The Hidden Authorship of Søren Kierkegaard. Jacob Sawyer

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The Hidden Authorship of Søren Kierkegaard - Jacob Sawyer


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      The Hidden Authorship of Søren Kierkegaard

      Jacob H. Sawyer

      Foreword by Murray Rae

      The Hidden Authorship of Søren Kierkegaard

      Copyright © 2015 Jacob H. Sawyer. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Wipf & Stock

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0892-5

      EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0893-2

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      Dedicated to Miriam, who helps me in my struggle to author these words in my life.

      Foreword

      The published works of Søren Kierkegaard are endlessly fascinating, profound, witty, deeply moving, and enigmatic. While the individual works present numerous hermeneutical challenges for the reader, so too does the corpus as a whole. Kierkegaard published a good number of his works under the names of pseudonymous authors. Sometimes he named himself as “editor” of these works, while at other times he published under his own name. Although there are very clear thematic relationships across the whole corpus, and while the works sometimes refer to each other, Kierkegaard was adamant that nothing published under the name of a pseudonym should be attributed to him. And yet his Journals give evidence of his own agreement with many of the things penned by his pseudonyms, and reveal that on more than one occasion he decided only at the eleventh hour whether to publish particular works pseudonymously or under his own name. What is the reader to make of this complex mix of disclosure and concealment?

      Informed, quite rightly in my view, by the conviction that Kierkegaard’s project is, above all, a theological one, Jacob H. Sawyer charts a course through the turbulent waters of Kierkegaard scholarship and offers a compelling account of what theological purpose is served by the pseudonymous concealment of Kierkegaard himself. The content of the authorship itself, Sawyer contends, directed as it is toward the edification of the reader through a personal encounter with God, requires of Kierkegaard that he “hide” himself as author. His intent as an author is not to win admirers for himself; nor is it to encourage attention to his own struggles; his intent rather is to provide opportunity for his readers to recognize that they exist before God and to respond to that reality with appropriate contrition, obedience, and joy. In service of that goal, Kierkegaard must hide away and leave his readers alone with God.

      The evidence in support of Sawyer’s reading of Kierkegaard’s works is carefully assembled in this volume and is presented in a way that is consistent with the case made. Readers of this work too will be encouraged to consider anew their own existence before God, and to ponder again what may be required of them in response. Sawyer thus provides us with an astute and faithful reading of Kierkegaard’s works, a reading that serves well the great task to which Kierkegaard devoted himself, the task of making clear what it is to be a Christian.

      Murray Rae

      University of Otago

      Preface

      This book was originally written as a thesis to obtain a Masters degree in theology from Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. In between submitting it and seeing it published, my wife and I travelled to Canada so that I could have the privilege of working as a pastor for the children and youth of Spring Garden Church in North York, Toronto. This experience brought to light many difficulties that arise from attempting to embody the ideas I have outlined here from my reading of Kierkegaard. The propensity and temptation to abstraction is always real in any work on behalf of people, and my family at Spring Garden helped to work with me to ground theology in life. I am grateful for having been a part of this community.

      But before this, many people in many different ways are responsible for creating the space for me to grow into a theologian and an author: my teachers Mark Strom, David Williams, Rod Thompson, and my supervisor Nicola Hoggard-Creegan; my peers of the More’s The Pity Society: Jimmy Harvey, Brendon Neilson, and Kyle Duncan, along with Christian Parker; various mentors and encouragers throughout the years, who have, I believe, shaped my life for the better: Malcolm Irwin, Gene Tempelmeyer, and various teachers, friends and family at The Salvation Army, Browns Bay. I am also thankful to Murray Rae for encouraging me to get this published and supporting me in this process.

      And I am thankful to my mother, for her constant support and encouragement through editing and discussion, along with the rest of my family, who have been forced to journey with me through my endless outward processing. Lastly, of course, I am thankful to my wife, Miriam, with whom life is an ongoing adventure and joy, as we strive to know as we are known.

      Jacob H. Sawyer

      November, 2014

      0.1 Introduction

      Søren Kierkegaard in History

      The Melancholy Dane


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