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A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title
Nationalism is a globally resurgent phenomenon. From Britain to India to the United States of America, we find nations vociferously reasserting their own sovereignty, ethnic composition, and intrinsic superiority. Thomas J. Millay demonstrates how Kierkegaard's ascetic voice speaks directly to our present crisis.Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism: A Contemporary Reinterpretation of the Attack upon Christendom analyzes the late writings of Kierkegaard in light of this new relevance, for Kierkegaard's attack upon Christendom is also an attack upon nationalism. For Kierkegaard, taking on nationalism is not simply a matter of undermining false identity constructions. Attacking nationalism is a matter of renunciation: it requires ascetic discipline, such that the selfish motives at the core of one's identity construction are uprooted and replaced by a self-giving love marked by the willingness to suffer.
List of contents
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsChapter 1: The Attack: History & ContextChapter 2: Concepts: The Truth-Witness, New Testament Christianity, & DenmarkChapter 3: An Evolving MartyrdomChapter 4: Asceticism in the StreetsChapter 5: Kierkegaard's Critique of Nationalism ReconsideredChapter 6: Some Perspectives on Destruction: Kierkegaard, Cone, and Third World TheologyConclusion: The Attack as a Work of Love: Kierkegaard and Contemporary Political TheologyBibliography
Index
About the Author
About the author
Thomas J. Millay is a Lecturer at Baylor University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, and a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, where he reviews contemporary fiction.
Summary
Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism argues for the relevance of Kierkegaard’s “attack upon Christendom†within our current situation of resurgent nationalism. Kierkegaard’s ascetic voice calls his readers not simply to critique nationalism, but to renounce it, thereby striking at nationalism's self-assertive core.
