegaard: An Introduction, and Why Believe?

Editorial Reviews

Stephen Backhouse
— author of Kierkegaard: A Single Life and Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christian Nationalism
“There is a very short list of people who can communicate Kierkegaard clearly, and C. Stephen Evans is on that list. Evans has been reading and living Kierkegaard for over fifty years—his insights and arguments about Kierkegaard are always worth having. This book is no different. Kierkegaard is not usually thought of as a ‘spiritual writer” but, by drawing from the texts nearest and dearest to Kierkegaard’s heart, Evans creates a good case for seeing Kierkegaard as a humanist, Christian, and deeply spiritual guide to authentic living through accountability.”

Nicholas Wolterstorff
— Yale University
“Over and over Evans illuminates Kierkegaard’s always suggestive, but often dark and baffling, rhetoric. Over and over he shows that the conventional interpretation of Kierkegaard’s thought is mistaken. What emerges is a Kierkegaard I did not know—a Kierkegaard that most of us did not know. This is as good as commentaries get.”

Mark Tietjen
— author of Kierkegaard: A Christian Missionary to Christians
“C. Stephen Evans reminds us that while Kierkegaard is a distinctly Christian thinker, anyone interested in spirituality broadly understood has something to gain from one of the great masters of the human spirit. This book successfully demonstrates that Kierkegaard’s psychology and theology cannot be separated and that if you are interested in one, you must confront the other. This is Evans’s eighth book on Kierkegaard for a reason: somehow, he manages to uphold the integrity of each unique work under consideration while also proving the overall coherence of Kierkegaard’s authorship that each human is called to become a self before God.”

Rick Anthony Furtak
— Colorado College
“Along with its many other virtues, this book sheds light upon the Danish thinker’s favorable treatment of faith defined more widely—sometimes as Socratic, but also as what may be called Abrahamic, insofar as it involves trust in a distinctly personal God. In Kierkegaard and Spirituality, Evans gives due attention to Christianity in a strict sense, admirably parting company with the great Dane when his religious vision becomes too strict in some very late writings.

From the Publisher