Why did Kierkegaard prefer to write his masterpieces under different pseudonyms and what was the theatrical logic behind the constant playfulness of an author otherwise doomed to melancholy? What were the reasons of his ongoing philosophical, theological and aesthetic hide-and-seek that he did not want to finish until the very last, nearly tragic phase of his authorship? How much inspiration did Kierkegaard receive from theatrical performances, from playwrights and even from actors and actresses of 19th-century Copenhagen, which seemed to be (...) sometimes stronger than the influence exercised on him by his professors, masters and theologians of Denmark’s “Golden Age”? Can the difference between direct and indirect communication that basically characterized Kierkegaard’s oeuvre be described in theatrical terms or even to approach it as an ongoing dramatic dialogue? Should we rather call it a “polylogue” as different actors are present throughout the texts that were often polemic with each other, simultaneously reflecting certain issues from different angles and finally Kierkegaard denying that any of those were written by him? Could his own name be a pseudonym, as his brother suggested when giving the eulogy on the prodigal son, who learned to doubt from Socrates and from Descartes, yet could not give up his intention to question even the final axioms of human existence? The author tries to find answers to these questions by reconstructing the very special Kierkegaardian method, so familiar from the stage, in the spiritual, cultural and theatrical context of Kierkegaard’s Denmark. (shrink)

While the concept of place remains undertheorized in Kierkegaard research, this study argues that place is at the center of Kierkegaard's thinking. The first part of the book shows that Kierkegaard's notion of situatedness as being-placed in a socio-historical situation conditioned by a situation prior to situatedness points to a realist position and a flat ontology. Secondly, the book develops a detailed analysis of the ontological structure of the existential place (the place we ourselves are) and concrete places (the places (...) where we are). Place opens a qualified space within bounds (the existence-sphere), an atmosphere of elemental attunement and attuned elementality. Finally, the book collects the dots from part one and two in a topological realist approach to Kierkegaard's theology and three main definitions of God: God is love, God is that everything is possible, and God is the middle term. The book concludes that Kierkegaard's existential topography reveals a realist position: where we are is never exhausted by being the place where we are. (shrink)

Innerhalb des christlichen Offenbarungsbegriffes besteht ein denkwürdiges Verhältnis zwischen der Wahrheit und ihrer Verhüllung. Dieses Verhältnis wird bei Kierkegaard und Bonhoeffer mithilfe des Begriffes des „Inkognito Christi" christologisch reflektiert. -/- Die vorliegende Studie zeigt die zentrale Funktion auf, die das Thema für das Denken der beiden Autoren besitzt. Das „Inkognito Christi" wird zum Ermöglichungsgrund für das Ärgernis, ebenso aber auch für den Glauben, und erhält damit eine elementare Bedeutung für die Frage nach dem Christsein überhaupt. Dabei wird die Gegenüberstellung von (...) Kierkegaard und Bonhoeffer in Widerspruch und zustimmender Weiterführung fruchtbar. In der Betrachtung des verborgenen Christus, der verborgenen Kirche sowie des Einzelnen vor dem verborgenen Christus wird das Thema zuletzt dogmatisch ausgeführt. -/- Es erfolgt demnach ein hermeneutischer Beitrag zur Debatte um zwei einflussreiche christologische Entwürfe sowie um deren Beziehung, darüber hinaus jedoch auch die Entfaltung eines wichtigen theologischen Themas für die Gegenwart. (shrink)

This book presents an original and dynamic reading of the twentieth-century French sociologist and theological ethicist Jacques Ellul. Adopting Ellul's use of 'presence' as a hermeneutical key to understanding his work, it examines the origins of Ellul's approach to presence in his readings of Kierkegaard and the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, highlights the central structural role of presence in Ellul's theological ethics, and elucidates a crucial turning point in Ellul's theology following a personal crisis in Ellul's faith and life. Drawing (...) from numerous unpublished and untranslated texts, Jacob Marques Rollison argues that this crisis involves confrontation with a critique of presence manifest in Ellul's reading of and engagement with Michel Foucault. Marques Rollison distills Ellul's sociological critiques and theological responses to this crisis, presenting Ellul's evolving theology against the background of major shifts in French intellectual life. In doing so, the author simultaneously calls for renewed engagement with Ellul's prophetic thought, critically appraises Ellul's dialectical theology and Marxist inheritances, and develops a robustly Protestant approach to theological communication ethics for our time. (shrink)