The Concept of Eternity in Kierkegaard's Philosophical Anthropology
Title:
The Concept of Eternity in Kierkegaard's Philosophical Anthropology
Subject Classification:
Philosophy, Religion and Faith, Anthropology
BIC Classification: HP, HRC, JH
BISAC Classification:
PHI016000, REL067020, REL051000
Binding:
Hardback, eBook
Planned publication date:
Jan 2025
ISBN (Hardback):
978-1-80441-968-7
ISBN (eBook):
978-1-80441-969-4
e-books available for libraries from Proquest and EBSCO with non-institutional availability from GooglePlay
For larger orders, or orders where you require an invoice, contact us admin@ethicspress.com
Description
This new book provides an in-depth commentary on Kierkegaard’s Concept of Anxiety, often considered Kierkegaard’s most difficult work, and one that has few secondary resources published on it.
It provides a critical analysis of the meaning of eternity as it relates to the human being in The Concept of Anxiety. First, the eternal signifies the divine image implanted in human beings from the beginning of creation, making us spiritual, embodied beings with the capacity for self-consciousness, a God relationship, freedom, everlasting life, and communal fellowship with other persons. Second, the eternal is present both ontologically and normatively in human beings, providing an unchanging criterion and telos of human existence, a task we are responsible to fulfill. Third, eternity signifies perfection; it is the ideal for which we were created.
By failing to fulfill this task, we can be said to “lose” the eternal through sin and “gain” it again through redemption. As sinners who are guilty of refusing to fulfill this task, eternity’s criterion can only be fulfilled through faith in Christ’s atonement. This decision in time paradoxically has eternal consequences, and in this sense the eternal signifies transcendence beyond our spatiotemporal world. However, the believer’s eternal decision in time not only determines whether life after death entails eternal happiness instead of eternal damnation; it also has redemptive consequences that begin in temporality, bringing a spiritual continuity and sanctified vision of oneself, others, and the temporal world here and now.
The majority of studies on The Concept of Anxiety have focused on the relationship between the self and time; this book explores the relation between the self and eternity.
Biography
Author(s): Dr. Christi Williams is a Rhetoric Teacher at Trinity Classical School of Houston, Texas, USA.
Reviews
This title is currently being reviewed. Please check back for further updates in due course.