Errant Affirmations: On the Philosophical Meaning of Kierkegaard's Religious Discourses

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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. Review Errant Affirmations is a wonderful book that works at several different levels. The argument is developed through a highly original series of meditations on Kierkegaard's edifying discourses that shows how these often neglected works anticipate the key issues that have engaged continental philosophy of religion over the last thirty years. Now - at last - we are led to see just why Heidegger was right when he said that there was more of philosophical interest in Kierkegaard's edifying writings than in his more obviously philosophical works. This work not only puts the discourses into the centre of contemporary philosophy of religion but also shows that any reading of Kierkegaard that neglects them is missing the main event. Like the discourses themselves Errant Affirmations is sensitive to the poetry of language and to the religious as well as to the philosophical needs of its readers. David Kangas' death has been a grievous loss to the community of Kierkegaard scholarship but Errant Affirmations at least leaves us with thoughts and insights to ponder and debate for a long time to come. In Errant Affirmations, David Kangas opens up the richness and philosophic precision of Kierkegaard's edifying discourses. At once thoughtful and unsettling, consoling and revolutionary, Kangas' text explores Kierkegaard's vital, often startling, reframing of religious and philosophic discourse. This is a probing meditation on issues of ultimate concern, to Kierkegaard, to Kangas, and to each of us-and a moving memorial to David Kangas' intelligence, fortitude and generosity. In truth, there are not many studies of Kierkegaard that Kierkegaard would have smiled upon. However, Errant Affirmations is certainly one of them. Writing under his favorite pseudonym, Anti-Climacus, Kierkegaard baldy stated "from the Christian point of view, everything, indeed everything, ought to serve for upbuilding," and that "everything" would, of course, include scholarly studies of Kierkegaard's upbuilding literature. And that is precisely what we have in Errant Affirmations, an elegantly written interpretation of Kierkegaard's religious discourses that is as upbuilding as it is rigorously argued. About the Author David J. Kangas was Associate Professor of philosophy at California State University, Stanislaus USA. He is the author of Kierkegaard's Instant: On Beginnings (2007). Tags: Political, Theology, Philosophy, Phenomenology, Religion, Movements 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