Kierkegaard and the Theology of the Nineteenth Century : The Paradox and the ‘Point of Contact’

This book shows Kierkegaard's relation to nineteenth-century theology and philosophy of religion, including to Schleiermacher, Hegel and Hegelianism, debates about the Christian communication and the Church, as well as to twentieth-century debates about secular faith. It draws on his early journals as well as his purely religious writings.

This study shows how Kierkegaard's mature theological writings reflect his engagement with the wide range of theological positions which he encountered as a student, including German and Danish Romanticism, Hegelianism and the writings of Fichte and Schleiermacher. George Pattison draws on both major and lesser-known works to show the complexity and nuances of Kierkegaard's theological position, which remained closer to Schleiermacher's affirmation of religion as a 'feeling of absolute dependence' than to the Barthian denial of any 'point of contact', with which he is often associated. Pattison also explores ways in which Kierkegaard's theological thought can be related to thinkers such as Heidegger and John Henry Newman, and its continuing relevance to present-day debates about secular faith. His volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of philosophy and theology.