Errant Affirmations: On the philosophical meaning of Kierkegaard’s religious discourses

Description

Kierkegaard’s religious discourses – his writings which have explicitly dealt with religion – have historically been given scant attention by philosophers. They have generally been considered to be of less philosophical interest than his ‘proper’ philosophy. Errant Affirmations radically questions this claim and considers Kierkegaard’s religious writings as absolutely central to his philosophical vision. Through close and clear readings of Kierkegaard’s work, David Kangas argues that contemporary philosophical themes – gift, temporality, language, death, nothingness, economy and selfhood- are not only evident in the ‘religious’ works but explored with real depth and fascination. Above all, the book argues that Kierkegaard’s positive account of the human condition, his “ontology,” fully emerges only in these discourses. It shows how these discourses are organized around an “errant” kind of affirmation—namely, an affirmation of existence that is without conditions. Such affirmation involves the intensification of life around “today” and coincides with a joy that has no particular cause. It is an affirmation capable of affirming life even amidst its finitude and suffering. Errant Affirmations is a fresh interpretation of Kierkegaard’s understudied works that not only opens up a new reading of Kierkegaard but elucidates his ‘religious’ texts and places them organically within his philosophy as a whole. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A NOTE ON THE TEXTS PREFACE Introduction PART ONE INVERSIONS OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH: THE EDIFYING DISCOURSES (1843–1844) 1 Affirming time: discourse on the expectancy of faith (1843) New Year’s Day The structure of expectancy The struggle with time Time under the aspect of victory Conclusion: the logic of faith 2 The gift of being: “Every Good and Perfect Gift Comes Down from Above” (1843) Doubt and the effort at knowledge The phenomenology of the gift and its destruction The (un)condition of the gift Eckhartian provenance: God as gift The great overturning 3 Undergoing time: discourses on patience (1843–44) The circle of patience The determinations of soul The project of self-possession Patience as repetition Patience and the signification of time: Anna 4 Human lack: to need God is a human being’s highest perfection (1844) Economizing need, isolating capacity The human The two selves Self-knowledge: reversal of intentionality PART TWO OCCASIONS OF AFFIRMATION: OCCASIONAL DISCOURSES (1845) 5 The non-place of truth: discourse on confession (1845)1 The metaphysics of the search The first beginning: wonder The epoch/epoché of wonder Despair and the revaluation of truth Confession Conclusion 6 On being-together-with-death: discourse “At a Graveside” (1845) Thinking death/death’s decision Death as decisive Death as indeterminate Death as inexplicable Heidegger’s existential project of a being-toward-death Being-together-with-death contra being-toward-death Conclusion: even so, today PART THREE BLOOMINGS: DISCOURSES ON “THE LILY OF THE FIELD AND THE BIRD OF THE AIR” (1847, 1849) 7 Against care: discourses on the lilies of the field and the birds of the air (1847)1 First discourse: the initial critique of care as an ultimate ontological structure Discourse 2: spirit as capability Discourse three: decision as radical capability Concluding preface: becoming a lily 8 Lily-bird-being/joy without condition: The lily of the field and the bird of the air (1849) Discourse I: the living being with language The beginning prior to speech Discourse II: obedience Discourse III: joy itself Eftergivenhed: pliancy as radical attunement Postscript: the edifying and the tragic NOTES INDEX