Stephen Dunning examines Kierkegaard's theory of stages in terms of his dialectic of inwardness, shown here to be the Ariadne's thread" uniting all the major pseudonymous works. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library (...) is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. (shrink)

It is an irony that Kierkegaard would have relished that Marilyn Piety’s review in The Owl, 21, 2 : 205–208, of my book, Kierkegaard’s Dialectic of Inwardness, was published in a journal dedicated to Hegel studies and read by Hegel scholars. For her criticisms are typical of those for whom Kierkegaard is the David who slew forever the Goliath of Hegelianism. Thus it is not really, as she states, a lack of “substance” that disturbs her about my book; it is (...) the entire project, the very effort to show how much Kierkegaard continued to write books susceptible to Hegelian dialectical analysis long after he had turned his rhetorical weapons in Hegel’s direction. I am grateful to the editors of The Owl for this opportunity to try to convey to Hegel scholars a bit of my own excitement over what I believe is indeed a substantial discovery within the vexed field of Kierkegaard scholarship. (shrink)

The task of comparing and contrasting philosophical opponents is perhaps more difficult methodologically than any other enterprise in the historiography of thought. If the historian attempts to suppress his or her own opinions, the resulting illusion of impartiality will immediately arouse the suspicions of critical readers. If, on the other hand, the writer openly confesses a preference for one of the subjects, then all those who gravitate toward the other will certainly be offended - and it is usually to them (...) that editors will send the book for “review”! This is not simply a matter of straightforward confessions of agreement: the interpreter’s orientation will affect every decision of organization and style, of method in the fullest sense of the word. As Stephen Crites pointedly commented at the end of his own fine work on Hegel and Kierkegaard. (shrink)

Interpretation pervades human thinking. Whether perception or experience, spoken word or written theory, whatever enters our consciousness must be interpreted in order to be understood. Every area of inquiry—art and literature, philosophy and religion, history and the social sciences, even many aspects of the natural sciences—involves countless opportunities to interpret the object of inquiry according to very different paradigms. These paradigms may derive from the language we speak, the nature of our education, or personal preferences. The abundance and diversity of (...) paradigms make interpretation both fascinating in its complexity and often frustrating for the conflicts it generates. In _Dialectical Readings_, Dunning distinguishes three types of interpretation, each defined in terms of a distinctive dialectical way of thinking: theoretical interpretation, which assumes binary oppositions; transactional interpretation, which seeks reciprocal relations; and transformational interpretation, which discerns paradoxical meanings. Dunning offers new and insightful readings of familiar texts by B. F. Skinner, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Lee Benson, Roland Barthes, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault and sheds new light on works by Thomas Kuhn, Joseph Campbell, Reinhold Niebuhr, Søren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, and Paul Ricoeur. _Dialectical Readings _enables readers to recognize diverse dialectical approaches to understanding—their own as well as those of others—in a way that provides new and helpful insights into a wide variety of subjects in which conflicting interpretations abound. (shrink)

Interpretation pervades human thinking. Whether perception or experience, spoken word or written theory, whatever enters our consciousness must be interpreted in order to be understood. Every area of inquiry—art and literature, philosophy and religion, history and the social sciences, even many aspects of the natural sciences—involves countless opportunities to interpret the object of inquiry according to very different paradigms. These paradigms may derive from the language we speak, the nature of our education, or personal preferences. The abundance and diversity of (...) paradigms make interpretation both fascinating in its complexity and often frustrating for the conflicts it generates. In _Dialectical Readings_, Dunning distinguishes three types of interpretation, each defined in terms of a distinctive dialectical way of thinking: theoretical interpretation, which assumes binary oppositions; transactional interpretation, which seeks reciprocal relations; and transformational interpretation, which discerns paradoxical meanings. Dunning offers new and insightful readings of familiar texts by B. F. Skinner, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Lee Benson, Roland Barthes, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault and sheds new light on works by Thomas Kuhn, Joseph Campbell, Reinhold Niebuhr, Søren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, and Paul Ricoeur. _Dialectical Readings _enables readers to recognize diverse dialectical approaches to understanding—their own as well as those of others—in a way that provides new and helpful insights into a wide variety of subjects in which conflicting interpretations abound. (shrink)

To those who would classify Hegel either as an atheist or as a pantheist, Joachim Ringleben’s study of his theory of sin provides a clear and comprehensive challenge. The theme of sin in Hegel’s thought is prima facie an important one, notwithstanding the fact that no other book on Hegel’s philosophy of religion has treated it in depth. This lacuna may account for Ringleben’s omission of the customary review of scholarship. Aside from a few footnotes, his study deals exclusively with (...) Hegel’s writings, interrupting its exposition only several times to discuss criticisms put forward by Kierekgaard and Müller in the 19th century. Accordingly, this review will first indicate the general thrust of the expository chapters, noting highlights rather than attempting summaries, and then turn to the question of critical evaluation of Hegel’s theory. (shrink)

An “objectified God” does not satisfy. On this point, surely all will agree with Doctor Marti. To seek an “objectivie essence” behind God’s presence is implicitly to deny the reality of that presence. In subjecting the idea of God to ratiocination, the absoluteness and infinity of God are compromised, for a God-object must assume a particular existence over against the divine essence, and thereby abandon God’s freedom to be, the divine essence as pure relation. On this, reason and faith are (...) in perfect harmony: when God is reduced to an object, it is no longer God that is in view. (shrink)

In a pair of articles published in Faith and Philosophy, C. Stephen Evans argues that Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, Johannes Climacus, understands religious experience as the transforming power of an encounter with the love of God. However, in a book published under his own name, Kierkegaard gives a quite different picture of Christian experience. For Self-Examination makes clear that the reception of God’s love is a rebirth that can occur in the believer only insofar as he or she has died to the (...) world - to all possessions, even to the possession of God’s love. According to Kierkegaard, this “dying to” is the truly transforming experience that characterizes Christian spirituality, and that provides the condition for a life infused with faith, hope, and love. (shrink)