Volume 6, Tome II: Kierkegaard and His German Contemporaries - Theology

This volume explores in detail Kierkegaard's various relations to his German contemporaries. Kierkegaard read German fluently and made extensive use of the writings of German-speaking authors. Apart from his contemporary Danish sources, the German sources were probably the most important in the development of his thought generally. This volume represents source-work research dedicated to tracing Kierkegaard's readings and use of the various German-speaking authors in the different fields in a way that is as clearly documented as possible. The volume has been divided into three tomes reflecting Kierkegaard's main areas of interest with regard to the German-speaking sources, namely, philosophy, theology and a more loosely conceived category, which has here been designated "literature and aesthetics." This second tome of the present volume is dedicated to Kierkegaard's main theological influences. In theology the German and the Danish traditions had long been closely connected via their common source: Luther. In Kierkegaard's time the main influence on theology was probably German philosophy and specifically Hegelianism. Most of the German theologians were in some way in a critical dialogue with this movement. Another important influence was Schleiermacher, who visited Copenhagen in 1833 and was important for several Golden Age thinkers. From his student days Kierkegaard kept abreast of the German theological literature, from which he drew much inspiration.

Contents: Bruno Bauer: biblical narrative, freedom and anxiety, David James and Douglas Moggach; F.C. Baur: on the similarity and dissimilarity between Jesus and Socrates, David D. Possen; Bretschneider: the tangled legacy of rational supernaturalism, Lee C. Barrett; Daub: Kierkegaard's paradoxical appropriation of a Hegelian sentry, Jon Stewart; Erdmann: appropriation and criticism, error and understanding, Stephan Bitter; Günther: Kierkegaard's use of an Austrian Catholic theologian, Christoph Kronabel and Jon Stewart; Marheineke: the volatilization of Christian doctrine, Heiko Schulz; Julius Müller: parallels in the doctrines of sin and freedom in Kierkegaard and Müller, Christine Axt-Piscalar; Rosenkranz: traces of Hegelian psychology and theology in Kierkegaard, Heiko Schulz; Schleiermacher: revisiting Kierkegaard's relationship to him, Richard E. Crouter; D.F. Strauss: Kierkegaard and radical demythologization, George Pattison; Index of persons; Subject index.

Jon Stewart is Associate Research Professor in the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.