Kierkegaard, religion and the nineteenth-century crisis of culture / George Pattison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pattison, George, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855.

Kierkegaard, Søren.

Christianity and culture--History--19th century.

Christianity and culture.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 257 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Summary:

Kierkegaard is often viewed in the history of ideas solely within the academic traditions of philosophy and theology. The secondary literature generally ignores the fact that he also took an active role in the public debate about the significance of the modern age that was taking shape in the flourishing feuilleton literature during the period of his author-ship. Through a series of sharply focussed studies, George Pattison contextualizes Kierkegaard's religious thought in relation to the debates about religion, culture and society carried on in the newspapers and journals read by the whole educated stratum of Danish society. Pattison relates Kierkegaard not only to high art and literature but also to the ephemera of his contemporary culture. This has important implications for our understanding of Kierkegaard's view of the nature of religious communication in modern society.

Contents:

1 The sublime, the city and the present age 1

2 Kierkegaard and the world of the feuilletons 25

3 The present age: the age of the city 50

4 'Cosmopolitan faces' 72

5 Food for thought 96

6 A literary scandal 116

7 The reception of Either/Or 137

8 New Year's Day 154

9 Kierkegaard and the nineteenth century (1) Manet 177

10 Kierkegaard and the nineteenth century (2) Dostoevsky 198

11 Learning to read the signs of the times 222.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-251) and index.

ISBN:

0521811708

052101042X

OCLC:

49820828