Controverting Kierkegaard

Controverting Kierkegaard PDF Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198874782
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first English edition of a major work by the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81). It is the culmination of his critical engagement with Kierkegaardianism, which had begun almost 20 years earlier. In this text, Løgstrup focuses on four main themes in Kierkegaard: his understanding of Christ and thus of Christianity; his understanding of suffering in human existence; Christian vs. secular ethics; and Platonistic influences on Kierkegaard's position, which Løgstrup characterises as nihilistic. Løgstrup presents his own alternative conception in response: that Christ revealed universal ontological ethical structures that put Christians and non-Christians on a par; that suffering is a basic human experience and so there is no such thing as a particular Christian suffering; that sovereign expressions of life such as trust, sincerity, and compassion are the fundamental phenomena of ethics that enable our lives to function, and are thus given as a gift of creation, not of faith; and finally that human existence as created is meaningful and holds value and so is not a Kierkegaardian 'nothingness' of mere relativity. As well as offering a classic and yet controversial critique of Kierkegaard, this text also develops Løgstrup's conception of the sovereign expressions of life, which was to become central to his later ethics, further deepening his distinctive understanding of the human condition. Here translated in full for the first time, it will now be possible for English-speaking readers to explore the issues that drew Løgstrup into his controversion with Kierkegaard.

Controverting Kierkegaard

Controverting Kierkegaard PDF Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198874782
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first English edition of a major work by the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81). It is the culmination of his critical engagement with Kierkegaardianism, which had begun almost 20 years earlier. In this text, Løgstrup focuses on four main themes in Kierkegaard: his understanding of Christ and thus of Christianity; his understanding of suffering in human existence; Christian vs. secular ethics; and Platonistic influences on Kierkegaard's position, which Løgstrup characterises as nihilistic. Løgstrup presents his own alternative conception in response: that Christ revealed universal ontological ethical structures that put Christians and non-Christians on a par; that suffering is a basic human experience and so there is no such thing as a particular Christian suffering; that sovereign expressions of life such as trust, sincerity, and compassion are the fundamental phenomena of ethics that enable our lives to function, and are thus given as a gift of creation, not of faith; and finally that human existence as created is meaningful and holds value and so is not a Kierkegaardian 'nothingness' of mere relativity. As well as offering a classic and yet controversial critique of Kierkegaard, this text also develops Løgstrup's conception of the sovereign expressions of life, which was to become central to his later ethics, further deepening his distinctive understanding of the human condition. Here translated in full for the first time, it will now be possible for English-speaking readers to explore the issues that drew Løgstrup into his controversion with Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation

Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation PDF Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192598082
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Get Book Here

Book Description
The great Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81) offers a distinctive assessment and comparative critique of two key thinkers in Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation (1950). Løgstrup focuses on the central idea from Kierkegaard and Heidegger that our individuality and authenticity are threatened by 'life in the crowd' or 'das Man'. According to Løgstrup, Kierkegaard holds that the only way to escape the crowd is through a relation to an infinite demand which he nonetheless leaves empty, while Heidegger avoids offering any kind of ethics at all. Arguing against both philosophers, Løgstrup himself proposes an ethic which is not just a set of social rules, but which is also more contentful than Kierkegaard's infinite demand: namely, the requirement to care for the other person whose life is placed in your hands. This call to care for the other person becomes central to Løgstrup's position in his most famous publication The Ethical Demand (1956), so this earlier work, based on lectures given in Berlin, provides a crucial insight into the development of his thought. This is the first English translation of an original and compelling text by Løgstrup, rendered into accurate prose and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.

Volume 18, Tome I: Kierkegaard Secondary Literature

Volume 18, Tome I: Kierkegaard Secondary Literature PDF Author: Jon Stewart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351874780
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know. Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different languages, countries and regions. The present volume is dedicated to trying to help to resolve these two problems in Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature that are written in different languages and thus to give a glimpse into various and lesser-known research traditions. The six tomes of the present volume present reviews of works written in Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.

Thinking with Kierkegaard

Thinking with Kierkegaard PDF Author: Arne Grøn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110794187
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 675

Get Book Here

Book Description
Arne Grøn’s reading of Søren Kierkegaard’s authorship revolves around existential challenges of human identity. The 35 essays that constitute this book are written over three decades and are characterized by combining careful attention to the augmentative detail of Kierkegaard’s text with a constant focus on issues in contemporary philosophy. Contrary to many approaches to Kierkegaard’s authorship, Grøn does not read Kierkegaard in opposition to Hegel. The work of the Danish thinker is read as a critical development of Hegelian phenomenology with particular attention to existential aspects of human experience. Anxiety and despair are the primary existential phenomena that Kierkegaard examines throughout his authorship, and Grøn uses these negative phenomena to argue for the basically ethical aim of Kierkegaard’s work. In Grøn’s reading, Kierkegaard conceives human selfhood not merely as relational, but also a process of becoming the self that one is through the otherness of self-experience, that is, the body, the world, other people, and God. This book should be of interest to philosophers, theologians, literary studies scholars, and anyone with an interest not only in Kierkegaard, but also in human identity.

The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics

The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics PDF Author: Robert Stern
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192564234
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Get Book Here

Book Description
How much does ethics demand of us? On what authority does it demand it? How does what ethics demand relate to other requirements, such as those of prudence, law, and social convention? Does ethics really demand anything at all? Questions of this sort lie at the heart of the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-1981), and in particular his key text The Ethical Demand (1956). In The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics, Robert Stern offers a full account of that text, and situates Løgstrup's distinctive position in relation to Kant, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Darwall and Luther. For Løgstrup, the ethical situation is primarily one in which the fate of the other person is placed in your hands, where it is then your responsibility to do what is best for them. The demand therefore does not come from the other person as such, as what they ask you to do may be different from what you should do. It is also not laid down by social rules, nor by God or by any formal principle of practical reason, such as Kant's principle of universalizability. Rather, it comes from what is required to care for the other, and the directive power of their needs in the situation. Løgstrup therefore rejects accounts of ethical obligation based on the commands of God, or on abstract principles governing practical reason, or on social norms; instead he develops a different picture, at the basis of which is our interdependence, which he argues gives his ethics a grounding in the nature of life itself.

Key Theological Thinkers

Key Theological Thinkers PDF Author: Svein Rise
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317109279
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 801

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 20th and 21st Centuries have been characterized by theologians and philosophers rethinking theology and revitalizing the tradition. This unique anthology presents contributions from leading contemporary theologians - including Rowan Williams, Fergus Kerr, Aidan Nichols, G.R. Evans and Tracey Rowland - who offer portraits of over fifty key theological thinkers in the modern and postmodern era. Distinguished by its broad ecumenical perspective, this anthology spans arguably one of the most creative periods in the history of Christian theology and includes thinkers from all three Christian traditions: Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox. Each individual portrait in this anthology includes a biographical introduction, an overview of theological or philosophical writing, presentation of key thoughts, and contextual placing of the thinker within 20th Century religious discourse. Overview articles explore postmodern theology, radical orthodoxy, ecumenical theology, feminist theology, and liberation theology. A final section includes portraits of important thinkers who have influenced Christian thought from other fields, not least from Continental philosophy and literature.

The True Human Being

The True Human Being PDF Author: Maria Louise Odgaard Møller
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647536172
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
The aim of Odgaard Møller's book is threefold: The first main section seeks to clarify how and why Jesus is presented in the pre-1968 writings of the Danish theologian and philosopher K.E. Løgstrup (1905–1981). Throughout his work, Løgstrup's main focus has been a rehabilitation of the insight that life is something definite, because it is created. Here, Jesus primarily plays a methodological/strategic role as the one confirming and giving witness to Løgstrup's interpretation of created life in a given time of his authorship. When faith in creation is formulated polemically against another interpretation of life, Jesus serves as Løgstrup's ally in this discussion. In the second main section, this examination is extrapolated to include a discussion with Bultmann and two of his students in order to clarify the character of his Christology, not least whether – or in what way – this can be characterised as "implicit Christology". Finally, in the light of Ricoeur's hermeneutic philosophy of religion, the third main section considers the systematic-theological validity of this picture of Jesus. The overall conclusion can be summed up in this way: The main line in Løgstrup's work goes from created life to the human being Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus incarnates created life; therefore he is the true human being. This close connection between (created) Life and (true) Human Being is the kernel in Løgstrup's thought. This makes his perception of Jesus and his Christology distinctive, original and specifically Løgstrupian.

The Ethical Demand

The Ethical Demand PDF Author: Knud Ejler Løgstrup
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198855982
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Ethical Demand (1956) by K. E. Løgstrup is one of the great works of modern moral philosophy: it is presented here in a new translation with introduction and notes. Løgstrup sees morality in terms of our vulnerability to each other and how this gives rise to an 'ethical demand' on us to care for each other.

Ethical Concepts and Problems

Ethical Concepts and Problems PDF Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192602810
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is first English edition of Ethical Concepts and Problems (1971) by Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81). Originally published as a contribution to a textbook of ethics for students of theology, it propounds a philosophical ethics in continuity with Martin Luther's conception of the natural law. We find here the core idea from The Ethical Demand, that in our dealings with others we are faced with the demand that we take care of them, now conceptualized as the central tenet of an ontological ethics based on human interdependence as a fundamental condition of life. Later in his career, Løgstrup developed a conception of what he called 'the sovereign expressions of life'-spontaneous other-regarding impulses or ways of conduct such as trust, sincerity, and compassion-and these are here described and determined in their relation to the ethical demand and moral norms. Furthermore, this key text discusses a number of central ethical concepts such as duty, responsibility, will, and choice. Løgstrup also explores the relationship between love of the neighbour and politics, before finally concluding with an extensive discussion of political questions such as cultural policy, democracy, and the right of resistance. Ethical Concepts and Problems therefore offers an instructive survey of important parts of Løgstrup's ethical and political thinking, from theological issues like Luther's doctrine of the bondage of the will, to the ideas of philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard. In this edition Løgstrup's original text is accurately rendered into readable English and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.

What Is Ethically Demanded?

What Is Ethically Demanded? PDF Author: Hans Fink
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268101884
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection of essays by leading international philosophers considers central themes in the ethics of Danish philosopher Knud Ejler Løgstrup (1905–1981). Løgstrup was a Lutheran theologian much influenced by phenomenology and by strong currents in Danish culture, to which he himself made important contributions. The essays in What Is Ethically Demanded? K. E. Løgstrup's Philosophy of Moral Life are divided into four sections. The first section deals predominantly with Løgstrup's relation to Kant and, through Kant, the system of morality in general. The second section focuses on how Løgstrup stands in connection with Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Levinas. The third section considers issues in the development of Løgstrup's ethics and how it relates to other aspects of his thought. The final section covers certain central themes in Løgstrup's position, particularly his claims about trust and the unfulfillability of the ethical demand. The volume includes a previously untranslated early essay by Løgstrup, "The Anthropology of Kant’s Ethics," which defines some of his basic ethical ideas in opposition to Kant’s. The book will appeal to philosophers and theologians with an interest in ethics and the history of philosophy. Contributors: K. E. Løgstrup, Svend Andersen, David Bugge, Svein Aage Christoffersen, Stephen Darwall, Peter Dews, Paul Faulkner, Hans Fink, Arne Grøn, Alasdair MacIntyre, Wayne Martin, Kees van Kooten Niekerk, George Pattison, Robert Stern, and Patrick Stokes.