Kierkegaard on God’s Will and Human Freedom: An Upbuilding Antinomy (New Kierkegaard Research)

Søren Kierkegaard's authorship exhibits two different trajectories concerning the relation of responsible human agency to sovereign divine agency: one trajectory stresses free human striving, while the other trajectory emphasizes the dominance of divine agency. The first theme led to the view of Kierkegaard as the champion of autonomous existential “leaps,” while the second led to the construal of Kierkegaard as a devout Lutheran who trusted absolutely in God's gracious governance. Lee C. Barrett argues that Kierkegaard, influenced by Kant's critique of metaphysics, did not attempt to integrate human and divine agencies in any speculative theory. Instead, Kierkegaard deploys them to encourage different passions and dispositions that can be integrated in a coherent human life, making use of literary strategies to foster the different passions and dispositions that are associated with the themes of human responsibility and divine governance. Kierkegaard on God's Will and Human Freedom: An Upbuilding Antinomy offers an incisive account of what makes Kierkegaard's conception of theology as a matter of edification rather than speculation so distinctive and enduringly worthwhile. Cover Contents Preface Acknowledgments Sigla for Kierkegaard’s Works Introduction Kierkegaard’s Contentious Philosophical Background Kierkegaard’s Tensive Theological Background Kierkegaard and the Later Grace/Free-Will Debates Kierkegaard’s Unconventional Practice of Theology Active Leaping and Gracious Receiving in Philosophical Fragments Concluding Unscientific Postscript and the Truth and Untruth of Subjectivity The Upbuilding Discourses and the Art of Being Nothing while Being Something Preparing for Communion and the Impossibility of Preparing for Communion Authorial Intentions and Divine Governance Repentance Interrupted by Birds, Lilies, and Little Ludvig Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author