Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture
Sren Kierkegaard (18131855), the Danish theologian, philosopher, and preacher, in his last years issued a blistering attack on the established Christianity of the nineteenth century. That challenge was also a summons to an authentic life of Christian faith. With intensity and acumen, Kierkegaard diagnosed the spiritual and intellectual ills of modernity and Christendom and offered a constructive "upbuilding" for active, faithful Christian existence. One of Kierkegaard's key texts, The Sickness unto Death, outlines the problem of the human conditionsin/despairand draws the reader into the heart of the Christian faith: the infinite qualitative difference between God and creatures and the paradox of the God—man who came to bring abundant life in the form of authentic selfhood "grounded transparently" in the Creator. In this volume, Paul R. Sponheim, introduces readers to Kierkegaard, unfolds this pivotal text and its connections to Kierkegaard's theological and ethical worldview, and traces the reception and significance of this text in the modern and contemporary theological tradition. In this, Existing Before God continues the contribution of the Mapping the Tradition series in providing compact yet salient maps of the theological, historical, social, and contextual impact of the most important minds and texts of Christian history.

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Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture
Sren Kierkegaard (18131855), the Danish theologian, philosopher, and preacher, in his last years issued a blistering attack on the established Christianity of the nineteenth century. That challenge was also a summons to an authentic life of Christian faith. With intensity and acumen, Kierkegaard diagnosed the spiritual and intellectual ills of modernity and Christendom and offered a constructive "upbuilding" for active, faithful Christian existence. One of Kierkegaard's key texts, The Sickness unto Death, outlines the problem of the human conditionsin/despairand draws the reader into the heart of the Christian faith: the infinite qualitative difference between God and creatures and the paradox of the God—man who came to bring abundant life in the form of authentic selfhood "grounded transparently" in the Creator. In this volume, Paul R. Sponheim, introduces readers to Kierkegaard, unfolds this pivotal text and its connections to Kierkegaard's theological and ethical worldview, and traces the reception and significance of this text in the modern and contemporary theological tradition. In this, Existing Before God continues the contribution of the Mapping the Tradition series in providing compact yet salient maps of the theological, historical, social, and contextual impact of the most important minds and texts of Christian history.

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Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture

Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture

Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture
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Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture

Existing Before God: Sren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture

Overview

Sren Kierkegaard (18131855), the Danish theologian, philosopher, and preacher, in his last years issued a blistering attack on the established Christianity of the nineteenth century. That challenge was also a summons to an authentic life of Christian faith. With intensity and acumen, Kierkegaard diagnosed the spiritual and intellectual ills of modernity and Christendom and offered a constructive "upbuilding" for active, faithful Christian existence. One of Kierkegaard's key texts, The Sickness unto Death, outlines the problem of the human conditionsin/despairand draws the reader into the heart of the Christian faith: the infinite qualitative difference between God and creatures and the paradox of the God—man who came to bring abundant life in the form of authentic selfhood "grounded transparently" in the Creator. In this volume, Paul R. Sponheim, introduces readers to Kierkegaard, unfolds this pivotal text and its connections to Kierkegaard's theological and ethical worldview, and traces the reception and significance of this text in the modern and contemporary theological tradition. In this, Existing Before God continues the contribution of the Mapping the Tradition series in providing compact yet salient maps of the theological, historical, social, and contextual impact of the most important minds and texts of Christian history.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781506405636
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date: 01/01/2017
Series: Mapping the Tradition
Pages: 180
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Paul R. Sponheim is Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Among his published works are God: The Question and the Quest (1985), A Primer on Prayer (1988), Faith and the Other (1993), and The Pulse of Creation (1999), all from Fortress Press.

Table of Contents

Mapping the Tradition Series Paul Rorem, series advisor vii

Abbreviations ix

Preface xi

Introduction : A Biographical Sketch xv

A Volatile "Golden" Age xv

The Melancholy Father xx

Regine xxi

Pseudonymity and Indirect Communication xxiv

The Kirkekamp: Who Is a Witness to the Truth? xxix

Part 1 The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening by Anti-Climacus: Analysis and Commentary 1

Preface 5

Introduction 10

Chapter 1 The Sickness unto Death Is Despair 13

Despair Is the Sickness unto Death 13

Com.: The Algebra of the Spirit 13

The Universality of This Sickness (Despair) 19

Com.: Despair Common and Rare 19

The Forms of This Sickness (Despair) 21

Com.: The Morphology of Despair 21

Despair Considered Without Regard to its Being Conscious Or Not, Consequently Only With Regard to The Constituents of the Synthesis 21

Despair as Defined By Consciousness 25

Com.: The Error's Mutiny 31

Chapter 2 Despair Is Sin 33

Despair Is Sin 33

Com.: The Logic of Intensification I: Before God 33

Com.: Making the End Fast: Against Apologetics and Socrates? 41

Com.: The Pathetic and the Dialectical 47

The Continuance of Sin 53

Com.: The Logic of Intensification II: Before Christ 63

Com.: The Logic of Intensification III: Sin against the Holy Spirit 69

Part II The Theological Reception and Legacy 75

Chapter 3 The Theological Reception of Kierkegaard 77

The Nineteenth Century: Danish is a Minor Language 79

Norwegian Pietism and Henrik Ibsen 80

Denmark: Rasmus Nielsen and Hans Brøchner 83

Denmark and Beyond: Georg Brandes and Harald Høffding 86

The Twentieth Century: The Theological High-Water Mark? 93

The Bombshell: Barth, Brunner, and Bultmann 93

Kierkegaard as the Father of Existentialism? 101

American Appropriations: Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, Colleges, and Commentaries 104

The Priority of the Future: Woifhart Pannenberg and Jürgen Moltmann 112

The Feminist Interpretation of Kierkegaard 115

Taking Another Look: Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida 117

The Twenty-First Century: Plural Postmodern Perspectives 120

Mark Dooley and John Caputo 120

The Prophetic and the Pastoral 125

Chapter 4 The Theological Legacy of Kierkegaard for Our Time 133

Getting the Direction Right: Confessing Faith…Sin 134

Meeting the World: Faith Facing the Other 137

Living in Hope, Honestly before God 141

Bibliography 147

Index of Names 163

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