1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458863403321

Autore

Harries Karsten

Titolo

Between nihilism and faith [[electronic resource] ] : a commentary in Either/or / / Karsten Harries

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; New York, : Walter de Gruyter, 2010

ISBN

1-282-71646-8

9786612716461

3-11-174235-0

3-11-022689-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (201 p.)

Collana

Kierkegaard studies. Monograph series, , 1434-2952 ; ; 21

Disciplina

198/.9

Soggetti

Danish literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Diapsalmata -- 3. Immediacy and Reflection -- 4. Don Juan -- 5. Modern Tragedy -- 6. The Fellowship of the Dead -- 7. Kitsch -- 8. The Rotation of Crops -- 9. The Diary of the Seducer -- 10. In Defense of Marriage -- 11. Two Concepts of Freedom -- 12. The Meaning of "Either-Or" -- 13. Ultimatum -- Backmatter

Sommario/riassunto

If the Enlightenment turned to reason to reoccupy the place left vacant by the death of God, the history of the last two centuries has undermined the confidence that reason will bind freedom and keep it responsible. We cannot escape this history, which has issued in a pervasive nihilism and has rendered all appeals to the ethical questionable. Nor could Kierkegaard. The specter of nihilism haunts all of his writings, as it haunts already German romanticism, to which he is so indebted. To exorcize it is his most fundamental concern. And it is the same fundamentally religious concern that makes Kierkegaard so relevant to our situation: What today is to make life meaningful? If not reason, does the turn to the aesthetic promise an answer? To really choose is to bind freedom. Either-Or calls us to make such a choice, i.e. to be authentic. But what does it mean to be authentic? How are we



today to think of such an authentic choice? As autonomous action? As a blind leap? As a leap of faith? Either/Or circles around these questions.