The Passion of Possibility : Studies on Kierkegaard's Post-metaphysical Theology

For Kierkegaard the most important thing in life is to become a single individual or a true self. We are all born as human beings, but this makes us only members of a crowd, not true selves. To become a true self, we must transcend what we are at any given time and orient ourselves to the possible and to the actuality of the possible, to which all that is possible owes itself. True selves exist only in becoming, they are fragile, and that is their strength. They are not grounded by their own activities, but in a reality __extra se__, the flip side of which is a deep passivity that underlies all their activity and allows them to continually leave themselves and move beyond their respective actualities toward the new and the possible. Therefore, without the passion of possibility, there is no truly single individual. This study of Kierkegaard's post-metaphysical theology outlines his existential phenomenology of the self by exploring in three parts what Kierkegaard has to say about the sense of self (finitude, uniqueness, self-interpretation, and alienation), about selfless passion (anxiety, trust, hope, and true love), and about how to become a true self (a Christian in Christendom and a neighbor of God's neighbors). "For Kierkegaard the most important thing in life is to become a single individual or a true self. We are all born as human beings, but this makes us only members of a crowd, not true selves. To become a true self, we must transcend what we are at any given time and orient ourselves to the possible and to the actuality of the possible, to which all that is possible owes itself. True selves exist only in becoming, they are fragile, and that is their strength. They are not grounded by their own activities, but in a reality extra se, the flip side of which is a deep passivity that underlies all their activity and allows them to continually leave themselves and move beyond their respective actualities toward the new and the possible. Therefore, without the passion of possibility, there is no truly single individual. This study of Kierkegaard's post-metaphysical theology outlines his existential phenomenology of the self by exploring in three parts what Kierkegaard has to say about the sense of self (finitude, uniqueness, self-interpretation, and alienation), about selfless passion (anxiety, trust, hope, and true love), and about how to become a true self (a Christian in Christendom and a neighbor of God's neighbors)"-- Provided by publisher Preface 5 Contents 9 Abbreviations 13 Part I: The sense of self 15 1 From the anthropological to the existential turn 15 2 A synthesis of the finite and the infinite 23 3 The single individual 36 4 Situated selves in “webs of interlocution” 47 5 Self, finitude and estrangement 63 Part II: Selfless passion 83 1 Anxiety and the possibility of being able 83 2 Trust and trust in God 103 3 Hope for the possibility of the good 119 4 True love 136 Part III: The true self 155 1 Becoming a Christian 155 2 Becoming a Christian in Christendom 195 3 Kierkegaard’s ethics of distinction 239 Bibliography 269 Internet-links 276 Index of names 277 Index of subjects 280