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"S²ren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a prolific author who published his philosophical writings in various styles and often pseudonymously. In this diverse authorship, The Sickness unto Death stands as something of an exception. Although signed pseudonymously-a method that Kierkegaard often used to put distance between his own view and the one expressed in the text- Kierkegaard regarded this book as highly reflective of his own understanding of the religious life. Rapidly written in the spring of 1848 and after some agonizing published in 1849, the motivation behind The Sickness unto Death, according to Kierkegaard's journal, was in part a conscientious conviction that the whole of his authorship needed to be curated in the direction of the religious. The appearance of the second edition of Either/Or in particular provoked him to accompany the reissue with a new and more religiously inflected text. "The second edition of Either/Or really can't be published without something accompanying it," he fretted in his journal. "Somehow the emphasis must be on the fact that I've made up my mind about being a religious author... If this opportunity passes, virtually everything I've written, viewed as a totality, will be dragged down into the aesthetic" (KJN 5, NB10:69/JP 6, 6361/SKS 21, 293-294)"--
List of contents
Introduction: Jeffrey Hanson and Sharon Krishek; 1. Kierkegaard's place of rest George Pattison; 2. Publishing the Sickness unto Death: A Lesson in Double-Mindedness Clare Carlisle; 3. Kierkegaard on the Self and the modern debate on selfhood Anthony Rudd; 4. From here to eternity: Soteriological selves and time Patrick Stokes; 5. Kierkegaard's metaphysics of the self Eleanor Helms; 6. The experience of possibility (and of its absence): The metaphysics of moods in Kierkegaard's phenomenological psychology Rick Anthony Furtak; 7. Sin, Despair, and the self Roe Fremstedal; 8. Sin and virtues Robert C. Roberts; 9. Despair as sin: The Christian and the Socratic Merold Westphal; 10. Fastening the end and knotting the thread: Beginning where paganism ends by means of paradox Sylvia Walsh; 11. Despair the disease and faith the therapeutic cure Jeffrey Hanson; 12. The long journey to oneself: The existential import of The Sickness unto Death Sharon Krishek; 13. Accountability to God in The Sickness unto Death: Kierkegaard's relational understanding of the human self C. Stephen Evans.
Summary
Despite the importance of The Sickness unto Death to Kierkegaard scholarship, it has been somewhat overlooked. This book applies diverse approaches to the work, explaining complex issues in clear language. It will be required reading for those interested in Kierkegaard as well as existentialism, religious philosophy, and moral psychology.
