About the Book
This volume is a continuation of our series exploring Saint Augustine’s influence on later thought, this time bringing the fifth century bishop into dialogue with 19th century philosopher, theologian, social critic, and originator of Existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard. The connections, contrasts, and sometimes surprising similarities of their thought are uncovered and analyzed in topics such as exile and pilgrimage, time and restlessness, inwardness and the church, as well as suffering, evil, and humility. The implications of this analysis are profound and far-reaching for theology, ecclesiology, and ethics.
Table of Contents:
Introduction, by Kim Paffenroth and Helene Russell
Part I: The Divine/Human RelationshipChapter 1: Justification within the Limits of Anthropology Alone: Augustine and Kierkegaard on Freedom and Grace, by Curtis Thompson
Chapter 2: The Image of God in Augustine and Kierkegaard, by Matthew Drever
Chapter 3: Augustine, Kierkegaard, and Evil, by Erik Hanson
Chapter 4: The Spiritual Trial of Divine Seduction: Temptation and the Confessing Self, by Simon D. Podmore
Part II: Time
Chapter 5: Kierkegaard and Augustine on Time, by Karl Aho
Chapter 6: Eternal Becoming and Temporal Understanding: Kierkegaard and Augustine on Time, Faith and Knowledge, by Robert Reed
Part III: Humans and the Finite, Material WorldChapter 7: Sacrament and Self-Construction: Augustine and Kierkegaard on Love for the Finite, by Janna Gonwa
Chapter 8: Beauty Matters: Augustine and Kierkegaard on Sensual Beauty, by Peder Jothen
Chapter 9: You Must Change Your Life: Kierkegaard and Augustine on Reading, by Thomas J. Millay
Part IV: Home and HomelessnessChapter 10: The Seventh Solitude: Metaphysical Homelessness in Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche, by Ralph Harper
Chapter 11: Home, Love, and the Self: A Dialogue with Augustine and Kierkegaard, by Natalia Marandiuc
Chapter 12: Existence as Pilgrimage: Echoes of Augustinian Thought in Kierkegaard, Robert Puchniak
Part V: Human Communities and Ethics Chapter 13: Augustine and Kierkegaard on the Church: Nurturing Mother or Challenging Provocateur? by Lee C. Barrett
Chapter 14: In Praise of Humility: From Augustine to Kierkegaard, by W. Glenn Kirkconnell
Chapter 15: Augustine and Kierkegaard on Martyrdom and “Polite Persecution”, by Jack Mulder, Jr.
About the Contributors
About the Author :
Kim Paffenroth is professor of religious studies and the director of the Honors Program at Iona College.
John Doody is professor of philosophy and Robert M. Birmingham Chair in humanities
at Villanova University.
Helene Tallon Russell is associate professor of theology at Christian Theological Seminary.
Review :
This book is a collection of fifteen clearly written and penetrating essays on the relation between Augustine and Kierkegaard. Written by both philosophers and theologians, the authors include many well-known scholars as well as some fresh and creative younger voices. Anyone interested in Kierkegaard or Augustine will learn much from this volume, which is a first-rate contribution to our understanding of both thinkers.
Kierkegaard's reading of Augustine, like Nietzsche's reading of Kierkegaard, is one of the great 'what ifs?' of intellectual interest. Kierkegaard, it has been shown, had little direct knowledge of Church Father's major writings, leaving a wonderful tangle of potential points of contact between the two great Christian thinkers hanging in the air. This many-sided collection starts to unpick and to sort some of these connections, exploring a wide range of topics about which the African and the Dane could have had much to say to each other, including faith, time, temptation, evil, freedom, beauty, love, humility, martyrdom, and the divine image. These are themes that richly resonate with creatures such as we are—metaphysically homeless and longing, questioningly, for our one eternal home. On all these topics, Augustine and Kierkegaard still have much to say, as this collection fully shows.
Over the last few decades, Kierkegaard scholarship has devoted increasing attention to those who had an influence on the Dane’s authorship. Felicitously, this trend has led to a reconsideration of the ways in which Kierkegaard both draws on and departs from the thought of Augustine of Hippo. The present book not only contributes to this reconsideration but does so in creative fashion, demonstrating that the connection between Augustine and Kierkegaard can hardly be reduced to, say, a handful of debates regarding Christian doctrine. Rather, these two great minds, particularly when placed in conversation, continue to stimulate our thinking on topics as diverse as time, beauty, and community.
