What was the “central religious problem” for kierkegaard?
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Existentialism
1. Nihilism and the Crisis of Modernity
We can find early glimpses of what might be called the “existential attitude” (Solomon 2005) in the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies of antiquity, in the struggle with sin and desire in St. Augustine’s Confessions, in the intimate reflections on death and the meaning of life in Michel de Montaigne’s Essays, and in the confrontation with the “dreadful silence” of the cosmos in Blaise Pascal’s Pensées. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the ideas began to coalesce into a bona fide intellectual movement. By this time, an increasingly secular and scientific worldview was emerging and the traditional religious framework that gave pre-modern life a sense of moral orientation and cohesion was beginning to collapse. Without a north star of moral absolutes to guide us, the modern subject was left abandoned and lost, “wandering,” as Nietzsche writes, “as if through an endless nothing” (1887 [1974], §125). But it wasn’t just the rise
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The Tablet Headlines Delivered Daily
About a month ago I had a strange experience in relation to one of the philosophy courses that I teach at St. John’s University. The students and I were about to begin studying the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). As I was looking through my notes I discovered 10 pages of notes about Kierkegaard that I had not looked at in years. These 10 pages were misplaced among other notes.
Once I saw them I not only recognized them but knew exactly when I had taken them. They were taken in the summer of 1966 for a course on Kierkegaard which was being taught at Marquette University by Professor John Riedl. Rereading the notes I could hear Dr. Riedl speaking.
When I was studying at Marquette, I frequently referred to John Riedl as the Babe Ruth of the philosophy department. I thought of him as the star of the department and one of the most scholarly men I have ever met. I wanted him to direct my doctoral thesis but we could not adjust our schedules so that we could work together. Still he helped me with wonderful advice as I began my research
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Abdulla, M. R. (2018). Culture, Religion, and Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 16(4), 102–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2018.1535033
Armawi, A. (2016). Eksistensi Manusia dalam Filsafat Soren Kierkegaard. Jurnal Filsafat, 21(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.4738
Assiter, A. (2013). Kant and Kierkegaard on Freedom and Evil. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 72, 275–296. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1358246113000155
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2020). A review of educational responses to the “post-truth” condition: Four lenses on “post-truth” problems. Educational Psychologist, 55(3), 107–119.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2020.1786388
Collins, C. S., & Stockton, C. M. (2018). The Central Role of Theory in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1609406918797475. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918797475
Compaijen, R. (2018). Kierkegaard on Being Human. In R. Compaijen (Ed.), Kierkegaard, MacIntyre, Williams, and the Internal Point of View (pp. 89–155). Springer
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