The Authenticity Of Faith In Kierkegaard S Philosophy

When he heard the voice that ordered him to sacrifice his son, was Abraham deluded? When is faith merely a form of self-deception? The existential challenge of attaining and preserving faith is as difficult today as ever before and perhaps even more so in a scientifically, technologically oriented culture. Faith can turn into inauthenticity as easily today as in Kierkegaard’s era. This book presents Kierkegaard’s illuminating responses to the existentially haunting questions of faith and authenticity.

Merigala Gabriel's main objective is to thoroughly examine subjective truth, which is the core concept in Kierkegaard's philosophy. Here Gabriel contrast subjective truth with objective truth in order to highlight the significance of subjective truth in its religious context and to bring out the inadequacy of objective truth. The principle of absolute paradox connected with the subjective truth is also discussed. The study also aims to present a detailed analysis of the aesthetic, ethical, and religious stages that represent existential dialectic, to examine their interrelationship and to show how the religious mode of existence is the key to genuineness in real existence. Care is taken to examine the disjunction between reason and faith: to bring out the importance of "faith" in Christianity and to show the limitations of science as far as Christianity is concerned. Gabriel also addresses the relation between God and Man. Finally, the importance of Kierkegaard's thought and his contribution to the development of "subjectivity and religious truth" are outlined.

Great philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre have clearly been preoccupied by the possibility of authenticity. In this study, Jacob Golomb looks closely at the literature and writings of these philosophers in his analysis of their ethics. Golomb's writings shows his passionate commitment to the quest for the authenticity - particularly in our climate of post-modern scepticism. He argues that existentialism is all the more pertinent and relevant today when set against the general disillusionment which characterises the late twentieth century. This book is invaluable reading for those who have been fascinated by figures like Camus's Meursault, Sartre's Matthieu and Nietzsche's Zarathustra.

The plan of this study is founded on a hypothesis that there is an overall argument in the Climacus writings (and reflected and supported in Kierkegaard's private papers and other writings): 1) There are two opposing ways to approach the truth: the objective and the subjective ways, 2) The objective way fails, 3) Hence the only appropriate way to the truth is the subjective way, 4) Christianity is the subjective way of life that meets all conditions for the highest subjectivity, 5) Hence Christianity is the appropriate way to reach the truth. The present work is sympathetically critical - always appreciative of Kierkegaard's genius but not always endorsing his arguments.

What is truth? Philosophical explorations have merely presupposed truth, rather than define it. The inscrutable nature of truth is a recognition of human finitude, which is both Socratic (the recognition that one does not know) and non-Socratic (the recognition that truth has to be given from without). This opens the way to locating truth outside the individual, which can be appropriated only when the condition to recognize it is given. For Kierkegaard, the incarnation of Christ is the point when both revelation and the condition to recognize it, are given. However, incarnation, being historical, raises the question of objectivity and evidence. This book explores what truth implies for the individual and examines the value of historical research for Christian faith.

In this volume, I have given attention to what I consider to be some of the central problems and topics in the philosophical thought of SjiSren Kierkegaard. Some of the chapters have been previously publish ed but were revised for their appearance here. Others were written expressly for this book. I have tried to focus on issues which have not been customarily dealt with or emphasized in the scholarship on Kierkegaard with the exception of the writings of David Swenson and Paul L. Holmer to which (and to whom) I am greatly indebted. Some of the positions for which I have argued in this volume (especially in Chapters IV and V) may be controversial. I am grateful to all those who enabled me to carry out or influenced me in my studies of Kierkegaard or who assisted with regard to the research for or preparation of this volume. Among these are: Professors Paul L. Holmer, F. Arthur Jacobson, and Dennis A. Rohatyn; Dean Wallace A. Russell and Vice President Daniel J. Zaffarano of Iowa State University.

In this work, Sullivan analyzes the relationship between faith and reason in Kierkegaard's philosophy. Kierkegaard is widely considered to be an irrationalist. Sullivan argues that he views faith as reasonable in a distinct way that must be uncovered. In some of his pseudonymous works, Kierkegaard speaks of the movement of faith as paradoxical and absurd. There is evidence from his non-pseudonymous works that Kierkgaard does not consider faith irrational. He denigrates reason only in that he wishes to impress upon nominal Christians (who look upon faith only as a body of doctrine) that more and more understanding of the tenets of faith can never yield logical certainty. The doctrines of faith can be argued pro and contra. For Kierkgaard, faith in this context is illogical, but not irrational. In his religious works, Kierkgaard's notion of reason is inextricably tied in with that of his recalcitrance of the will. Reason (logic and speculative thought) attests to its own limits in regard to doctrinal faith, but it also can point to that which is a reasonable step, even when logic alone is of no avail. For Kierkgaard, subjectivity is a necessary - but not sufficient - condition of religious faith. In actuality, Kierkgaard is not presenting an epistemological theory at all, but through his pseudonymous authors' emphasis upon subjectivity he hopes that nominal Christians will begin to experience the need for Christ. Kierkgaard believes that only if inauthentic Christians realize that the religious option cannot be decided by logical inquiry into the doctrines of faith, and then experience their own inauthenticity and the futility of any unaided willful efforts to remedy it, will the act of faith in Christ as a viable alternative appear as reasonable.