Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2023

The twentieth century is the period best known for thematizing the issue of nihilism with, for example, the works of the existentialists. For this reason, most philosophical or literary histories of this topic start with Nietzsche and move on from there. This study aims to show that the background for the tradition of twentieth-century nihilism was already well established in the nineteenth century. The thesis of the work is that the true origin of modern nihilism can be found in the rapid development of the sciences in the Enlightenment that established a new secular worldview that gradually displaced the old religious one. The modern scientific view presented a picture of human beings as increasingly small and insignificant in the vastness of space and time. This led to discussions about and literary portrayals of different issues related to nihilism in the first half of the nineteenth century, long before Turgenev and Nietzsche made the term fashionable. Drawing on the importance of Enlightenment science, this work tries to gain insight into the nature and development of nihilism in the nineteenth century.

Hegel’s Century: Alienation and Recognition in a Time of Revolution
 

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021

Many students who attended Hegel’s lectures in Berlin in the 1820s recalled with nostalgia in later life the stimulating intellectual environment that radiated from the ideas they heard in his lecture hall. This atmosphere still existed a decade after his death, as zealous students continued to flock to Berlin to study with Hegel’s students in the 1840s. Over the coming decades these students would come to constitute the leading lights in Continental philosophy in the nineteenth century: Feuerbach, Bauer, Kierkegaard, Engels, Marx, Bakunin, and others. The present work is an introduction to the history of this development. It takes as its point of departure two concepts that originated in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, namely, alienation and recognition. Hegel’s students of both the first and the second generation all appropriated these concepts, among others, and applied them indifferent contexts. It is argued that the broad constellation of problems surrounding these rich ideas can be seen as providing a central theme of philosophy in the nineteenth century. The work also sketches how these concepts constituted a broader cultural phenomenon as they spilled over into a number of other fields as well, including religion, politics, literature, and drama. Later in the twentieth century they were also taken up in the then budding social sciences, especially sociology and psychology. These concepts thus represent a key element in the nineteenth century’s contribution to the history of philosophy.

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"It is often thought that Hegel's philosophy fell into a rather deserved obsolescence by the middle of the nineteenth century. But Hegel's Century shows that even while Hegelianism waned, Hegel's concerns with alienation and recognition continued to set the agenda for European philosophy, both inside and outside the universities. It offers a magisterial yet accessible guide to those thinkers, mystics, and revolutionaries who appropriated these Hegelian themes for radically new purposes."

Mark Alznauer - Northwestern University

Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020

This work presents a philosophical analysis of the development of Western Civilization from antiquity to the Middle Ages. It traces the various self-conceptions of the different cultures from ancient Mesopotamia to Medieval Christendom. The thesis is that as human civilization took its first tenuous steps, it had a very limited conception of the individual. Instead, the dominant principle was the wider group: the family, clan or people. Only in the course of history did the idea of individuality begin to emerge. The conception of human beings as having an inner sphere of subjectivity subsequently had a sweeping impact on all aspects of culture and largely constitutes what is today referred to as modernity.

"Stewart documents the way in which Hegel used his sources to explain how various world religions made sense in the broader context of their conceptions of humanity, divinity, and individuality ... Although the author does not spare Hegel from criticism, he demonstrates that the philosopher's approach to non-Christian traditions was far from an exercise in parochial apologetics; rather, it represented a decisive step in the direction of a contemporary multicultural understanding of religion ... Recommended." J. A. Gauthier, CHOICE

“Stewart has the requisite expertise, and he has written an important book. He possesses a mastery of the many sources utilized by Hegel; he shows the pivotal position of Determinate Religion in the lectures as a whole; he reveals many connections between the lectures on religion and those on the philosophy of world history and the history of philosophy; he discusses the rise of Orientalism in the nineteenth century and Hegel’s role in it; he analyzes the impact of G. F. Creuzer on Hegel; and he demonstrates the connection between “the logic of the gods,” human self-recognition, and the slow progression of freedom in culture and history.” Peter C. Hodgson, “Hegel’s Interpretation of Determinate Religion: Analysis of the Scholarship Issues,” The Owl of Minerva, vol. 52, nos. 1-2, 2021, pp. 6-7.

“Jon Stewart’s important recent book Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World examines Hegel’s account of what he called “Determinate Religion,” the title of the second, massive part of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. In the four different iterations Hegel gave of these lectures during his Berlin years, the attention of this crucial section was devoted to an ever-expanding and changing exploration of the great world traditions of religious thought and experience. Stewart’s careful sifting of the wealth of sources that Hegel used for this part of his lectures is key for any attempt at understanding Hegel’s changing stance on issues like religious pluralism and the larger relation between his conception of history and the systematic concerns that lie behind Hegel’s account of religion and Absolute Spirit more broadly.”
Allen Speight, “The Sphinx and the Veil of Isis: Enigmas of Interpretation in Hegel’s Determinate Religion and Its Relation to Hegel’s History of Art,” The Owl of Minerva, vol. 52, nos. 1-2, 2021, p. 11.

“With Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World, Jon Stewart has amply carried out his ‘wish to explore in detail Hegel’s historical interpretation of these various world religions.’ In so doing, he has provided a context within which to appreciate the content of Hegel’s interpretations. He has successfully argued in favor of the importance of the determinate religions for a fuller understanding of Hegel on the consummate religion. He has as well and, especially important, prepared the way for further historically oriented studies in Hegel’s philosophy of determinate religion. And he has, in effect, launched a challenge to develop a contemporary Hegelian phenomenology of determinate religion, namely, to paint anew philosophy’s gray in gray.”
Dale M. Schlitt, “Hegel on Determinate Religion: Claims, Challenges, Conclusions,” The Owl of Minerva, vol. 52, nos. 1-2, 2021, p. 48.

“…we all stand in debt to Jon Stewart’s masterful new synthesis, Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World: The Logic of the Gods, for what he achieves is nothing less than an ac­count of Hegel’s philosophy of religion that begins to do justice to Hegel’s own unique conception of what a history of religions must be. He does this by integrating Hegel’s discussions of various religions in the lecture courses on the philosophy of religion, especially the accounts offered in the long neglected determinate religion section, with treatments taken from the lec­tures on the philosophy of art, the history of philosophy, and world history, which provide a broader view of the historical and cultural worlds in which those religious belief-systems and practices arose and flourished. Stewart of­fers us a richly detailed overview, in the best sense of that term, one that is buttressed by significant discussions focused on the state of academic studies at the time when the various religions that Hegel examines were prominent; and he also identities and explores the most pivotal sources that Hegel uses to construct his accounts. This latter dimension of Stewart’s work enables him to advance significantly our understanding not only of Hegel’s history of religions, but also the concrete and varied ways in which that history was shaped by Eurocentrism. In this way, Stewart’s philological work contributes to an interpretation of Hegel on religion that brings a broadened view of his thought into important contemporary debates about the role of religion in society and the problems of a deeply and profoundly pluralistic world…. Let me conclude then by once again recalling that Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World marks a significant advance, in my judgment, in the burgeoning scholarship on Hegel’s account of determinate religions and his project for a history of religions more broadly….students of Hegel’s philosophy of religion will, no doubt, remain in Stewart’s debt for years to come.”
Kevin Thompson, “Hegel’s History of Religions: The Speculative Method in the Philosophy of Religion,” The Owl of Minerva, vol. 52, nos. 1-2, 2021, p. 119, p. 134.

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“There is much to admire in Jon Stewart’s recent book. His argument is clearly stated, judiciously elaborated, and persuasively defended. His prose is bracingly clear and mercifully devoid of jargon, pseudo-technical sophistications, and other writerly conceits. His erudition is on full display as he samples and measures a vast secondary literature spanning multiple languages and scholarly traditions. Moreover, his appreciation of Hegel’s achievement is guided neither by partisan affinity nor by unwarranted or anachronistic criticism. Most notably, perhaps, his attention to the basic structure of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion enables him to bring to bear on the discussion of religion the more familiar Hegelian thesis that reveals a teleological progression, in which successive conceptions of freedom and subjectivity emerge. As a result, the Hegel who emerges from this study is appropriately contextualized and eminently accessible to curious readers.”
Daniel Conway, “Exemplarity and Its Discontents: On the Hegelian Futures of Religion,” The Owl of Minerva, vol. 52, nos. 1-2, 2021, p. 137.

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Chinese translation of Søren Kierkegaard:Subjectivity, Irony and the Crisis of Modernity:

The Danish Golden Age spanned a period of time that saw a number of different kinds of crisis: political, economic and cultural. Events such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the national bankruptcy in 1813, the Revolution of 1848 and the first Schleswig War radically transformed Danish society. The many changes that took place at this time made it a dynamic period in which artists, poets, philosophers, and religious thinkers were constantly enjoined to reassess the current situation. Some of Denmarks greatest luminaries, such Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Hans Lassen Martensen and Soren Kierkegaard, articulated the nature of the crisis and proposed different solutions to it.

The present work traces the different aspects and dimensions of this crisis by means of a series of case studies. It shows how the perception of the crisis was a kind of spirit that haunted many of the intellectuals and artists of the period. But far from being something negative or destructive, it was a motivating and stimulating force that helped to make the Golden Age what is was. It made artists and thinkers more willing to break with the past and seek new solutions and approaches. Thus it is argued that the crisis can be seen as one of the central defining elements of what we know as Danish Golden Age culture. But the present work is not a purely historical study since it is shown that many of the key elements of the crisis can still be found in our modern world today. Heiberg's diagnosis of the period as suffering from relativism, subjectivism and nihilism sounds strikingly familiar to the modern reader. When seen in this manner, the Danish Golden Age becomes profoundly interesting and relevant for the broad spectrum of problems of modernity.

Reviews

“The first half of the nineteenth century in Denmark, somewhat ironically known as the Golden Age, was steeped in economic, political, and religious crisis. Jon Stewart has done more than any other scholar or editor in bringing this fascinating and enigmatic era in Scandinavian letters to an English-speaking audience. In his latest book, The Cultural Crisis of the Danish Golden Age: Heiberg, Martensen and Kierkegaard, Stewart teases out how several of the nation's leading writers and critics articulated the speed at which Danish culture was changing, while also mapping out how they attempted to solve the looming crisis entailed in these changes….Overall, Stewart’s work demonstrates how the pervasiveness of critical discourse was not in tension with the notion of a Golden Age but rather that the tension inherent in that multi-layered discourse created the matrix of success, which in essence defined the Danish Golden Age. Although Søren Kierkegaard is a major subject of interest for Stewart’s project, something consistent with his earlier work, the contours of this monograph extend beyond the figure of Kierkegaard to thinkers perhaps not as well-known to more general readers. Such figures as Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Hans Lassen Martensen, and Eggert Christopher Tryde are also contextualized in terms of Stewart’s reassessment of cultural effusion. The book also provocatively positions the Danish Golden Age in conversation with our present day.
…Stewart's study is groundbreaking in two distinct ways. Unlike many of his publications on Søren Kierkegaard that are preoccupied with Kierkegaard’s relationship to German philosophy, this book is predominantly an attempt to read Kierkegaard in the context of Danish letters. Although Hegel’s philosophy is still at the core of many of these debates, the substance of the book is dedicated to how Danish thinkers responded to investigations and inquiries vis-à-vis their contemporary countrymen. In effect, Stewart is calling for a rehabilitation of “the contemporary horizon of the text in Kierkegaard's time” (p. 30). He gives voice to this call by employing the methodology of Quellenforschung or source research. Stewart illustrates his method through examination of several passages of Kierkegaard that have been traditionally read in terms of Hegel’s philosophical writings. Instead, Stewart reads these texts against the grain, focusing, for example, on Kierkegaard’s readings of figures like Martensen and the theologian Adolph Peter Adler. Stewart deftly argues a case that the preoccupation with Kierkegaard's relation to Hegel and German philosophy has caused a lacuna in the scholarship.”
Gantt Gurly, Scandinavian Studies, vol. 90, no. 1, 2018, pp. 139-141.

"Stewarts Untersuchungen gehen von der simplen Feststellung aus, dass sich Kierkegaard nicht an den philosophischen Schriften Hegels abarbeitet, sondern in erster Linie an Arbeiten aus seinem dänischen Umfeld, die ihrerseits von Hegel inspiriert sind. Mit dieser feinen Akzentverschiebung gelingt es Stewart, eine der wichtigsten intertextuellen Grundlagen der Kierkegaard-Forschung in Frage zu stellen. … Immer wieder gelingt es Stewart in seiner Studie auf solch überraschende und kontraintuitive Querverbindungen zwischen Kierkegaard und seinen dänischen Zeitgenossen aufmerksam zu machen. Dabei unterstreicht er die Modernität einer umfassenden Krisenerfahrung, die eben nicht nur bei Kierkegaard formuliert wird, sondern auch bei Heiberg und seinen Kritikern. … Insgesamt…handelt es sich um ein sehr lesenswertes Buch, das sich gleichermassen an Kierkegaard-Forscher sowie am Dänischen Guldalder interessierte Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftler richtet."
Klaus Müller-Wille (Universität Zürich), Orbis Litteratum, vol. 71, no. 4, 2016, pp. 435-436.

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“Jon Stewart viser, at det giver god mening at åbne historiske tekster op ved at læse dem i sammenhæng med andre samtidige tekster som de direkte eller—som ofte er tilfældet her—indirekte refererer til og er i dialog med. Ud af det kommer der overbevisende, men også meget tekstnære og detaljerede analyser af afgrænsede problemstillinger.”
Claus Møller Jørgensen, "The Cultural Crisis of the Danish Golden Age - Heiberg, Martensen and Kierkegaard," BogFeature, 23 November, 2015.

▪ The Unity of Content and Form in Philosophical Writing:

The Perils of Conformity
New York et al.: Bloomsbury Publishing 2013
x+220pp.

In The Unity of Content and Form in Philosophical Writing, Jon Stewart argues that there is a close relation between content and form in philosophical writing. While this might seem obvious at first glance, it is overlooked in the current climate of Anglophone academic philosophy, which, Stewart contends, accepts only a single genre as proper for philosophical expression. Stewart demonstrates the uniformity of today's philosophical writing by contrasting it with that of the past.

Taking specific texts from the history of philosophy and literature as case studies, Stewart shows how the use of genres like dialogues, plays and short stories were an entirely suitable and effective means of presenting and arguing for philosophical positions given the concrete historical and cultural contexts in which they appeared.

Now, Stewart argues, the prevailing intolerance means that the same texts are dismissed as unphilosophical merely due to their form, although their content is, in fact, profoundly philosophical. The book’s challenge to current conventions of philosophical is provocative and timely, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, literature and history.

Reviews

“Jon Stewart's impressive erudition illuminates the mosaic of philosophical writing's diverse forms and styles against the backdrop of the history of philosophy and its occasional cross-pollination with literary form. From Plato to Rorty, Lessing to Borges, Seneca to Sartre, The Unity of Content and Form in Philosophical Writing directs our attention to the dialectical relationship between the content of form and the form of content. The result is at once a harsh indictment of form and style in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy and a celebration of that tradition's rich potential. Like Søren Kierkegaard's pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis, Stewart is a watchman: his book warns of the dangers of conformity and bears witness to the abundant and varied tools of written philosophical expression, the manifold of which may just be one of philosophy's greatest truths.”

J.D. Mininger, Associate Professor of Social and Political Theory at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania

“Jon Stewart mobilizes the history of philosophy with its various modes of writing against external and internal limitations, caused by institutional conventions or presupposed concepts of science – pointing to and exemplifying impressively the relation between philosophy and literature, which does not affect each characteristic, but rather ensures philosophy’s vitality.”

Dr. Markus Kleinert, Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany

▪ Idealism and Existentialism: Hegel and Nineteenth-
and Twentieth-Century European Philosophy
New York and London: Continuum International Publishing 2010
xv+282pp.

The history of Continental philosophy is often conceived as being represented by two major schools: German idealism and phenomenology/existentialism. These two schools are frequently juxtaposed so as to highlight their purported radical differences. There is a commonly held view that an abrupt break occurred in the Nineteenth Century, resulting in a disdainful rejection of idealism in all its forms. This break is often located in the transition from Hegel to Kierkegaard. The history of philosophy in the first half of the nineteenth century has thus been read as a grand confrontation between the overambitious rationalistic system of Hegel and the devastating criticisms of it by Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existence.

This work aims to undermine this popular view of the radical break between idealism and existentialism by means of a series of detailed studies in specific episodes of European thought. As a whole, this book represents an important attempt to demonstrate the long shadow cast by Kant and Hegel over the subsequent history of European thought.

Reviews

“While I disagree with Stewart's landing place for Kierkegaard via Hegel, Stewart rigorously opens up discussion about the historical reception of these figures—integral as they are to his grander thesis at large—and provokes many significant questions about their respective definitions of ‘reason’ and ‘truth’ as well as the edification process that results from raising these questions. Idealism and Existentialism should be read by anyone interested in the history of the reception of Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. Because Stewart persists throughout his writings at a counter-intuitive level for those trained in this history, his work deserves much credit for the means it employs to challenge our preconceptions. The reader is forced to think about ‘reason’ in many of its iterations throughout the rich history of late modern European philosophy. Since Stewart does not give a unitary solution to the problem of what reason is, the reader is left to build a new definition in an attempt to grasp this previous philosophical epoch, all the while thinking about how this ever expanding, multivalent notion of reason could fit into a ‘system.’ It is in this way that Stewart's reading of Hegel has truly succeeded.”
Marcia Morgan, Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, no. 58, November 2011, pp. 11-15.

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"Stewart's fresh approach to the so-called 'antagonism' between idealism and existentialism is both welcome and edifying. His careful, nuanced scholarship encourages the reader to re-consider and re-evaluate the major debates that shaped the development of European philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
Daniel Conway, Texas A&M University

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▪ A History of Hegelianism in Golden Age Denmark
Tome I: The Heiberg Period: 1824-1836
Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel’s Publishing House 2007
xxi+629pp.
(Danish Golden Age Studies, vol. 3, Tome I)

The present tome is the first of a three-volume work dedicated to exploring the profound influence of G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophical thinking in Golden Age Denmark. This initial volume covers the period from the beginning of the Hegel reception in the Danish Kingdom in the 1820s until 1836.

The dominant figure from this period is the poet and critic Johan Ludvig Heiberg. While Søren Kierkegaard’s polemic with the Danish Hegelians is well-known, the actual texts and ideas of these thinkers have received little attention in their own right.

The present work demonstrates that this largely overlooked tradition of Hegel reception played a profound and indeed constitutive role in many aspects of Golden Age culture: philosophy, theology, literature, poetry, law, journalism, the arts, etc. Moreover, it brought into its orbit most all of the main figures from the period.

Reviews

“Das Buch zeichnet sich aus durch eine virtuose und akribische Materialkenntnis der dänischen Hegelrezeption. Ein solches Buch kann man nur schreiben nach jahrzehntelanger Arbeit am Thema."
Helmut Schneider, Hegel-Studien, vol. 46, 2011, p. 279.

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“This is the first of three ‘tomes’ of Jon Stewart’s Habilitationsschrift in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen; the second concerns The Martensen Period: 1837-1842, and the third Kierkegaard and the Left-Hegelian-Period: 1842-1860. Together they make up volume 3 of Stewart’s series Danish Golden Age Studies. Their purpose is ‘to put forth the basic information about the Danish Hegel reception in a clear and readable fashion.’ Such information needs to be put forth because, unlike Hegel’s reception throughout the rest of Europe and beyond, Danish Hegelianism remains largely but unjustly neglected in scholarly circles…. [R]eaders will appreciate Stewart’s tireless and productive labors, both here and elsewhere, to illuminate this neglected but important area of European thought.”

Paul Vincent Spade, Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 41, no. 1, January 2009, pp. 150-151.

“This is a large-scale undertaking and a work rich in perspectives since it gives us a somewhat different picture of the contemporary age which formed Søren Kierkegaard…. It is a more panoramic, dynamic and open picture that Stewart’s treatise sketches of Danish thinking in this period—a picture that helps us to understand why there would also have been a philosophical Golden Age even without Kierkegaard, however shocking that might seem.”

Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, Politiken, February 9, 2008, section “Bøger,” p. 13.

“The work…is the first extensive presentation, in either the Danish research world or the international research world, of a series of texts that together constitute a central line in the intellectual life of the Danish Golden Age. The author argues that not a few of these texts represent original contributions to the age’s philosophical discussions. Not least of all the international research into Søren Kierkegaard’s universe of thought will be able to make use of the material that the author presents and the conclusions he draws…. This is an impressive work based on extensive knowledge of the texts of the Danish Golden Age and those relevant for Hegel’s thought. The author aims at exhaustiveness, not least of all with the bibliographical work. He brings forth a series of figures, both large and less significant, from the period treated, whose written works display a familiarity with Hegel’s philosophy, or in which Hegel is at least referred to….No future work on the Danish Golden Age and its leading figures will be able to pass by the results that the author has achieved…. The author with his treatise has demonstrated significant scholarly insight and maturity and has moved research into the Danish Golden Age a large step forward….There can be no doubt that his work will influence both the Danish and the international Kierkegaard research for a long time to come.”
Carl Henrik Koch, University of Copenhagen

▪ A History of Hegelianism in Golden Age Denmark
Tome II: The Martensen Period: 1837-1842
Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel’s Publishing House 2007
xx+775pp.
(Danish Golden Age Studies, vol. 3, Tome II)

▪ Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered
New York: Cambridge University Press 2003
xix+695pp.
 

This is a study of the complex relations between the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel. The standard view on the subject is that Kierkegaard defined himself as explicitly anti-Hegelian, indeed, that he viewed Hegel’s philosophy with disdain. However, Kierkegaard’s criticism was not so much of Hegel as of a number of contemporary Danish Hegelians. Kierkegaard’s own view of Hegel was in fact much more positive than has been generally recognized.

Reviews

“Jon Stewarts imponerende bidrag i Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered (2003) og A History of Hegelianism in Golden Age Denmark. 2 vols. (2007)…løfter diskusjonen til et nytt nivå.”
Trond Berg Eriksen, Søren Kierkegaard. Den fromme Spotteren, Oslo: Forlaget Press 2013, p. 453.

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“Jon Stewart’s Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered is an outstanding and original scholarly achievement which will forever change the simplistic and widely shared stereotype of Kierkegaard as a lifelong, implacable, knee-jerk opponent of Hegel....In his eye-opening study Stewart takes us beyond the sterility of a relation of absolute, mutual negation between Kierkegaard and Hegel and demonstrates beyond dispute the many ways in which Kierkegaard was influenced not only negatively, but even more important, positively by Hegel. Kierkegaard borrowed and adapted arguments and methodology from the great German philosopher, not only during his early years but throughout his entire career.”
Bruce H. Kirmmse, Connecticut College

“...a major achievement in contemporary Kierkegaard scholarship....As Stewart points out, the relationship between Kierkegaard and Hegel has been a common topic of comment in general histories of nineteenth-century thought, and the book will therefore be of interest beyond the world of those taking or conducting course in Kierkegaard's thought.”
George Pattison, Oxford University

“Stewart untersucht Kierkegaards Verhältnis zu Hegel vor dem Hintergrund der akribisch rekonstuierten dänischen Hegel-Rezeption, wodurch der für jede Darstellung Kierkegaardschen Philosophierens zentrale Vergleich mit Hegels ‘System der Wissenschaft’ aus einer neuen Perspektive betrachtet wird…. Stewarts Methode und die damit erzielten Ergebnisse [stellen] eine wesentliche Korrektur und Ergänzung der…Forschung [dar].... Die außergewöhnliche Leistung der Arbeit ist die Methode der Kontextualisierung, also die Rekonstruktion der dänischen Hegel-Rezeption und der Nachweis von Kierkegaards intensiver Anteilnahme daran.”

Markus Kleinert, Philosophische Rundschau, Band 54, Heft 3, 2007, pp. 255-262.

“The ultimate goal of the work is to take up critically the superficial opposition of Hegel and Kierkegaard which runs through many accounts of the history of philosophy. The standard view, which Thulstrup canonized, presented a linear interpretation of the history of European philosophy after Kant, which could thus be divided into two main paths: on the one hand, Hegel and systematic, completed philosophy, and on the other, Kierkegaard’s philosophy, which is deeply concerned with existence and therefore cannot be completed by abstract thought…. While Hegel and Kierkegaard are often so neatly and symmetrically juxtaposed to one another, there are many more facets of Kierkegaard’s historical relation to Hegel, which Stewart has now demonstrated more extensively than anyone else before. It is to be hoped that his book will be read just as much as Thulstrup’s was. It is an achievement that deserves it.”

Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, Politiken, February 28, 2004, section 4, p. 7.

“It is rare to find a scholarly book that treats its topic exhaustively. But Jon Stewart’s 658-page Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered, despite its author’s disclaimers, comes close. It is an impressive attempt to demolish what Stewart calls ‘the standard view,’ using a three-part argument: that Hegel exerted a substantial positive influence on the young Kierkegaard; that Kierkegaard was never the radical critic of Hegel claimed by the ‘standard view’; and that most Kierkegaard scholars…have been led astray on these matters by their ignorance of Kierkegaard’s philosophical milieu and their ideological bias…. Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered is an ambitious project, an impressive achievement and a valuable resource for Kierkegaard scholars…. It should generate a new wave of scholarship on the Hegel-Kierkegaard relation(s).”

Stephen N. Dunning, Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 42, no. 2, 2004, pp. 500-502.

“The product of prodigious research, this volume is of enormous help in placing Kierkegaard in his immediate, Danish intellectual milieu. Stewart has put us greatly in his debt. He examines in great detail the relation of Kierkegaard’s writings to contemporary discussions among the Danish ‘Hegelians’ and ‘anti-Hegelians.’ ”

Merold Westphal, Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, no. 48, September 2004, pp. 10-15.

“After reading Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered, one has to acknowledge both its irrefragable value and the future stir it will provoke in contemporary Kierkegaard scholarship. I limit myself to four major contributions: 1) the more accurate understanding of the intellectual and theological context of Kierkegaard’s thought. In this sense, we have to notice Stewart’s outlines of the philosophical views of the four major Hegelian figures in Golden Age Denmark (Martensen, Heiberg, Grundtvig and Adler), and other explanatory clarifications about the important opponents of Hegelianism (Sibbern, Mynster, and Møller, who actually inspired Kierkegaard). 2) Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered offers a very insightful, abundantly documented, and precise depiction of the ‘palimpsest’ relation between Kierkegaard and Hegel, the major conclusion being that the former made a very creative use of some Hegelian philosophical terms or methods, but adapted them to his own project, which was, in several senses, radically different from that of Hegel. 3) Given Stewart’s interesting analysis and its original results in connection with The Sickness unto Death, one cannot ignore any longer the presence of Hegelian dialectical phenomenology in Kierkegaard’s analysis of despair …. 4) The fundamental implications of Stewart’s conclusions on the history of 19th-century philosophy, whose traditional structure of two parallel patterns of thinking (rational vs. irrational, mind vs. existence) must be seriously revised. In this sense, Stewart warns us, the role that the ‘petty’ Danish Hegelians have played in the encounter between the two great thinkers might have had rather dramatic repercussions on the tumultuous history of European thought.”
Leo Stan, Archaeus. Studies in History of Religions, vol. 8, 2004, no. 3-4, pp. 235-262.

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"This brilliant study, of more than seven hundred pages, casts a new light on this complex relationship and reveals that most of Kierkegaard’s critical remarks that were thought to relate to Hegel are in fact critical of a number of contemporary Danish Hegelians."
Toni Renić, Hegel-Jahbuch, vol. 19, no. 1, 2013, p. 262.

▪ The Unity of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit:
A Systematic Interpretation
Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press 2000 (Paperback, 2011)
xv+556pp.

Søren Kierkegaard is a highly complex author who spans a handful of disciplines. Claimed equally by philosophers, theologians, and literary scholars, he continues to exercise an enormous interest internationally. The Companion to Kierkegaard offers the best single-volume overview of Kierkegaard studies available today. The volume is divided into four major sections that reflect the main areas of Kierkegaard studies today: I. Philosophy, II. Theology and Religious Studies, III. Aesthetics and the Arts, and IV. Social Sciences and Politics. Moreover, in order to cover in a systematic manner each of these disciplinary areas, the volume further subdivides these categories into three subsections: A. Sources, B. Reception and C. Concepts and Contributions. This organization allows for the presentation of all the major aspects of the broad field of Kierkegaard research. Although written by specialists, this volume will constitute a major a reference work for students, instructors, and general readers.

Reviews
"I believe A Companion to Kierkegaard is successful in meeting its aims. Stewart has once again edited an important book. It provides a good overview of many important topics in the field of Kierkegaard studies. The book does so by providing the reader with relatively short but sophisticated papers. It succeeds in placing Kierkegaard’s authorship in a wider historical context, and deepens its presentation of Kierkegaard in the more thematic papers. It is, naturally, impossible to do complete justice to all sides of a thinker as versatile as Kierkegaard in one book, but A Companion to Kierkegaard does a good job. Moreover, its organized structure makes it easy for readers to orient themselves and helps them to select the articles that discuss the topics they are interested in. The (mostly quite extensive) bibliographies at the end of each of the papers will definitely help them further to explore these issues."
Rob Compaiijen, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, vol. 77, nos. 1-2, 2016, pp. 78-80.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know. Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research traditions.

Tome VI of the present volume presents reviews of works written in Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know. Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research traditions.

Tome V of the present volume presents reviews of works written in Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Polish.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know. Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research traditions.

Tome IV of the present volume presents reviews of works written in Finnish, French, Galician, and German.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to
keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of
what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know.
Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different
languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in
Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic
studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar
with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of
Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature
that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research
traditions.

Tome III of the present volume presents the second half of the reviews of works written in English.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to
keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of
what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know.
Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different
languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in
Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic
studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar
with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of
Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature
that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research
traditions.

Tome II of the present volume presents the first half of the reviews of works written in English.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to
keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of
what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know.
Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different
languages, countries and regions.

The present volume is dedicated to trying to help, in some small part, to resolve these two problems in
Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic
studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar
with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of
Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature
that are written in the different languages and thus to give a glimpse into different and lesser-known research
traditions.

Tome I of the present volume presents reviews of works written in Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, and Dutch.

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. These later figures have been attracted to Kierkegaard due to a number of reasons, for example, his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in the different language groups and traditions.

Tome V treats the work of a heterogeneous group of writers from the Romance languages and from Central and Eastern Europe who have made use of Kierkegaard in their writings. Kierkegaard has been particularly important for Spanish literature: the Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges, Leonardo Castellani, and Ernesto Sábato, the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, and the Spanish essayist and philosopher María Zambrano were all inspired to varying degrees by him. The Dane also appears in the works of authors writing in other Romance languages, such as the Romanian writer Max Blecher. The Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa was almost certainly inspired by Kierkegaard’s use of pseudonyms. Kierkegaard has also been read by very diverse literary figures from Central and Eastern Europe. He appears in the novels of the contemporary Hungarian authors Péter Nadas and Péter Esterházy. With regard to the Slavic languages, the famous Russian writer, thinker, literary critic, Mikhail Bakhtin, was also inspired by Kierkegaard as was the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz and the Czech novelist Ivan Klíma. The Polish-born Israeli novelist Pinhas Sadeh was interested in Kierkegaard’s treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Fear and Trembling.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art
Tome IV: The Anglophone World
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2013
xv+239pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 12)

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. These later figures have been attracted to Kierkegaard due to a number of reasons, for example, his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in the different language groups and traditions.

Tome IV examines Kierkegaard’s surprisingly extensive influence in the Anglophone world of literature and art. Kierkegaard’s presence has been especially strong in the United States. His thought appears in the work of the novelists Walker Percy, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Conner, William Styron, Don Delillo, and Louise Erdrich. He has also been used by the famous American literary critics, George Steiner and Harold Bloom. The American composer Samuel Barber made use of Kierkegaard in his musical works. Kierkegaard has also exercised an influence on British and Irish letters. The English-born poet W.H. Auden sought in Kierkegaard ideas for his poetic works, and the contemporary English novelist David Lodge has written a novel Therapy, in which Kierkegaard plays an important role. Cryptic traces of Kierkegaard can also be found.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art
Tome III: Sweden and Norway
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2013
xiii+202pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 12)

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. These later figures have been attracted to Kierkegaard due to a number of reasons, for example, his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in the different language groups and traditions.

Tome III investigates the works of Swedish and Norwegian writers and artists who have been inspired by Kierkegaard. In Sweden the novelist Victoria Benedictsson made use of Kierkegaard during the period of the so-called Modern Breakthrough. Similarly, the celebrated playwright August Strindberg found inspiration in Kierkegaard. Later Swedish writers right up to our own day have continued to draw on his thought. This includes figures such as Selma Lagerlöf, Lars Ahlin, Lars Gyllensten, and Carl-Henning Wijkmark. The Norwegian reception of Kierkegaard also began remarkably early and was shaped by the leading names in Norwegian cultural life. The famous dramatist and poet Henrik Ibsen, despite his coy responses to questions about his relation to Kierkegaard, clearly seems to have been inspired by the Dane in famous works such as Brand. The other great Norwegian national writer and poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who was influenced by the Modern Breakthrough movement, was also deeply inspired by Kierkegaard. Finally, the celebrated Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) closely studied key Kierkegaardian concepts such as anxiety, and this influence is notable in his iconic paintings such as The Scream.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art
Tome II: Denmark
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2013
xiii+190pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 12)

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. These later figures have been attracted to Kierkegaard due to a number of reasons, for example, his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in the different language groups and traditions.

Tome II is dedicated to the use of Kierkegaard by later Danish writers. Almost from the beginning Kierkegaard’s works were standard reading for these authors. Danish novelists and critics from the Modern Breakthrough movement in the 1870s were among the first to make extensive use of his writings. These included the theoretical leader of the movement, the critic Georg Brandes, who wrote an entire book on Kierkegaard, and the novelists Jens Peter Jacobsen and Henrik Pontoppidan. The next generation of writers from the turn of the century and through the First World War also saw in Kierkegaard important points of inspiration. These included Ernesto Dalgas and Harald Kidde, who used elements of Kierkegaard’s thought in their novels. Modern Danish writers such as Karen Blixen, Martin A. Hansen, and Villy Sørensen have continued to incorporate Kierkegaard into their works. There can be no doubt that Kierkegaard has indelibly stamped his name on Danish literature.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art
Tome I: The Germanophone World
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2013
xxi+260pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 12)

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. These later figures have been attracted to Kierkegaard due to a number of reasons, for example, his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in the different language groups and traditions.

Tome I explores Kierkegaard’s influence on literature and art in the Germanophone world. He was an important source of inspiration for German writers such as Theodor Fontane, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alfred Andersch, and Martin Walser. Kierkegaard’s influence was particularly strong in Austria during the generation of modernist authors such as Rudolf Kassner, Karl Kraus, Robert Musil, and Hermann Broch. Due presumably in part to the German translations of Kierkegaard in the Austrian cultural journal Der Brenner, Kierkegaard continued to be used by later figures such as the novelist and playwright, Thomas Bernhard. His thought was also appropriated in Switzerland through the works of Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The famous Czech author Franz Kafka identified personally with Kierkegaard’s sad love story with Regine Olsen and made use of his reflections on this and other topics.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Theology
Tome III: Catholic and Jewish Theology
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2012
xiii+220pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 10)

Kierkegaard has always enjoyed a rich reception in the fields of theology and religious studies. This reception might seem to be obvious given the fact that he is one of the most important Christian writers of the nineteenth century. However, upon closer examination, the matter is not so obvious as it may seem since Kierkegaard was by no means a straightforward theologian in any traditional sense. He had no enduring interest in some of the main fields of theology such as church history or biblical studies, and he is strikingly silent on many key Christian dogmas. Moreover, he harbored a degree of animosity towards the university theologians and churchmen of his own day. Despite this, he has been a source of inspiration for numerous religious writers from different denominations and traditions.

Tome III explores the reception of Kierkegaard’s thought in the Catholic and Jewish theological traditions. Although the first Catholic reactions to Kierkegaard appeared shortly after his death, it is especially in the early decades of the twentieth century that Kierkegaard’s thought became an important topic in the Catholic circles. In the 1920s Kierkegaard’s intellectual and spiritual legacy became widely discussed in the Catholic Hochland Circle, whose members included Theodor Haecker, Romano Guardini, Alois Dempf and Peter Wust. Another key figure of the mid-war years was the prolific Jesuit author Erich Przywara. During and especially after World War II Kierkegaard’s ideas found an echo in the works of several trend-setting Catholic theologians of the day such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac and the popular spiritual author Thomas Merton. The second part of Tome III focuses on the reception of Kierkegaard’s thought in the Jewish theological tradition, introducing the reader to authors who significantly shaped Jewish religious thought both in the United States and in Israel. These theologians come from and represent a variety of religious and political backgrounds: the spiritual world of Hasidism, Modern Orthodox Judaism of Mithnaggedic origin, and Modern Religious Zionism.

Reviews

"Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources is continuing to prove a remarkable achievement, and is cumulatively providing an important point of reference for all those working on Kierkegaard, whether they are specialists looking to follow up on some aspect of his work or its reception that lies outside the purview of their own research or whether they are novices looking for a way ‘in’, perhaps so as to check out why or how Kierkegaard relates to their own primary field of study. It is also developing – as was envisaged from the start – into an extremely large project of almost encyclopaedic proportions (although the articles are for the most part full-length scholarly essays rather than brief encyclopaedia notices). The systematic organization of the work means that topics that have often been neglected in writing about Kierkegaard get their due....Like other volumes in the series, this contains work of very high quality, thoroughly researched and clearly presented."
George Pattison, Marginalia: A Review of Books in History, Theology and Religion, January 29, 2013 (online journal).

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Theology
Tome II: Anglophone and Scandinavian Protestant Theology
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2012
xiii+228pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 10)

Kierkegaard has always enjoyed a rich reception in the fields of theology and religious studies. This reception might seem to be obvious given the fact that he is one of the most important Christian writers of the nineteenth century. However, upon closer examination, the matter is not so obvious as it may seem since Kierkegaard was by no means a straightforward theologian in any traditional sense. He had no enduring interest in some of the main fields of theology such as church history or biblical studies, and he is strikingly silent on many key Christian dogmas. Moreover, he harbored a degree of animosity towards the university theologians and churchmen of his own day. Despite this, he has been a source of inspiration for numerous religious writers from different denominations and traditions.

Tome II is dedicated to tracing Kierkegaard’s influence in Anglophone and Scandinavian Protestant religious thought. Kierkegaard has been a provocative force in the English-speaking world since the early twentieth century, inspiring almost contradictory receptions. In Britain, before World War I the few literati who were familiar with his work tended to assimilate Kierkegaard to the heroic individualism of Ibsen and Nietzsche. In the United States knowledge of Kierkegaard was introduced by Scandinavian immigrants who brought with them a picture of the Dane as being much more sympathetic to traditional Christianity. The interpretation of Kierkegaard in Britain and America during the early and mid-twentieth century generally reflected the sensibilities of the particular theological interpreter. The Anglican theologians generally found Kierkegaard to be too one-sided in his critique of reason and culture, while theologians hailing from the Reformed tradition often saw him as an insightful harbinger of neo-orthodoxy. The second part of Tome II is dedicated to the Kierkegaard reception in Scandinavian theology, featuring articles on Norwegian and Swedish theologians influenced by Kierkegaard.

Reviews

"This comprehensive series of Kierkegaard research aims at charting the historical reception and wide-ranging influence of the Danish philosopher-theologian. As with its sister-tome, this book charts the impact of Kierkegaard on many diverse theological figures who – in one way or another – have made use of his writings....Overall, this is a vigorously-researched and stimulating collection that further breeds discussion over Kierkegaard's relationship to theology. Well-known areas of disputation are seen here through the eyes of many who have wrestled with assessing Kierkegaard’s value in theological discourse. It seems the Dane’s inconvenient voice is not easily muted, even by those who would rather he had been a little quieter."
Aaron Edwards, Theological Book Review, vol. 24, no. 2, 2012

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy
Tome III: Anglophone Philosophy
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2012
xiii+239pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 11)

Kierkegaard’s relation to the field of philosophy is a particularly complex and disputed one. He rejected the model of philosophical inquiry that was mainstream in his day and was careful to have his pseudonymous authors repeatedly disassociate themselves from philosophy. But although it seems clear that Kierkegaard never regarded himself as a philosopher, nonetheless there can be no doubt that his writings contain philosophical ideas and insights. Many later thinkers have used his works as a source of insights and ideas that they could apply in the context of their own philosophical program. As a result, his thought has been profoundly influential in a number of different philosophical traditions.

The present volume attempts to document these different traditions of the philosophical reception of Kierkegaard’s thought. The articles featured here aim to demonstrate the vast reach of Kierkegaard’s writings in philosophical contexts that were often quite different from his own.

Tome III traces Kierkegaard’s influence on Anglophone philosophy. It has long been thought that Kierkegaard played no role in this tradition, which for years was dominated by analytic philosophy. In this environment it was common to dismiss Kierkegaard along with the then current European philosophers who were influenced by him. However, a closer look reveals that in fact there were several thinkers in the US, Canada and Great Britain who were inspired by Kierkegaard even during the heyday of analytic philosophy. Leading Anglophone philosophers read Kierkegaard and made at least some limited use of him. The situation today is much different. It can be said that Kierkegaard has made some serious inroads into mainstream Anglophone philosophy, and many authors are today seeking inspiration in his works for current discussions concerning ethics, personal identity, philosophy of religion, and philosophical anthropology.
 

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy
Tome II: Francophone Philosophy
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2012
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 11)

Kierkegaard’s relation to the field of philosophy is a particularly complex and disputed one. He rejected the model of philosophical inquiry that was mainstream in his day and was careful to have his pseudonymous authors repeatedly disassociate themselves from philosophy. But although it seems clear that Kierkegaard never regarded himself as a philosopher, nonetheless there can be no doubt that his writings contain philosophical ideas and insights. Many later thinkers have used his works as a source of insights and ideas that they could apply in the context of their own philosophical program. As a result, his thought has been profoundly influential in a number of different philosophical traditions.

The present volume attempts to document these different traditions of the philosophical reception of Kierkegaard’s thought. The articles featured here aim to demonstrate the vast reach of Kierkegaard’s writings in philosophical contexts that were often quite different from his own.
 

Tome II is dedicated to exploring Kierkegaard’s influence on Francophone philosophy. The French intellectual tradition squares well with Kierkegaard’s eclectic profile since its leading figures are often difficult to classify unambiguously as philosophers, theologians, literary critics or simply writers. Kierkegaard’s thinking was highly influential for many generations of French philosophers right up to this very day. Ever since the discovery of Kierkegaard in the Francophone world, he has remained a fixed pillar in French philosophy. He has been influential in the context of most every modern school of French thought: phenomenology, feminism, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, and deconstruction.

Reviews
"This collection of essays belongs to the ‘reception’ section of Jon Stewart’s vast editorial project, Kierkegaard
Research: Sources, Reception and Resources....This book, the second tome of volume 11, Kierkegaard’s Influence
on Philosophy, provides an extremely useful starting-point for exploring the diverse responses to Kierkegaard’s texts and ideas in twentieth-century French thought."
Clare Carlisle, H-France Review, vol. 13, no. 168, 2013, pp. 1-3.

________________________

"A brilliant example of scholarship, this well-referenced collection will appeal to specialists."
Yolande Aline Helm, French Review, vol. 88, no. 2, October 2014, p. 251.

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy
Tome I: German and Scandinavian Philosophy
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2012
xix+312pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 11)

Kierkegaard’s relation to the field of philosophy is a particularly complex and disputed one. He rejected the model of philosophical inquiry that was mainstream in his day and was careful to have his pseudonymous authors repeatedly disassociate themselves from philosophy. But although it seems clear that Kierkegaard never regarded himself as a philosopher, nonetheless there can be no doubt that his writings contain philosophical ideas and insights. Many later thinkers have used his works as a source of insights and ideas that they could apply in the context of their own philosophical program. As a result, his thought has been profoundly influential in a number of different philosophical traditions.

The present volume attempts to document these different traditions of the philosophical reception of Kierkegaard’s thought. The articles featured here aim to demonstrate the vast reach of Kierkegaard’s writings in philosophical contexts that were often quite different from his own.
 

Tome I is dedicated to exploring the reception of Kierkegaard in Germanophone and Scandinavian philosophy. As is the case in theology, his influence in philosophy is particularly strong in the German-speaking world. Kierkegaard has been a major influence for such different philosophical projects as phenomenology, hermeneutics, dialogical thinking, critical theory, Marxism, logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy. Similarly, in Denmark and Norway, Kierkegaard’s writings have been more or less constantly discussed by important philosophers, despite the later dominance of analytic philosophy in these countries. The present volume features articles on the leading Germanophone and Scandinavian philosophers influenced by Kierkegaard’s thought.

Reviews
"...when one marvels at the scope of this series as a whole, it becomes clear that this tome fits into a broader collection which approaches the subject of Kierkegaard from about as balanced and diverse a perspective as one might expect to find, making it an invaluable resource."
Mark Daniel Safstrom, German Studies Review, vol. 36, no. 1, 2013, pp. 191-193.

▪ Hans Lassen Martensen:
Theologian, Philosopher and Social Critic
Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press 2012
xiii+353pp.
(Danish Golden Age Studies, vol. 6)

Although he has long been known primarily as the object of Søren Kierkegaard’s disdain, Hans Lassen Martensen (1808-84) was a celebrated figure in his own time. Recognized as a brilliant scholar and highly successful churchman, Martensen worked in a number of different areas of theology and philosophy, producing an impressive literary corpus over a period of several decades. His authorship is remarkably varied, including philosophical treatises, theological tracts, sermons, eulogies, book and theater reviews, as well as polemical and occasional pieces. During his lifetime, he saw his works translated into German, Swedish, English, French, Hungarian and Dutch. These works were widely read and frequently reprinted in numerous editions throughout the second half of the century. It is unfortunate that to international research he was known for many years only as a central figure in Kierkegaard’s attack on the Danish State Church.

In the past few decades there has, however, been a renewed appreciation for Martensen as an important thinker in his own right. The present anthology attempts to bring together the works of the leading Danish and international scholars responsible for this recent surge of interest. In order to capture the different aspects of Martensen’s thought, the volume has been organized into three main rubrics: I. Theology, II. Philosophy, and III. Politics and Social Theory. Collectively, the articles featured here treat Martensen’s main works from his dissertation, On the Autonomy of Human Self-Consciousness in 1837 to his monumental, three-volume Christian Ethics from the 1870s. The authors demonstrate that the problems critically addressed by Martensen in the Danish Golden Age are still very much with us today in the twenty-first century.
 

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on Social-Political Thought
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2011
xxiii+286pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 14)

While scholars have long recognized Kierkegaard’s important contributions to fields such as ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, philosophical psychology, and hermeneutics, it was usually thought that he had nothing to say about society or politics.

Kierkegaard has been traditionally characterized as a Christian writer who placed supreme importance on the inward religious life of each individual believer. His radical view seemed to many to undermine any meaningful conception of the community, society or the state. In recent years, however, scholars have begun to correct this image of Kierkegaard as an apolitical thinker.

The present volume attempts to document the use of Kierkegaard by later thinkers in the context of social-political thought. It shows how his ideas have been employed by very different kinds of writers and activists with very different political goals and agendas. Many of the articles show that, although Kierkegaard has been criticized for his reactionary views on some social and political questions, he has been appropriated as a source of insight and inspiration by a number of later thinkers with very progressive, indeed, visionary political views.
 

▪ Kierkegaard's Influence on the Social Sciences
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2011
xix+335pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 13)

Kierkegaard has long been known as a philosopher and theologian, but his contributions to psychology, anthropology and sociology have also made an important impact on these fields. In many of the works of his complex authorship, Kierkegaard presents his intriguing and unique vision of the nature and mental life of human beings individually and collectively.

The articles featured in the present volume explore the reception of Kierkegaard’s thought in the social sciences. Of these fields Kierkegaard is perhaps best known in psychology, where The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness unto Death have been the two most influential texts. With regard to the field of sociology, social criticism, or social theory, Kierkegaard’s Literary Review of Two Ages has also been regarded as offering valuable insights about some important dynamics of modern society.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and His Danish Contemporaries
Tome I: Philosophy, Politics and Social Theory
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xix+329pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 7)

The period of Kierkegaard’s life corresponds to Denmark’s “Golden Age,” which is conventionally used to refer to the period covering roughly the first half of the nineteenth century, when Denmark’s most important writers, philosophers, theologians, poets, actors and artists flourished. Kierkegaard was often in dialogue with his fellow Danes on key issues of the day. His authorship would be unthinkable without reference to the Danish State Church, the Royal Theater, the University of Copenhagen or the various Danish newspapers and journals, such as The Corsair, Fædrelandet, and Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, which played an undeniable role in shaping his development.

The present volume features articles that employ source-work research in order to explore the individual Danish sources of Kierkegaard’s thought. The volume is divided into three tomes in order to cover the different fields of influence.

Tome I is dedicated to exploring the sources that fall under the rubrics, “Philosophy, Politics and Social Theory.” With regard to philosophy, Danish scholars of the day were profoundly influenced by German idealism. Through their efforts the philosophies of Kant, Schelling and Hegel made their way to Denmark. Kierkegaard read the works of all of these Danish thinkers and their German antecedents. While he was sympathetic to individual ideas offered by this tradition, he was generally keen to criticize the German model of philosophy and to propose a new paradigm for philosophical thought that was more in tune with lived existence. Kierkegaard also experienced the dynamic period in history that saw the great upheavals throughout Europe in connection with the revolutions of 1848 and the First Schleswig War. While it has long been claimed that Kierkegaard was not interested in politics, recent research supports a quite different picture. To be sure, he cannot be regarded as a political scientist or social theorist in a traditional sense, but he was nonetheless engaged in the issues of his day, and in his works one can certainly find material that can be insightful for the fields of politics and social theory.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and His Danish Contemporaries
Tome II: Theology
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xiii+364pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 7)

The period of Kierkegaard’s life corresponds to Denmark’s “Golden Age,” which is conventionally used to refer to the period covering roughly the first half of the nineteenth century, when Denmark’s most important writers, philosophers, theologians, poets, actors and artists flourished. Kierkegaard was often in dialogue with his fellow Danes on key issues of the day. His authorship would be unthinkable without reference to the Danish State Church, the Royal Theater, the University of Copenhagen or the various Danish newspapers and journals, such as The Corsair, Fædrelandet, and Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, which played an undeniable role in shaping his development.

The present volume features articles that employ source-work research in order to explore the individual Danish sources of Kierkegaard’s thought. The volume is divided into three tomes in order to cover the different fields of influence.

Tome II is dedicated to the host of Danish theologians who played a greater or lesser role in shaping Kierkegaard’s thought. In his day there were a number of competing theological trends both within the church and at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen, and not least of all in the blossoming free church movements. These included rationalism, Grundtvigianism and Hegelianism. In this quite dynamic period in Danish ecclesial history, Kierkegaard was also exercised by a number of leading personalities in the church as they attempted to come to terms with key issues such as baptism, civil marriage, the revision of the traditional psalm book, and the relation of church and state.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and His Danish Contemporaries
Tome III: Literature, Drama and Aesthetics
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xiii+309pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 7)

The period of Kierkegaard’s life corresponds to Denmark’s “Golden Age,” which is conventionally used to refer to the period covering roughly the first half of the nineteenth century, when Denmark’s most important writers, philosophers, theologians, poets, actors and artists flourished. Kierkegaard was often in dialogue with his fellow Danes on key issues of the day. His authorship would be unthinkable without reference to the Danish State Church, the Royal Theater, the University of Copenhagen or the various Danish newspapers and journals, such as The Corsair, Fædrelandet, and Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, which played an undeniable role in shaping his development.

The present volume features articles that employ source-work research in order to explore the individual Danish sources of Kierkegaard’s thought. The volume is divided into three tomes in order to cover the different fields of influence.

Tome III is dedicated to the diverse Danish sources that fall under the rubrics “Literature, Drama and Aesthetics.” The Golden Age is known as the period when Danish prose first established itself in genres such as the novel; moreover, it was also an age when some of Denmark’s most celebrated national poets flourished. Accordingly, this tome contains articles on Kierkegaard’s use of the great Danish poets and prose writers, whose works are frequently quoted and alluded to throughout his writings. Kierkegaard regularly attended dramatic performances at Copenhagen’s Royal Theater, which was one of Europe’s leading playhouses at the time. In this tome his appreciation for the art of Denmark’s best-known actors and actresses is traced. Finally, this tome features articles on the leading literary critics and aesthetic theorists of the Golden Age, who served as foils for Kierkegaard’s own ideas.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions
Tome I: Philosophy
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xix+202pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 5)

The long period from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century supplied numerous sources for Kierkegaard’s thought in any number of different fields. The present, rather heterogeneous volume covers the long period from the birth of Savonarola in 1452 through the beginning of the nineteenth century and into Kierkegaard’s own time. The Danish thinker read authors representing vastly different traditions and time periods. Moreover, he also read a diverse range of genres. His interests concerned not just philosophy, theology and literature but also drama and music. The present volume consists of three tomes that are intended to cover Kierkegaard’s sources in these different fields of thought.

Tome I is dedicated to the philosophers of the early modern period and the Enlightenment who played a role in shaping Kierkegaard’s intellectual development. He was widely read in German and French philosophy of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, making reference to the leading rationalist philosophers Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz in his journals and published works. Further, connections have also been pointed out between his thought and the writings of the French thinkers Montaigne, Pascal and Rousseau, who share with Kierkegaard a form of philosophy that is more interested in life and existence than purely conceptual analysis. Through the works of the authors explored here Kierkegaard became acquainted with some of the major philosophical discussions of the modern era such as the beginning of philosophy, the role of doubt, the status of autonomy in ethics and religion, human freedom, the problem of the theodicy found in thinkers such as Bayle and Leibniz, and the problem of the relation of philosophy to religion as it appears in the German writers Jacobi and Lessing.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions
Tome II: Theology
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xiii+268pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 5)

▪ Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions
Tome III: Literature, Drama, and Music
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xiii+292pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 5)

▪ Kierkegaard and the Roman World
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xiii+219pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 3)

While Kierkegaard's use of the Greek authors, particularly Plato and Aristotle, has attracted considerable attention over the years, his use of the Roman authors has, by contrast, remained sadly neglected. This neglect is somewhat surprising given the fact that Kierkegaard was extremely well read in Latin from his early youth when he attended the Borgerdyd School in Copenhagen. Kierkegaard's interest in the Roman authors is perhaps best evidenced by his book collection. In his private library he had a long list of Latin titles and Danish translations of the standard Roman authors in any number of different genres. His extensive and frequent use of writers such as Cicero, Horace, Terence, Seneca, Suetonius and Ovid clearly warrants placing them in the select group of his major sources.

The chapters in this volume demonstrate that Kierkegaard made use of the Roman sources in various ways. His readings from the Borgerdyd school seem to have stuck with him as an adult. He constantly refers to Roman authors, such as Livy, Nepos, and Suetonius for colourful stories and anecdotes. In addition, he avails himself of pregnant sayings or formulations from the Roman authors, when appropriate. But his use of these authors is not merely as a rhetorical source. He is also profoundly interested in the Roman philosophy of Cicero, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Similarly, just as he is fascinated by Tacitus' portrayal of the early Christians, so also he is amused by the humour of Terence and Apuleius. In short, the Roman authors serve to enrich many different aspects of Kierkegaard's authorship with respect to both content and form.
 

▪ Kierkegaard's International Reception
Tome I: Northern and Western Europe
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xviii+491pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 8)

Although Kierkegaard’s reception was initially more or less limited to Scandinavia, it has for a long time now been a highly international affair. As his writings became translated into the different languages, his reputation spread, and he became read more and more by people increasingly distant from his native Denmark. While in Scandinavia, the attack on the Church in the last years of his life became something of a cause célèbre, later many different aspects of his work became the object of serious scholarly investigation well beyond the original northern borders. As his reputation grew, he was co-opted by a number of different philosophical and religious movements in different contexts throughout the world. The three tomes of the present volume attempt to record the history of this reception according to national and linguistic categories.
 

Tome I covers the reception of Kierkegaard in Northern and Western Europe. The articles on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland can be said to trace Kierkegaard’s influence more or less in its native Nordic Protestant context. Since the authors in these countries (with the exception of Finland) were not dependent on translations or other intermediaries, this represents the earliest tradition of Kierkegaard reception. The early German translations of his works opened the door for the next, broader phase of Kierkegaard’s reception. The articles in the section on Western Europe trace his influence in the German-speaking world, Switzerland, Great Britain, the French-speaking world, and the Dutch-speaking world. All of these have their own extensive tradition of Kierkegaard reception.

Reviews
"This book continues the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre’s series, Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources. The series is the most important single collection of secondary literature on Kierkegaard to be published in recent years and it is possibly the most important ever published. The particular contribution of this book is to trace the history of Kierkegaard’s reception in Northern and Western Europe, providing an invaluable overview of the history of scholarship in those countries that were among the first and most important to receive the philosopher....As an aid to Kierkegaard research, nothing as comprehensive can be found in a single volume."
Will Williams, Religious Studies Review, vol. 35, no. 4, 2009, p. 252.

▪ Kierkegaard's International Reception
Tome II: Southern, Central and Eastern Europe
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2009
xii+340pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 8)

Although Kierkegaard’s reception was initially more or less limited to Scandinavia, it has for a long time now been a highly international affair. As his writings became translated into the different languages, his reputation spread, and he became read more and more by people increasingly distant from his native Denmark. While in Scandinavia, the attack on the Church in the last years of his life became something of a cause célèbre, later many different aspects of his work became the object of serious scholarly investigation well beyond the original northern borders. As his reputation grew, he was co-opted by a number of different philosophical and religious movements in different contexts throughout the world. The three tomes of the present volume attempt to record the history of this reception according to national and linguistic categories.
 

Tome II covers the reception of Kierkegaard in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The first set of articles, under the rubric “Southern Europe,” covers Portugal, Spain, and Italy. The reception in these countries shares a number of common features including a Catholic cultural context and a debt to the French reception. The next group covers the rather heterogeneous group of countries designated here as “Central Europe”: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. These countries are loosely bound in a cultural sense by their former affiliation with the Habsburg Empire and in a religious sense by their shared Catholicism. Finally, the Orthodox countries of “Eastern Europe” are represented with articles on Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, and Romania.
 

▪ Kierkegaard's International Reception
Tome III: The Near East, Asia, Australia and the Americas
Aldershot: Ashgate 2009
xii+342pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 8)
 

Although Kierkegaard’s reception was initially more or less limited to Scandinavia, it has for a long time now been a highly international affair. As his writings became translated into the different languages, his reputation spread, and he became read more and more by people increasingly distant from his native Denmark. While in Scandinavia, the attack on the Church in the last years of his life became something of a cause célèbre, later many different aspects of his work became the object of serious scholarly investigation well beyond the original northern borders. As his reputation grew, he was co-opted by a number of different philosophical and religious movements in different contexts throughout the world. The three tomes of the present volume attempt to record the history of this reception according to national and linguistic categories.
 

Tome III is the most geographically diverse, covering the Near East, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The section on the Near East features pioneering articles on the Kierkegaard reception in Israel, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab world. The next section dubbed “Asia and Australia” features articles on the long and rich traditions of Kierkegaard research in Japan and Korea along with the more recent ones in China and Australia. A final section is dedicated to Americas with articles on Canada, the United States, hispanophone South America, Mexico and Brazil.
 

The present anthology is dedicated to the varied work of Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860). While Søren Kierkegaard, Hans Christian Andersen and N.F.S. Grundtvig have long been recognized as leading cultural figures of the Golden Age, worthy of careful study, Heiberg’s reception has been slower, despite the fact that he was a towering figure in his own day. Although Heiberg has been studied for years in Denmark by scholars such as Henning Fenger and Morten Borup, he has not enjoyed the same reputation abroad. Recently, however, Heiberg’s work has begun to catch the eye of international scholars.

This volume is a collection of articles dedicated to the different dimensions of Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s thought. It is an interdisciplinary collection in an attempt to cover as many different aspects of Heiberg’s intellectual activity as possible. Thus, scholars from fields such as philosophy, literature, theology, philology, history, and art history are represented with original contributions.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Traditions
Aldershot: Ashgate 2008
xviii+330pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 4)
 

The present volume features articles which employ source-work research to trace Kierkegaard’s understanding and use of authors from the Patristic and Medieval traditions. It covers an extraordinarily long period of time from Cyprian and Tertullian in the second century to Thomas à Kempis in the fifteenth. Despite its heterogeneity and diversity in many aspects, this volume has a clear point of commonality in all its featured sources: Christianity.

Kierkegaard’s relation to the Patristic and Medieval traditions has been a rather neglected area of research in Kierkegaard studies. This is somewhat surprising given the fact that the young Kierkegaard learned about the Patristic authors during his studies at the University of Copenhagen and was clearly fascinated by many aspects of their writings and the conceptions of Christian religiosity found there.

With regard to the medieval tradition, in addition to any number of theological issues, medieval mysticism, medieval art, the medieval church, troubadour poetry and the monastic movement were all themes that exercised Kierkegaard during different periods of his life.

Although far from uncritical, he seems at times to idolize both the Patristic tradition and the Middle Ages as contrastive terms to the corrupt and decadent modern world with its complacent Christianity. While he clearly regards the specific forms of this Medieval appropriation of Christianity to be misguided, he is nonetheless positively disposed toward the general understanding of it as something to be lived and realized by each individual.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and his German Contemporaries
Tome I: Philosophy
Aldershot: Ashgate 2007
xviii+379pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 6)

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.

The volume have 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.”

The first tome treats the German philosophical influences on Kierkegaard. The dependence of Danish philosophy on German philosophy is beyond question. In an aricle in his Hegelian journal Perseus, the poet, playwright and critic, Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1869) laments the sad state of philosophy in Denmark, while lauding German speculative philosophy. Moreover, Kierkegaard’s lifelong enemy, the theologian Hans Lassen Martensen (1808-84) claims without exaggeration that the Danish systems of philosophy can be regarded as the “disjecta membra” of earlier German systems. All of the major German idealist philosophers made an impact in Denmark: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and most significantly, Hegel. Kierkegaard was widely read in the German philosophical literature, which he made use of in countless ways throughout his authorship.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and his German Contemporaries
Tome II: Theology
Aldershot: Ashgate 2007
xii+265pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 6)
 

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.

The volume have 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.”

The second tome of the present volume is dedicated to Kierkegaard’s main theological influences. In theology as well, 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 all 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.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and his German Contemporaries
Tome III: Literature and Aesthetics
Aldershot: Ashgate 2008
xii+322pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 6)
 

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.

The volume have 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 third tome is dedicated to the German literary sources that were significant for Kierkegaard. These articles feature primarily important authors from German classicism and Romanticism. Important forerunners for many of Kierkegaard’s literary motifs and characters can be found in the German literature of the day. His use of pseudonyms and his interest in irony were both profoundly influenced by German Romanticism. Moreover, many of Kierkegaard’s views of criticism and aesthetics were decisively shaped by the work of German authors.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and his Contemporaries:
The Culture of Golden Age Denmark
Berlin and New York: Verlag Walter de Gruyter 2003
xvi+437pp.
(Kierkegaard Studies. Monograph Series, vol. 10)

Interpreting Kierkegaard in the general context of Golden Age Denmark, this interdisciplinary anthology features articles which treat his various relations to his most famous Danish contemporaries. It aims to see them not as minor figures laboring in Kierkegaard’s shadow but rather as significant thinkers and artists in their own right. The articles illuminate both Kierkegaard’s influence on his contemporaries and their varied influences on him. By means of the analyses of these various relations, aspects of Kierkegaard’s authorship are brought into new and insightful perspectives.

The featured essays treat some of the most important figures from the time, representing the fields of philosophy, theology, literature, criticism and art. Among the figures explored are Hans Christian Andersen, N.F.S. Grundtvig, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Hans Christian Ørsted, Jakob Peter Mynster, Hans Lassen Martensen, Poul Martin Møller, Thomasine Gyllembourg, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Johanne Luise Heiberg, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Adam Oehlenschläger, Peder Ludvig Møller, and Frederik Christian Sibbern.
 

Reviews
“Kierkegaard and His Contemporaries is as a whole a most welcome contribution to the continuing effort on the part of many scholars to offer accounts of the cultural and intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard worked that will provide a surer foundation for understanding his works in terms of the norms and expectations of his time. The volume is clearly based on the assumption that a rounded, textured, and subtly nuanced contextualization will contribute significantly to the understanding of his works.”
Steven P. Sondrup, Scandinavian Studies, vol. 76, no. 4, 2004, pp. 562-566.
 

▪ The Debate Between Sartre and Merleau-Ponty
Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press 1998
xlvii+634pp.

▪ The Phenomenology of Spirit Reader: Critical and Interpretive Essays
Albany, New York: SUNY Press 1998
xv+507pp.
 

▪ The Hegel Myths and Legends
Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press 1996
xiii+384pp.
 

▪ Miscellaneous Writings by G.W.F. Hegel,
Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press 2002.
xxxiii+441pp.

G.W.F. Hegel’s so-called speculative logic was revolutionary since it attacked the basic laws of Aristotelian logic—the laws of contradiction and excluded middle—which stood as the foundation for the field for well over a millennium. He replaced these laws with the principle of mediation, which he used to redefine all the key terms of the discipline.

In the 1830s this highly controversial theory was attacked by a number of philosophers in Germany and Prussia. These debates spilled over into Denmark in the late 1830s and early 1840s and represent one of the signal episodes in the Danish Hegel reception.

The present volume includes the main texts in this controversy. The debate proper was initiated by the article “Rationalism, Supernaturalism” by the theologian Jakob Peter Mynster, who attacked Hegel’s criticism of the law of excluded middle. The poet, Johan Ludvig Heiberg and the then young theologian, Hans Lassen Martensen then came to Hegel’s defense with articles which responded to Mynster’s charges.

Other interlocutors in the discussion were the philosopher, Frederik Christian Sibbern, and the religious writer, Søren Kierkegaard. There can be no doubt that Kierkegaard’s frequent critical discussions of mediation throughout his authorship were significantly influenced by these debates.

Reviews

▪ Heiberg’s Introductory Lecture to the Logic Course
and Other Texts
Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel’s Publishing House 2007
xvii+334pp.
(Texts from Golden Age Denmark, vol. 3)

▪ Heiberg’s Speculative Logic and Other Texts
Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel’s Publishing House 2006
xviii+387pp.

(Texts from Golden Age Denmark, vol. 2)
 

This volume features Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s most extensive treatment of logic, namely, his Outline of the Philosophy of Philosophy or Speculative Logic from 1832. This work was originally used as a textbook for Heiberg’s students at the Royal Military College. It follows closely G.W.F. Hegel’s main statement on the subject, the Science of Logic. This work foreshadows a number of later Danish discussions about issues related to Hegel’s logic, for example, the question of a presuppositionless beginning, mediation, movement in logic, the validity of the law of excluded middle, and finally the relation of philosophy to religion. Heiberg’s Speculative Logic was the first of a series of Danish works and commentaries on Hegel’s Science of Logic that appeared throughout the late 1830s and 1840s.

Reviews

"An understanding of Heiberg and his circle of supporters and critics is essential to anyone seeking an understanding of the Danish Golden Age, which includes, but is not limited to, Kierkegaard and his context. Stewart has now produced English translations of a generous selection of Heiberg's most important works as well as pieces by the critics who responded to Heiberg and to whom Heiberg in turn responded. If the intellectual heart of the Danish Golden Age is to be found anywhere, it is in these texts. And as a result of Stewart's Herculean labors, these materials are now available to the scholarly world in English. Since English has become the de facto international language of much scholarship—the Latin of our age—and Danish is fated to remain a minor language, we are greatly indebted to Jon Stewart for this signal achievement. Stewart's translations will become standard texts in all respectable scholarly libraries."

Bruce H. Kirmmse

Connecticut College

“As with the first volume, the basis for the selection of material is to provide the philosophical background for the entry of Hegelianism into Denmark during the nineteenth century. Heiberg was instrumental in the introduction of Hegel, and Heiberg’s role as the cultural luminary of nineteenth-century Denmark suggests a broader Hegelian influence on the entire period. Stewart’s translations thus provide an invaluable source for understanding Denmark’s Golden Age and the cultural, historical, aesthetic, and philosophical currents circulating during the period. The immediate value of these translations is undoubtedly a better historicized understanding of Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard has too often been viewed, especially in the Anglophone world, as reacting directly to Hegel. Stewart, however, presents the much more nuanced view that Kierkegaard is responding to Heiberg’s Hegel as well as to the philosophical and religious debates surrounding the Danish reception of Hegel. Stewart’s translations of reviews and exchanges in the newspapers also provide a unique look into the culture of nineteenth-century Denmark and the dynamics of reception and exchange that took place in the newspapers. These translations offer, thus, a richer and more complex view of the Danish Golden Age than we have had up to this point…. As with the first volume, Stewart’s scrupulous attention to detail merits special attention. The introductory essay to the volume helpfully situates the significance of Heiberg’s Outline both in terms of its reception in Denmark as well as its relation to Hegel’s Science of Logic and Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. The extensive “Explanatory Notes” that conclude each of the selections provide valuable information on the background, textual history, references and allusions, and relationships between Hegel’s own thought and Heiberg’s interpretation. Throughout, Stewart also pays close attention to the terminological differences of each of the three languages and includes a list comparing the German, Danish, and accepted English equivalents of Hegelian terminology. Stewart has also provided a substantial bibliography divided into works referred to in his introduction and the explanatory notes by Danish and German authors…. In short, Stewart’s critical apparatus make these volumes into far more than simple translations. They provide a significantly comprehensive and complex view into nineteenth-century Denmark.”
Nathaniel Kramer, Scandinavian Studies, vol. 78, no. 3, 2006, pp. 372-375.
 

▪ Heiberg’s On the Significance of Philosophy for the
Present Age  and Other Texts
Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel’s Publishing House 2005
xxii+467pp.
(Texts from Golden Age Denmark, vol. 1)

Works Coedited

The Crisis of the Danish Golden Age and Its Modern Resonance
Edited by Jon Stewart and Nathaniel Kramer
Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press 2020
(Danish Golden Age Studies, vol. 12)

 
The historical circumstances of the Danish Golden Age are well known: the Napoleonic Wars, the bombardment of Copenhagen, the state bankruptcy in 1814 with the ensuing financial crisis, the Revolution of 1848, and the establishment of a parliamentary democracy in 1849. There were peasant reforms, religious upheavals, and changes in class and social structures. These events constituted the milieu in which the Golden Age was born and developed. The guiding idea of the present volume is that these different crises served not just as a backdrop or as obstacles but rather as catalysts for the flowering of culture in the Golden Age.

Despite their many debates and polemics among themselves, the leading figures of Golden Age Denmark were generally in agreement about the fact that their age was in a state of crisis. The dramatic events spilled over into the various cultural spheres and shaped them in different ways. The articles in this volume trace the different crises as they appear in literature, criticism, religion, philosophy, politics and the social sciences. The contributing authors draw compelling parallels between the perceived crisis of the Golden Age and the acute issues of our own day. The articles collected here thus together show the continuing relevance of the Golden Age for readers of the twenty-first century.

▪ The Auction Catalogue of Kierkegaard's Library
ed. by Katalin Nun, Gerhard Schreiber and Jon Stewart
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xvii+170pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 20)

For years The Auction Catalogue of Kierkegaard’s library has been an invaluable resource for scholars interested in source-work studies. However, the inaccurate and incomplete bibliographical information contained in the catalogue have been impediments to research.

This new and improved edition of The Auction Catalogue will differ from the previous ones in a number of significant respects. Its primary goal is to systematically correct the erroneous bibliographical information contained in the previous editions. An attempt will be made to compare the information given in the catalogue with that given on the title pages of the various books.

▪ Kierkegaard's Pseudonyms
ed. by Katalin Nun and Jon Stewart
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xiii+310pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 17)

One of the elements that many readers admire in Kierkegaard’s skill as a writer consists in his ability to create different voices and perspectives in his works. Instead of unilaterally presenting clear-cut doctrines and theses, he confronts the reader with different personalities and figures who all espouse different views. One important aspect of this play of perspectives is Kierkegaard’s controversial use of pseudonyms.

The present volume is dedicated to exploring the different pseudonyms and authorial voices in Kierkegaard’s authorship. The working assumption is that there is something unique and special about each pseudonym. The articles featured here try to explore each pseudonymous author as a kind of literary figure and to explain what kind of a person is at issue in each of the pseudonymous works. The hope is that by taking seriously each of these figures as individuals, we will be able to gain new insights into the texts which they are ostensibly responsible for.

▪ Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs
ed. by Katalin Nun and Jon Stewart

Tome I: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xix+296pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 16)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs
ed. by Katalin Nun and Jon Stewart

Tome II: Gulliver to Zerlina

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xv+267pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 16)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome VI: Salvation to Writing

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xvii+277pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

Kierkegaard’s Concepts is a comprehensive, multi-volume survey of the key concepts and categories that inform Kierkegaard’s writings. Each article is a substantial, original piece of scholarship, which discusses the etymology and lexical meaning of the relevant Danish term, traces the development of the concept over the course of the authorship, and explains how it functions in the wider context of Kierkegaard’s thought. Concepts have been selected on the basis of their importance for Kierkegaard’s contributions to philosophy, theology, the social sciences, literature and aesthetics, thereby making this volume an ideal reference work for students and scholars in a wide range of disciplines.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome V: Objectivity to Sacrifice
Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2015
xvii+280pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome IV: Individual to Novel

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2014
xvii+252pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome III: Envy to Incognito

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2014
xvii+236pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome II: Classicism to Enthusiasm

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2014
xvii+241pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard's Concepts
ed. by Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald and Jon Stewart
Tome I: Absolute to Church

Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate 2013
xxi+214pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 15)

While Kierkegaard is perhaps known best as a religious thinker and philosopher, there is an unmistakable literary element in his writings. He often explains complex concepts and ideas by using literary figures and motifs that he could assume his readers would have some familiarity with. This dimension of his thought has served to make his writings far more popular than those of other philosophers and theologians, but at the same time it has made their interpretation more complex. Kierkegaard readers are generally aware of his interest in figures such as Faust or the Wandering Jew, but they rarely have a full appreciation of the vast extent of his use of characters from different literary periods and traditions. The present volume is dedicated to the treatment of the variety of literary figures and motifs used by Kierkegaard.

▪ Kierkegaard and the Bible
ed. by Lee C. Barrett and Jon Stewart
Tome I: The Old Testament
Aldershot: Ashgate 2010
xix+321pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 1)

________________________

▪ Kierkegaard and the Bible
ed. by Lee C. Barrett and Jon Stewart
Tome II: The New Testament
Aldershot: Ashgate 2010
xix+321pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 1)
 

As with the Old Testament, Kierkegaard was aware of new developments in New Testament scholarship, and troubled by them. Because these scholarly projects generated alternative understandings of the significance of Jesus, they impinged directly on his own work. It was crucial for Kierkegaard that Jesus is presented as both the enactment of God’s reconciliation with humanity and as the prototype for humanity to emulate. Consequently, Kierkegaard had to struggle with the proper way to persuasively explicate the significance of Jesus in a situation of decreasing academic consensus about Jesus. He also had to contend with contested interpretations of James and Paul, two biblical authors vital for his work. As a result, Kierkegaard ruminated about the proper way to appropriate the New Testament and used material from it carefully and deliberately. The authors in the present New Testament tome seek to clarify different dimensions of Kierkegaard’s interpretive theory and practice as he sought to avoid the twin pitfalls of academic skepticism and passionless biblical traditionalism.

Reviews

“Lee C. Barrett and Jon Stewart have provided for the international community of Kierkegaard scholars a much needed work on Kierkegaard and the Bible, Vol. I of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Research, which is under the editorship of Stewart….The contributors to this volume come from a wide geographical range of countries and various kinds of institutions….Each author in the volume has written with keenness of mind and heart about Kierkegaard and his approach to the Bible. The book makes a very significant contribution to Kierkegaard and biblical scholarship. May it receive the kind of attention in the scholarly community it so richly deserves.”
Brian C. Barlow, Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, no. 58, November 2011, pp. 8-9.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and the Greek World
ed. by Jon Stewart and Katalin Nun
Tome I: Socrates and Plato
Aldershot: Ashgate 2010
xix+321pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 2)
 

The present volume features articles that employ source-work research to trace Kierkegaard’s understanding and use of authors from the Greek tradition. The articles treat a series of figures of varying importance in Kierkegaard’s authorship, ranging from early Greek poets to late Classical philosophical schools. In general it can be said that the Greeks collectively constitute one of the single most important bodies of sources for Kierkegaard’s thought. He studied Greek from an early age and was profoundly inspired by what might be called the Greek spirit. Although he is generally considered a Christian thinker, he was nonetheless consistently drawn back to the Greeks for ideas and impulses on any number of topics. He frequently contrasts ancient Greek philosophy, with its emphasis on the lived experience of the individual in daily life, with the abstract German philosophy that was in vogue during his own time. It has been argued that he modeled his work on that of the ancient Greek thinkers specifically in order to contrast his own activity with that of his contemporaries.

This volume has been organized so as to reflect the full spectrum of Kierkegaard’s Greek sources. Tome I is dedicated to the different pictures of Socrates. It contains a series of articles on Plato, who is clearly his main Greek source in general. In addition, a second section features articles on Xenophon and Aristophanes, the other ancient sources of Socrates discussed by Kierkegaard. A third section contains articles that treat the reception of the figure of Socrates in the Germanophone world and in Denmark respectively.

Reviews

“This exciting collection of essays examines Kierkegaard’s engagement with, and debt to Greek philosophy….Kierkegaard was shaped by Socrates from the beginning, and continually looked to Socrates (primarily as portrayed by Plato) as a role model and an inspiration, as well as for specific concepts, themes and ideas; Kierkegaard without Socrates is simply inconceivable, and yet it seems as if this relationship is practically ignored. These essays begin to redress this imbalance in Kierkegaard scholarship, by examining Kierkegaard’s relationship with Socrates, the sources he used to develop his view of Socrates, and what he did with his Socrates once he had him….In addition to the essays, the book contains cumulative bibliographies of the relevant writings owned by Kierkegaard, as well as modern secondary literature referenced by the essayists themselves. This book is certain to be useful to anyone doing research on Kierkegaard and Socrates; but more importantly, the essays explore concepts that Kierkegaard took from Plato and Socrates and made his own, so anyone wishing to understand Kierkegaard better will profit from this book regardless of prior background in the Greeks.”
Glenn Kirkconnell, Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter, no. 58, November 2011, pp. 10-11.
 

▪ Kierkegaard and the Greek World
ed. by Jon Stewart and Katalin Nun
Tome II: Aristotle and Other Greek Authors
Aldershot: Ashgate 2010
xv+335pp.
(Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, vol. 2)
 

▪ Tänkarens mångfald. Nutida perspektiv på Søren Kierkegaard,
ed. by Lone Koldtoft, Jon Stewart and Jan Holmgaard,
Göteborg and Stockholm: Makadam Förlag 2005.
327pp.
 

▪ Kierkegaard und Schelling. Freiheit, Angst und Wirklichkeit
ed. by Jochem Hennigfeld and Jon Stewart
Berlin and New York: Verlag Walter de Gruyter 2003
viii+262pp.
(Kierkegaard Studies. Monograph Series, vol. 8)

▪ Kierkegaard Revisited: Proceedings from the Conference “Kierkegaard and the Meaning of Meaning It”
ed. by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Stewart
Berlin and New York: Verlag Walter de Gruyter 1997
vii+508pp.
(Kierkegaard Studies. Monograph Series, vol. 1)

Not since the jubilee conference in 1955, commemorating the hundred year anniversary of Kierkegaard’s death, had Copenhagen been host to a major international Kierkegaard conference. In May of 1996 Kierkegaard scholars from around the world converged on Copenhagen to participate in the conference, “Kierkegaard and the Meaning of Meaning It.” This first volume of the Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series, edited by The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, contains the proceedings of this landmark event in Kierkegaard research.
 

United in their interest in Kierkegaard, the contributors to the collection come from a wide range of different disciples and academic backgrounds. The conference served the function of bringing into dialogue the plethora of different interpretative approaches and methodologies represented in contemporary Kierkegaard research. By so doing, the conference marked a new course for future Kierkegaard research and demonstrated  something of its vast potential.