The Task of Hope in Kierkegaard

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Scholars have largely ignored hope in Kierkegaard's thought, typically passing over it as a mere description of faith, rather than a theme in its own right. However, Mark Bernier argues that for Kierkegaard hope is one of the most valuable qualities of the religious life, and it is an essential thread connecting despair, faith, and the self. In The Task of Hope in Kierkegaard, he reconstructs Kierkegaard's theory of hope, which involves the distinction between mundane and authentic hope, and makes three principal claims. First, while despair involves the absence of hope, a rejection of oneself, and a turn away from one's relation to God, despair is fundamentally an unwillingness to hope. This unwillingness is directed toward authentic hope, conceived of by Kierkegaard as an expectation for the possibility of the good. Second, hope is not simply an ancillary activity of the self; rather, the task of becoming a self is essentially constituted by hope. To be in despair, and therefore, to be unwilling to hope, is in fact to reject the task of becoming a self. Third, faith stands in opposition to despair precisely because it is a willingness to hope. An essential role of faith is to secure the ground for hope, and in this way faith secures the ground for the self. In short, authentic hope-what Kierkegaard calls spiritual hope-is not merely a fringe element, but is essential to Kierkegaard's project of the self. Cover The Task of Hopein Kierkegaard Copyright Page Acknowledgments Contents List of Abbreviations 1: Introduction 2: The Kierkegaardian Self The Self Self as Synthesis Infinite and Finite Necessary and Possible Eternal and Temporal The Eternal The Temporal Wholehearted Commitments Self as Task Self as Relation 3: On Despair Despair Despair in Terms of the Synthesis The Despair of the Finite and the Infinite The Despair of the Possible and the Necessary Despair in Terms of Consciousness When One is not Conscious of Being in Despair Weakness: not to Will to be Oneself Defiance: to Will to be Oneself Despair and the Task 4: Despair and Hope Considering Despair and Hope Despair as Hopelessness: a Problem? Another View: Despair as Unwillingness to Hope Toward a Solution 5: The Concept of Hope A Quick Conceptual Analysis of Everyday Hope Kierkegaard’s General Concept of Hope The Definition of Hope Expectation The Good (Three Senses) Hope Always Pertains to a Task Two Forms of Hope: Mundane and Authentic Mundane Hope Mundane Wish vs Mundane Hope Hope as Consistent with Despair and a Worldly Understanding Authentic Hope A Hope that does not Die Authentic Hope as Impossible for the Despairing Person Shame, Honor, and Hope Hope Always, and for Everything Hope and Love 6: Hope and the Task of the Self The Task of the Self The Central Task The Swain and the Princess (Aesthetic as Highest Good) Agamemnon (Ethical Duty as Highest Good) The Limitation of the Central Task The Authentic Task Abraham’s Hope; Abraham’s Task Summary Reflections 7: Infinite Resignation: The First Movement of Faith Faith: A Brief Taxonomy The Structure of Faith in Fear and Trembling The Trouble with the Double Movement The Knight of Infinite Resignation Mundane Resignation Johannes The Tragic Hero The Knight Infinite Resignation, Despair, and Faith 8: Hope and the Knight of Faith The Knight of Faith The Absurd as the Ground of Faith Abraham: Does He hold Contradictory Beliefs? The Highest Good and the Paradox of Abraham’s Existe Faith as the Ground for Ho Expectations and the Highest Good Is Faith Only a Desperate Hope? Epilogue Bibliography Index