Spiritual Writings: A New Translation and Selection (Harper Perennial Modern Thought) - Softcover

Kierkegaard, Soren; Pattison, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061875996 ISBN 13: 9780061875991

Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2010

Synopsis

In this new collection, Oxford theologian George Pattison translates and selects SØren Kierkegaard's previously neglected writings on spirituality—works that greatly deepen our understanding of the influential thinker. In philosophy and literature, Kierkegaard ("By far the most profound thinker of the nineteenth century"—Ludwig Wittgenstein) is generally perceived as epitomizing existential angst. However, there is much more to Kierkegaard than the popular image of the “melancholy Dane” or the iconoclastic critic of established Christendom. Alongside the pseudonymous books for which he is largely known, Kierkegaard also wrote many devotional works, which he called "upbuilding" or "edifying" discourses. Taken as a whole, these writings offer something very different from the popular view—they embody a spirituality grounded in a firm sense of human life as a divine gift.

About this title

About the Author:

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. His books include Works of Love and Spiritual Writings (translated and edited by George Pattison).

George Pattison is a professor of theology at Oxford University.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fascinating and perplexing in equal measure, these exegeses on gospel and biblical sayings display a side of the great 19th-century philosopher Kierkegaard (1813–1855) that is considerably less familiar to modern readers than his status as a protoexistentialist. Editor Pattison (The Philosophy of Kierkegaard) offers 16 texts organized loosely around three themes--"Gift," "Creation," and "Love"--that show the philosopher at his most passionate and poetic, but also, a surprise in light of his radical theology, at his closest to the views of religious orthodoxy. Throughout, the author focuses on short pieces of scripture, interrogating their meaning psychologically. This allows for examination of a variety of everyday experiences from a Christian perspective, particularly doubt, difference, desire, anxiety, and silence. While the editor provides a useful introduction, his thematic style of selection and organization makes for a large degree of repetition. Despite such occasional tedium, Kierkegaard's lyricism, insight, and passionate insistence on the enduring value of scripture are frequently a wonder to behold. (Nov.) (c)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061875996
• ISBN 13: 9780061875991
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336