On Søren Kierkegaard: Dialogue, Polemics, Lost Intimacy, and Time(Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology)

Tracing a path through Kierkegaard's writings, this book brings the reader into close contact with the texts and purposes of this remarkable 19th-century Danish writer and thinker. Kierkegaard writes in a number of voices and registers: as a sharp observer and critic of Danish culture, or as a moral psychologist, and as a writer concerned to evoke the religious way of life of Socrates, Abraham, or a Christian exemplar. In developing these themes, Mooney sketches Kierkegaard's Socratic vocation, gives a close reading of several central texts, and traces "The Ethical Sublime" as a recurrent theme. He unfolds an affirmative relationship between philosophy and theology and the potentialities for a religiousness that defies dogmatic creeds, secular chauvinisms, and restrictive philosophies.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Part 1 Kierkegaard: A Socrates in Christendom: A new Socrates: the gadfly in Copenhagen; A religious and interrogating Socrates: seduction and definition; Kierkegaard's double vocation: Socrates becomes Christian; Transforming subjectivities: lost intimacy, words on the fly. Part 2 Love, Ethics, and Tremors in Time: Love, this lenient interpreter: masks reveal complexity of self; Anxious glances: a seaward look renews time and seeker; Either/or: perils in polarity: crossing the aesthetic-ethical divide; Fear and trembling: spectacular diversions; Repetition: gifts in world-renewal: repetition is requited time. Part 3 Plenitude, Prayer, and an Ethical Sublime: Postscript and other ethics: intimations of our next self; Postscript: possibilities imparted: the artistry of intimate connections; Postscript: humor takes it back: revocation opens for a requited time; Discourses: plenitude and prayer: words instill silence – to what end? Bibliography Index.

About the Author :
Edward F. Mooney is Professor in the Departments of Religion and Philosophy at Syracuse University, USA, and is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Sonoma State University, USA.

Review :
'Ed Mooney has long been known as one of the more textually sensitive, philosophically nuanced and existentially insightful of contemporary Kierkegaard commentators. All these qualities are well evidenced in this new set of studies that will alert the unwary to often unnoticed dimensions of Kierkegaard's writing, both to its prayerful silences and to its fairground bombast and self-mockery. In reading Kierkegaard the way he does, Mooney shows how the Danish thinker can help us develop some of the new and refreshing ways of doing philosophy of religion that are emerging today. Not only undergraduates and researchers, but anyone who cares about how the classics of modern thought can help us live better human lives will be encouraged - given heart - by this book, and led to see familiar texts and questions in a subtle but penetrating new light.' 'Ed Mooney has long been known as one of the more textually sensitive, philosophically nuanced and existentially insightful of contemporary Kierkegaard commentators. All these qualities are well evidenced in this new set of studies that will alert the unwary to often unnoticed dimensions of Kierkegaard’s writing, both to its prayerful silences and to its fairground bombast and self-mockery. In reading Kierkegaard the way he does, Mooney shows how the Danish thinker can help us develop some of the new and refreshing ways of doing philosophy of religion that are emerging today. Not only undergraduates and researchers, but anyone who cares about how the classics of modern thought can help us live better human lives will be encouraged – given heart – by this book, and led to see familiar texts and questions in a subtle but penetrating new light.' George Pattison, Christ Church, Oxford, UK `… a gifted writer, Mooney offers some real gems…Recommended.’ Choice `… I do recommend On Søren Kierkegaard to anyone interested in Kierkegaard. Especially those with particular interest in Kierkegaard's Socratic identity, Either/Or and the Concluding Unscientific Postscript will find informative and insightful elaborations.’ Ethical Perspectives `… much more than an introduction into the work of Kierkegaard. Even those familiar with his work and secondary literature can find a lot of thought-awakening judgments, a bunch of fresh formulations, and beautiful interpretations. The strength of this well-written, easily readable book is that it does not engage in Kierkegaardian navel-gazing, but opens up the Danish thinker's universe, showing its significance in both historic and contemporary contexts.’ Ars Disputandi `Mooney has not only presented an incisive and insightful exposition of Kierkegaard's thought, but has also managed to draw the reader into a process of self-discovery that is consistent with Kierkegaard's own method of indirect communication.’ Theology