Customer Reviews (5)

An excellent companion and starting point
Kierkegaard is enjoying something of a revival of late, with many of his works appearing in new editions, and a major new biography available.The English-speaking world has long been aware of Kierkegaard without being very familiar with his work and issues.One might be surprised that Kierkegaard is not better known, since one of his primary focuses upon philosophy is that it begins and ends with the individual - in many ways, he is anti-Hegelian looking for a way of relating existence to the individual, and not to universals.

Kierkegaard was very much a cynic, but still remained a faithful Christian all of his life, if not a faithful adherent to the institution of the church.Kierkegaard was also a satirist and wit, and sometimes it is difficult to discern where that aspect ends and the serious philosophical work begins.He is often considered the first of the Existentialists, but in many ways his work does not quite fit that category.

This collection contains selections from the following major and minor works of Kierkegaard.

* The Journals * Either/Or * Two Edifying Discourses * Fear and Trembling * Repetition * Philosophical Fragments * Stages on Life's Way * Concluding Unscientific Postscript * The Present Age * Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits * Works of Love * The Point of View for My Work as an Author * The Sickness Unto Death * Training in Christianity * Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays * The Attack Upon Christendom * The Unchangeableness of God

This collection is no mere collection of quotable-quotes or of key passages, but gives generous inclusion of major sections of the works.Kierkegaard did not write in traditional academic or philosophical structure, so some of his writing is difficult to get through.Part personal reflection, part polemic, part analysis, part literary creative flourish - all of these come together in a fascinating way.

Kierkegaard deals with issues of estrangement and alienation, despair, universals and abstractions, individuality and subjectivity.Kierkegaard sees the person as existing in three different levels - the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious.These are inter-related but distinct in many ways; as they involve the breadth of human experience, Kierkegaard is no mere philosopher, but also a sociologist, a psychologist, a theologian, an historian, and much more.

This is an excellent one-volume edition of Kierkegaard's work, from which one may gain much insight.If coupled with the recent biography by Joakim Garff, it is a very handy reference for Kierkegaard's primary texts together with the insightful writing of Garff.

An excellent selection
This is an excellent selection of the work of Kierkegaard. There are writings from 'Either - Or' ' Stages in Life's Way' ' Concluding Unscientific Postscript' ' The Advancement of Christianity' and other central writings of Kierkegaard.
The greatness of Kierkegaard is in both matter and method. His stylistic brilliance, irony and humor are the method. His fundamental reflection on what it means to be a religious individual, and what it means to truly relate to God are the heart of his work.

not so much a philosopher's Kierkegaard
this is a good collection but I think some selections from The Concept of Anxiety - which is Kierkegaard at his philosophically most sophisticated- and maybe even the Concept of Irony, would make this more interesting to philosophy students. Beside these shortcomings its a good anthology available at good prices.

The Best Place To Start Reading Kierkegaard
Many consider it objectionable (probably Kierkegaard among them!) to chop up philosophical works so literary in style into pieces to be patched together in an anthology.Others would note that a philosopher is best introduced through a painstaking reading of a classic and definitive text, and thus Plato is to be met in "The Republic," Nietzsche in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," and the later Wittgenstein in "Philosophical Investigations."In the case of Kierkegaard, however, no one work adequately expresses the multi-faceted nature of his messages.His individual works are incomplete as representations of his overall vision.I find, anyway, that they each represent a finely crafted meditation on a crucial aspect of his thought which cannot be fully understood without having all the other aspects in mind.They serve more like chapters in a larger book than they stand independently on their own.That's why Bretall's anthology which presents them as a whole is so valuable.

Bretall also avoids chopping up chapters and ripping quips and humorous digressions or controversial statements out of their context.For the most part he presents key chapters in their entirety and helps to reproduce their context for the reader either by explaining it in his helpful introductions or by presenting enough chapters from a given work that the context of a particular chapter is clear.

Understanding Kierkegaard's context and that of his writings and that of the chapters within them is so crucial to fruitful engagement of his ideas that this compiled tornado of thought that Bretall provides is the best place to start reading him.

But then again, I could be bias because that's how I started reading him...

Excellent Anthology
Although SK is not an easy read due perhaps to his prolixity and sometimes tortuous reasoning, this anthology provides the reader with an excellent overview and foretaste of his more demanding, full-length works. Perhapsthe single-best introduction to SK in print. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

SKs strongest defense of the individual against society.
What begins as a critique of Gyllembourg's "Two Ages" developes into Kierkegaard's most powerful examination of the confrontation between individuality and society.Chapter Three is, as far as I know, THE definitive existentialist manifesto of human individuality and its constant battle against being swallowed up by the mindlessness of modern culture.In a critique that is especially applicable in today's culture of mass media, body-babble and relationship-babble, Kierkegaard shows how conscious individuality is drained out of the individual by chatter and leveling.When the innermost private matters of the individual become public, then individuality loses its meaning, human consciousness collpases, and we have "the present age... relaxing in indolence."This is nowhere more clearly seen that in the present-day "talk shows", where the innermost private matters of the individual are bared for public consumption with all the tact of a street corner flasher.Kierkegaard's analysis, over 150 years old, is more relevant than ever in today's culture.If you are sick of hearing about "relationships", this book is a must.It is worth every penny, and may well be the most important book you will ever read. ... Read more

Book Description
Translated from the Danish by Walter Lowrie, David Swenson, and Alexander Dru

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard is one of the master thinkers of the modern age, a defining influence on existentialism and on twentieth-century theology, and this brilliantly tailored selection from his vast and varied writings--made by the great English poet W.H Auden--is a perfect introduction to his work. Auden's inspired and incisive response to a thinker who had done much to shape his own beliefs is a fundamental reading of an author whose spirit remains as radical as ever more than 150 years after he wrote. ... Read more

Book Description

Prefaces was the last of four books by Søren Kierkegaard to appear within a space of two weeks in June 1844. Three Upbuilding Discourses and Philosophical Fragments were published first, followed by The Concept of Anxiety. This last volume, altlhough it had the usual complement of an upbuilding work, also had a companion of a different kind, the comically ironic Prefaces, published on the same day. Presented as a set of prefaces without a book to follow, this work is a satire on literary life in nineteenth-century Copenhagen, a lampoon of Danish Hegelianism, and a prefiguring of Kierkegaard's final collision with Danish Christendom. At the same time it tightly expresses themes characteristic of the entire authorship, including subjectivity and Christian devotion.

Shortly after publishing Prefaces, Kierkegaard began to prepare Writing Sampler as a sequel. This next work considers the themes of Prefaces but in yet a more ironical and satirical vein. Writing Sampler remained among Kierkegaard's unpublished writings during his lifetime and appears here for the first time as Kierkegaard originally envisioned it, in the company of Prefaces.

Book Description

As a spiritual autobiography, Kierkegaard's The Point of View for My Work as an Author stands with such great works as Augustine's Confessions and Newman's Apologia pro vita sua--but with a difference. It is neither a confessional autobiography nor a defense. It is an author's story of a lifetime of writing, his understanding of the common aim and comprehensive coherence of the maze of his greatly varied pseudonymous and signed works.

In an earlier work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard acknowledged his authorship of the series of pseudonymous works that began with Either/Or. With the imminent publication of the second edition of Either/Or, the pseudonymous series would come full circle, and Kierkegaard again intended to cease writing. Now was the time for a direct "report to history" on the authorship as a whole. In addition to the resulting Point of View, which was published posthumously, the present volume also contains the companion pieces Armed Neutrality and On My Work as an Author, a contemporary substitute for the postponed Point of View.

Supplementary entries taken from Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers document the context and the development of the writings on the authorship as a whole. In addition, they disclose Kierkegaard's considerations as he wrestled with decisions about publishing the three works and other works that were the "fruit of the year 1848 ... the year of my richest productivity."

Customer Reviews (1)

Probably the place to start in reading Kierkegaard
The greatest challenge for any newcomer to Kierkegaard is finding the best place to gain an overview. In my opinion, this is the finest place to start. In the main work in this collection, THE POINT OF VIEW (the book also contains some smaller pieces on his Authorship), Kierkegaard sets out to explain his purposes and strategy in writing the books constituting what he calls his Authorship. Students of Kierkegaard generally refer to these books as his Pseudonymous Authorship, because in all of these he writes none of them under his own name, but employs a variety of fictionalized authors, who represent a particular point of view that is not that of Kierkegaard himself. The Pseudonymous works are contrasted with what has become to be known as Kierkegaard's Second Literature (a descriptions attributed to Kierkegaard scholar Robert L. Perkins), which comprises his edifying works and his later religious works, most of which were published under Kierkegaard's own name, though with a couple of his greatest later works published under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus.

Some of these works, such as EITHER/OR I, contain writings on a variety of aesthetic topics. Many of the books deal with either ethical or religious topics, though the latter never from within a religious perspective. Kierkegaard's main argument in the POINT OF VIEW is that from first to last he was, even when writing on aesthetic topics, a religious author. The Pseudonymous works all presuppose a theory of stages, which Kierkegaard describes as moving from the aesthetic to the ethical and into the religious (the precise prepositions, according to SK, being of the utmost importance).

It is not clear that Kierkegaard had a precise understanding of all this at the moment he was writing the first of his Pseudonymous works, but it is unquestionable that he moved to this point of view fairly early on. This little volume is, therefore, a wonderful introduction to Kierkegaard's most famous works, and remains one of the most fascinating reflections by a great writer on the nature of his own work ever written. ... Read more

Book Description

I would like to write a novel in which the main character would be a man who got a pair of glasses, one lens of which reduced images as powerfully as an oxyhydrogen microscope, and the other of which magnified on the same scale, so that he perceived everything relatively.

A flight of fancy by an aspiring science fiction writer? While it may sound as such, this wistful musing is one of the little-discussed personal reflections of nineteenth-century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, whose remarkable journals and notebooks, unpublished during his lifetime, are presented here.

The first of an eleven-volume series produced by Copenhagen's Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, this volume is the first English translation and commentary of Kierkegaard's journals based on up-to-date scholarship. It offers new insight into Kierkegaard's inner life. In addition to early drafts of his published works, the journals contain his thoughts on current events and philosophical and theological matters, notes on books he was reading, miscellaneous jottings, and ideas for future literary projects. Kierkegaard wrote his journals in a two-column format, one for his initial entries and the second for the marginal comments he added later. The new edition of the journals reproduces this format and contains photographs of original manuscript pages, as well as extensive scholarly commentary. Translated by leading experts on Kierkegaard, Journals and Notebooks will become the benchmark for all future Kierkegaard scholarship.

Book Description
There is much to be learned philosophically from this volume, but philosophical instruction was not Kierkegaard's aim here, except in the broad sense of self-knowledge and deepened awareness. Indicating the intention of the discourses, the titles include' The Expectancy of Faith, ' Love Will Hide a Multitude of Sins, ' Strengthening in the Inner Being, ' 'To Gain One's Soul In Patience, ' Patience in Expectancy, ' and' Against Cowardliness.' ... Read more

Book Description

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) published an extraordinary number of works during his lifetime, but he left behind nearly as much unpublished writing, most of which consists of what are called his "journals and notebooks."

Volume 2 of this 11-volume edition of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks includes materials from 1836 to 1846, a period that takes Kierkegaard from his student days to the peak of his activity as an author. In addition to containing hundreds of Kierkegaard's reflections on philosophy, theology, literature, and his own personal life, these journals are the seedbed of many ideas and passages that later surfaced in Either/Or, Repetition, Fear and Trembling, Philosophical Fragments, The Concept of Anxiety, Stages on Life's Way, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and a number of Edifying Discourses.

Book Description
This indispensable guide to the search for kinship with God was written by the great nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), whose writings set the stage for existentialism and continue to exert a lasting influence on believers and nonbelievers alike.

Kierkegaard struck out against all forms of established order–including the established church–that work to make men complacent with themselves and thereby obscure their personal responsibility to encounter God. He considered Training in Christianity his most important book. It represented his effort to replace what he believed had become "an amiable, sentimental paganism" with authentic Christianity. Kierkegaard's challenge to live out the implications of Christianity in the most personal decisions of life will greatly appeal to readers today who are trying to develop their personal integrity in accordance with the truths of revealed religion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

5 Stars for Kiekegaard - 3 Stars for this edition
Rather than summarizing Kierkegaard's (or should I say, Anti-Climacus') major concepts, I'd like to comment strictly on this particular edition. I am disappointed with Walter Lowrie's translation here - it feels cumbersome and doesn't read as well as it should. While he provides some insightful editorial comments, this is an overall weak effort.

I would highly recommend choosing the Princeton edition translated by the two preeminent Kierkegaard scholars, Howard and Edna Hong. That IS the definitive edition. You'll notice even the title is translated differently as "Practice in Christianity". Seeing as their edition preceded the Lowrie translation, I wonder who even thought a new translation was necessary! I suppose there is a fairly high demand for Kierkegaard's main works in cheap paperback editions, but if you're going to go to the trouble to understand his profound philosophy, you might as well do it the right way with the definitive edition.

It's a bit more expensive, but in addition to a superior and much more readable translation, you get over one hundred pages of supplementary material including, most notably, entries from Kierkegaard's journals and papers pertaining to this work. Don't waste your time on a second-rate edition. Get the real thing.

Training in Christianity
This is rather deep most of the time, but this is when we can learn new things which this book helps us do.It gives new insights into serving and living for Christ.

Sheer Poetry, and Honesty...
Read this book.Get this book if you can find it.You'll never hear a conservative "Christian" as an honest spokesman for "morality" and "Christianity" ever again. ... Read more

Book Description

Who might reasonably be nominated as the funniest philosopher of all time? With this anthology, Thomas Oden provisionally declares Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)--despite his enduring stereotype as the melancholy, despairing Dane--as, among philosophers, the most amusing.

Kierkegaard not only explored comic perception to its depths but also practiced the art of comedy as astutely as any writer of his time. This collection shows how his theory of comedy is integrated into his practice of comic perception, and how both are integral to his entire authorship.

Kierkegaard's humor ranges from the droll to the rollicking; from farce to intricate, subtle analysis; from nimble stories to amusing aphorisms. In these pages you are invited to meet the wife of an author who burned her husband's manuscript and a businessman who, even with an abundance of calling cards, forgot his own name. You will hear of an interminable vacillator whom archeologists found still pacing thousands of years later, trying to come to a decision. Then there is the emperor who became a barkeeper in order to stay in the know.

The Humor of Kierkegaard is for anyone ready to be amused by human follies. Those new to Kierkegaard will discover a dazzling mind worth meeting. Those already familiar with his theory of comedy will be delighted to see it concisely set forth and exemplified. Others may have read Kierkegaard intensively without having ever really noticed his comic side. Here they will find what they have been missing.

Customer Reviews (1)

The wit and irony which will make you smile
The editor of this book says it is not meant to present a systematic , serious investigation of Kierkegaard's humor. Rather it is presented for the general reader as a kind of introduction to Kierkegaard, and his droll, imaginative humor which the editor believes is the greatest of any philosopher.
Having read a fair amount of Kierkegaard in my time I would say that his humor is real, ironic and smile- raising. It will not get anyone rolling in the aisles.
Yet the wit, again the irony do help make Kierkegaard an amusing writer- and this when his emotional range goes far beyond this.
... Read more

Book Description
The only English translation of one of the great Danish thinker's most important spiritual writings, bringing together elements that combine his insights as a mystic, a theologian and a precursor to the existentialist philosophers. ... Read more

Book Description
Ostensibly, A Literary Review is a straightforward commentary by S&oslashren Kierkegaard on the work of a contemporary novelist. On deeper levels, however, it becomes the existential philosopher's far-reaching critique of his society and age, and its apocalyptic final sections inspired the central ideas in Martin Heiddeger's influential work Being and Time. Embraced by many readers as prophetic, A Literary Review and its concepts remain relevant to our current debates on identity, addiction, and social conformity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A view of literature, society, and personhood.
I'm possibly not the most qualified person to review this, but since there are no other reviews, I'll just give a quick endorsement.This volume is the same that is published by Princeton as 'The Two Ages', and the final chapter has been published seperately as 'The Present Age'.

The first half gives some interesting views of literature and psychology.The second half is the most remarkable part, where SK declares 'the present age' and the future as a time when the age of heros and authority has passed, when no one can communicate truth to others directly, and each and every individual is faced with a choice of being a zero stuck in endless reflection, or passionately working out his own salvation, to only be obtained at first-hand from God.

Concise and worthwhile. ... Read more

Book Description
Tracing a path through Kierkegaard's writings, this book brings the readerinto close contact with the texts and purposes of thisremarkable 19thcentury Danish writer and thinker. Kierkegaard writes in a number of voicesand registers of concern, sometimes as a sharp observer and critic ofDanish culture, at times as a moral psychologist, and sometimesKierkegaard's main concern is the evocation of a religious way of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Or, one could write diary of a suffering theologian,perhaps?
Herein lies many of Kierkegaard's most vehement attacks on his utter disgust as what he sees as the shallow and hypocritical Christians of his time. In fact, the rantings rank up there with Nietzsche's tirades against what he liked to call the "rabble."

As you may have guessed by the title, this is not to be an uplifting book.Kierkegaard will never be mistaken for Robert Schuller - that much is for certain.In it, the Danish philosopher (generally considered the father of existentialism) grapples with guilt.Not just anyone's guilt, either, but Soren Kierkegaard's guilt.In page after page he discerns how man's sinful nature is corruptive to his relationship to God.What is worse, no matter how hard he tries, he can't stop sinning any more than he can consciously stop breathing.

Kierkegaard then looks up from his desk and wonders why all those so-called Christians out there aren't doing the same thing that he is.The Dane is introspective, to say the least, and the nucleus of his thought emanates from Socrates' words at his trial, as recorded in Plato's APOLOGY:

...I say again that the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue, and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living
- Plato, APOLOGY, Trans:B Jowett

Here is a great man's attempt to follow the dictum of Socrates, and examine his own life.In this sense, THE SICKNESS UNTO DEATH is comparable to St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS, albeit a bit on the morbid side.

One of the Dane's favorite metaphors was of driver falling asleep at the reigns of his wagon.So too did K believe that that is how most of us live our lives.With this in mind, it is not surprising that he anoints this work as an "awakening" for his readers.

Profound insight into the nature of sin
I am not a philosopher or even a literary person by any stretch, but I found this book surprisingly accessible.I believe it is essential reading for anyone dealing with despair (depression) in their lives- especially Christians.

The jewel that I was able garner from this book is that faith, fundamentally, is forgoing our common senses and putting our hope in God even when all our senses and previous experiences tell us otherwise.Because with God, everything is possible.

Woody Allen Gave the Best Review Ever of This Book...
which, in response to Kierkegaard's brilliance Allen succintly noted, "and I have trouble writing two sentences on My Trip to the Zoo."

Accepting Despair
In perhaps his most relentless probing of the human condition, Kierkegaard's "The Sickness Unto Death" rediscovers the very notion of "sin."Having been tossed around by anyone and everyone in the Danish Christendom of his day,the word "sin" has lost much of it's original meaning; hence he chooses the term "despair." By doing this,Kierekgaard rediscovers "original sin,"or that notion of sin which has been lost through misuse.For Kierkegaard,"despair" or "sin" is not simply an individual act,but it is a state of existence.Only when an individual acknowledges the inherent human situation,one that is "in despair,"can one then "actively despair" and move out of the aesthetic mire of common existence. It should be noted that it is an ill advised version of Christianity which is "in despair,"such a Christian wanting a simple solution without having to face the terrifying problem of our being.Kierkegaard not only documents the different levels of "despair" (no one type is exclusive of others), but he looks into why it is that we often refuse to accept our condition,such denial forcing us to remain "in despair." As he himself makes clear,"The very nature of despair is that it is unaware of being despair."There are endless implications from such an important work,not least of which is the idea that words can hold as well as lose their meaning,depending on how they are used and who is using them. But over and above a theory of semiotics is Kierkegaard's belief that authentic Christianity can only arise for the one who faces his/her desperate situation; and upon doing so,sees no other way out than total submission to "the Power that posited it." ... Read more

Product Description
Prayers of Kierkegeaard never before translated into English with special permission of the Det kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Translated by Lois S. Bowers and Edited by George K. Bowers

Here, for the first time in English translation, are original prayers of Soren Kierkegaard. In this volume is a rare look at the private spiritual life of the respected philosopher and theologian. Not only does it contain over 70 pages of Kierkegaard's prayers, it also reveals his view on the nature of prayer -- a spiritual gold mine to any believer.

The first ten chapters are the actual translated prayers of SK. Chapters 11-14 are commentaries and prayers written by editor George Bowers which were inspired by the Dane.

This memorable work of Dr. Bowers is not the usual thesis and antithesis of the critic but an original, perhaps even new, literary genre of writing that is more akin to a duet. Bowers moves along with Kierkegaard in a strange and fascinating twosome playing bright, confident, and affirming notes in harmony with Kierkegaard's dark and tantalizing notes of paradox.
V. Truman Jordahl, Ph.D.
Emeritus Chairman
Department of Philosophy and religion
Roanoke College

We are grateful to the Bowers for this timely piece on Kierkegaard on a theme (prayer) which pushes to the heart of his thought and faith. Perhaps, the best use for this book would be as a spiritual primer of its meaning and practice.
Lawrence D. Folkemer, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

George K. Bowers, a Lutheran pastor, has lectured at Bucknell University and served for 15 years as an adjunct professor at Roanoke College in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Department of Languages. He has served pastorates in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Lois S. Bowers has taught language and literature at various schools in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

In Philosophical Fragments the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus explored the question: What is required in order to go beyond Socratic recollection of eternal ideas already possessed by the learner? Written as an afterword to this work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript is on one level a philosophical jest, yet on another it is Climacus's characterization of the subjective thinker's relation to the truth of Christianity. At once ironic, humorous, and polemical, this work takes on the "unscientific" form of a mimical-pathetical-dialectical compilation of ideas. Whereas the movement in the earlier pseudonymous writings is away from the aesthetic, the movement in Postscript is away from speculative thought. Kierkegaard intended Postscript to be his concluding work as an author. The subsequent "second authorship" after The Corsair Affair made Postscript the turning point in the entire authorship. Part One of the text volume examines the truth of Christianity as an objective issue, Part Two the subjective issue of what is involved for the individual in becoming a Christian, and the volume ends with an addendum in which Kierkegaard acknowledges and explains his relation to the pseudonymous authors and their writings. The second volume contains the scholarly apparatus, including a key to references and selected entries from Kierkegaard's journals and papers.

Customer Reviews (6)

The Answer
While devouring this book, I really felt that I was getting close to, quote unquote, "The Answer."That's how powerful it was on both me and, as I see, some of my fellow reviewers.So much of it has to do with making decisions, and making decisions is an integral part of Soren K's definition of truth.But you have to get at it subjectively, not objectively.There's one part where, let's say, you (the reader) are in prison, and you will get your head chopped off by the guillotine tomorrow.You are afraid, naturally.I, as your friend, can talk to you and say (objectively), "Oh, you're worried about the guillotine tomorrow.You see, it's very simple: you just walk out to the scaffold, put your head down on the slab of wood, making sure to put your neck in the appropriate neck hole; they will cut a rope, the blade of the guillotine will come down, your head will be chopped off, and it will all be over in a minute."You, the subjective decision-maker, do not see it in the same way.

take the leap
Along with Nietzsche's The Gay Science, this book had the most impact on me of any philosophy books I have ever read. For those who find themselves running around in cirles looking for objective proof of this or that, Climacus (Kierkegaard) insists you are just wading out into the sea of life. Take the leap onto 70,000 fathoms of roaring ocean! Live!

After Hegel's reduction of the individual to a cog in the grumbling historical machine, it is refreshing to read of the individual and the individuals concerns. As mentioned, Climacus ridicules objectivity and focuses the reader in on subjective truth, encouraging us to be authentic and take responsiblity for life. Christian or non-Christian alike, this book will challange the reader in many ways. It was a major influence on existentialist and Continental thought for a good reason. Unconditionally recommended.

A monumental work
This is Kierkegaard's most important work - the real meat of his writings.It is more difficult then most of his works and should be approached with caution, but it is absolutely essential to achieve a full understanding of Kierkegaard.Keep in mind that _Concluding Unscientific Postscript_ was originally written under the pseudonym of Johannes Climacus, the sceptical and pessimistic alter ego of the real Kierkegaard.Not to spoil the surprise, but in reading this book you should remember that much of what is being said is contradictory to Kierkegaard's real beliefs.In my experience reading this book, I only began to realize this gradually.This is because not EVERYTHING in this book is antithetical or diametrically opposed to Kierkegaard's real views; only portions of it are antithetical.Kierkegaard truly engages and challenges the reader by exposing views that make sense at first, but then after letting Climacus get riled up, his rantings and ravings become increasingly illogical and pessimistic.The challenge consists in discovering where the real Kierkegaard leaves off, and where the pseudonymous Johannes Climacus picks up.The reader must constantly be on alert for antithetical and contradictory statements, and must approach this book with a highly critical mindset.The end result is one of the most fantastically thought-provoking, creative, original, and entertaining books you will ever read.By forcing the reader to take this critical approach, Kierkegaard gives us an opportunity to formulate and fortify our individual beliefs in contradistinction to those of Climacus, forcing us to truly think for ourselves.The reader is bombarded with profound philosophical statements which are oten true and sensible, and can be proven consitsent with Kierkegaard's real beliefs.But sandwiched between these logical statements, Climacus will say something so off the wall that the reader must subject these statements to a critical re-evaluation.This is what makes the _Postscript_ such a profoundly thought-provoking and personally enriching experience.

One more thing to consider before you read this book: As I said, this book was written under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus.To fully understand the inner workings of this character, you must also read _Philosophical Fragments/Johannes Climacus_, which is the precursor to _Concluding Unscientific Postscript_.This first book helps the reader understand the pseudonymous and sometimes antithetical beliefs held by Kierkegaard's neurotic alter-ego.Taken together, the _Johannes Climacus/Philosophical Fragments/ Conlcuding Unscientific Postscript_ series is the be-all end-all philosophical work of the 19th century.It is a monumental achievement of epic proportions and will go down in history as the most important and profound work of literature to come out of Europe during that time period.

Be Warned!!
Be warned!The Princeton edition of this book comes in two volumes.Volume 1 is just the body of text to Kierkegaard's book.There is no historical introduction in the first volume, just Kierkegaard's satirical introduction that was intended for the original book.The historical introduction and scholarly apparatus are in the second volume.If the reader does not wish to inquire beyond Kierkegaard's text, he need not worry, the second volume is for the person who did not find Kierkegaard mind numbing enough and sees need to go behind the text.I am one of those kind of people, but you might not be.

A comic tour de force
To begin with, the title is a joke. This is the in keeping with the putative author of the piece. Johannes Climacus (who is named for the Seventh Century Hermit and Monk, St. John Climacus) is a humorist. Ahumorist, as he will point out, is someone on edge of becoming religious,but is not yet religious and, in fact, may never become religious. Thatbeing said, back to the title. "Concluding," as is obvious, implies that SKintended this to be his last book (in a separate declaration published withthe book he acknowledges all the previous pseudonyms with the proviso thatno one should quote him directly unless it is from a book that bears hisname as author and claims that he has no privileged access to thepseudonyms than any other reader). However, as the result of a religiousconversion after it's publication, it became the middle child of hisauthorship, recapitulating all that had come before and pointing forwardtoward new things yet to be imagined. "Unscientific" is a dig at Hegel. Ifone wishes to over-simplify one may say that SK's position is Either/Or:Either there is a God and the world actually means something, Or there isno God and the world is absurd, meaningless and accidental. Hegel abolishedGod and attempted to find meaning in historical process. This is the"science" for which SK has such contempt. For this reason, SK refuses tocall himself a philosopher, content to call himself a "poet." If a fraudlike Hegel is a philosopher, then he wants no part of the designation."Postscript" is where the joke comes in. This book is a "Postscript to thePhilosophical Fragments." The "Philosophical Fragments" is, therefore, a100 page book with a 600 page postscript attached (that's the joke ha ha) Of all of SK's books this is my favorite. It is his funniest and either youkeep your eye carefully peeled or you will miss a joke (the first time youread it you will miss hundreds of them). And in typical SK fashion the morehe jokes the more deadly serious he is (by the end he is claiming the book,in its entirety, is a joke). The central distinction is between our ideasabout things and the things themselves. If you have any trouble, there isalways Merold Westphal's "Becoming a Self," a good commentary. The onlyproblem is that he probably takes SK more seriously than SK would becomfortable with. That's not necessarily a good thing. You lose too manygood jokes in the process. ... Read more

Book Description

"Without authority," a phrase Kierkegaard repeatedly applied to himself and his writings, is an appropriate common title for this volume of five short works that in various ways deal with the concept and practice of authority. The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air presupposes the teaching authority of the lily and the bird, derived from the authoritative Gospel injunction to learn from them. Two Ethical-Religious Essays deal with the limits of authorization for a witness to the truth and with the contrast between the authority of the genius and that of the apostle. The remaining work--Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays, An Upbuilding Discourse, and Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays--presuppose Gospel authority in meditations on forgiveness and the power of love.

After deciding to end his career as an author with the publication of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard nevertheless became absorbed in a fruitful second authorship after the Corsair affair. The present five works, together with Practice in Christianity, On My Work as an Author, The Sickness unto Death, and For Self-Examination, published during the same period (1849-51), represent the close of the second writing career. The preface to Two Discourses opens with a comprehensive paragraph that concludes the second period of writing, embraces the first, and defines the whole.

Book Description

For Self-Examination and its companion piece Judge for Yourself! are the culmination of Søren Kierkegaard's "second authorship," which followed his Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Among the simplest and most readily comprehended of Kierkegaard's books, the two works are part of the signed direct communications, as distinguished from his earlier pseudonymous writings. The lucidity and pithiness, and the earnestness and power, of For Self-Examination and Judge for Yourself! are enhanced when, as Kierkegaard requested, they are read aloud. They contain the well-known passages on Socrates' defense speech, how to read, the lover's letter, the royal coachman and the carriage team, and the painter's relation to his painting. The aim of awakening and inward deepening is signaled by the opening section on Socrates in For Self-Examination and is pursued in the context of the relations of Christian ideality, grace, and response. The secondary aim, a critique of the established order, links the works to the final polemical writings that appear later after a four-year period of silence.

Customer Reviews (2)

Potent yet readable
This book, page for page, may be Kierkegaard's best ever.This is a rather slim volume, but is packed with Kierkegaard's most profound and life-changing philosophy.Compared to his other works (almost all of which I highly, HIGHLY recommend) this book comes across as one of the most potent and dense.Therefore, I would recommend this one first and foremost to a reader who is pressed for time and is intimidated by the sheer length of Kierkegaard's other works.If you have not devoted every minute of your spare time to reading every page of every book ever written by Kierkegaard, my first question, of course, is WHY NOT?!?!? What are you thinking???Get with the program!!!I am willing to forgive you, however, if you could just find time in your busy schedule to read this one slim pamphlet.It is the "Reader's Digest" condensed Kierkegaard for realistic 50-hour-a-week men, and it could radically change your life for the better.Profound, uplifting, loving, hopeful, and positive, I recommend this book to all readers.

Masterpiece of true Christianity
Kierkegaard exposes what it means to be a Christian. And be warned. It isimpossible to read the book and walk away. A spiritual mirror is setup forthose who dare to look. Individual's life including Scripture study is thecore of this book. ... Read more

Product Description
For Kierkegaard, truth is a subjective reality which we must live, not simply something to simply consider and discuss. His self-consciousness and self-examination highlight the practical demands of existence, and he opposes the speculative thinking of philosophical idealists. Kierkegaard says much of life's meaning depends not on external conditions, but on our internal choices about relating to them. He urges us to live with purpose and emphasizes that our task is not knowing but doing.

In Either/Or, he concentrates on sensual indulgence versus duty and the avant garde versus tradition. In Sickness Unto Death, Kierkegaard diagnoses a spiritual disease throughout society: despair. Kierkegaard argues that we are estranged from the source of our very being as we try to escape the moral responsibility of the self. ... Read more