Synopses & Reviews
"... the most important contribution to Kierkegaard studies to be published in English in recent years.... Not only is it a fascinating, surprising, and perceptive study of Kierkegaard within his time and world, Kirmmse has produced a research resource, a reference work, that is simply without parallel or equal." --Michael Plekon
"It is a rare work of philosophy that not only clarifies its subject but also places it within an intellectual and historical context. In his study of 19th-century Danish philosopher Kierkegaard, Kirmmse accomplishes both, setting a standard... " --Library Journal
"... an outstanding contribution to Kierkegaard research... The book is intellectual history of the highest calibre." --So[slash]ren Kierkegaard Newsletter
"This excellent book is recommended for all collections on Kierkegaard... For all readers." --Choice
"This richly researched and readable book supplies an important contribution to the widespread reappropriation of Kierkegaard's thought currently taking place."--Theology Today
"This book is a tour de force in intellectual history." --Review of Metaphysics
"Kirmmse's book is a major work of scholarship that confers on Kierkegaard's social and intellectual universe a depth and a richness of detail that will permanently alter the familiar stereotypes about Kierkegaard's isolation from his fellow Danes and his supposedly fanatical campaign against philistine Denmark and its corrupt state church." --American Historical Review
Against the background of Denmark's evolution from a mercantile economy to a broad-based agricultural economy, Kirmmse reinterprets Kierkegaard's thought as a reaction to the tensions within his society.
Synopsis
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 Denmarkand#8217;s greatest luminaries, such Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Hans Lassen Martensen and Sand#248;ren 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. Heibergand#8217;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.
Synopsis
The Danish Golden Age of the first half of the nineteenth century endured in the midst of a number of different kinds of crisisand#151;political, economic, and cultural. The many changes of the period made it a dynamic time, one in which artists, poets, philosophers, and religious thinkers were constantly reassessing their place in society. This book traces the different aspects of the cultural crisis of the period through a series of case studies of key figures, including Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Hans Lassen Matensen, and Sand#248;ren Kierkegaard. Far from just a historical analysis, however, the book shows that many of the key questions that Danish society wrestled with during the Golden Age remain strikingly familiar today.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [525]-537) and index.
About the Author
Jon Stewartand#160;is associate research professor at the Sandoslash;ren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Kierkegaard's Denmark
Section I: Political, Economic, and Social Trends
1. Historical Background and the Rise of the Peasantry to 1820
2. Religious Currents until 1820
3. The Peasant Awakenings of the 1820's and After
4. The Rise of Liberalism in the 1830's
5. The Peasant Movement to the Late 1840's
6. The National Question in Southern Jutland
7. 1848 and After
Section II: Politics and Religion in "Golden Age" Culture
8. The Social Orientation and Intellectual Origins of the Golden Age
9. "The Rare Few": Adam Oehlenschlager and the First Generation of the Golden Age
10. Piety and Good Taste: J.P. Mynster's Religion and Politics
11. Johan Ludvig Heiberg
12. H.L. Martensen
13. N.F.S. Grundtvig and History's Flock: National Popular Culture in the Service of Religion
14. H.N. Clausen and Orla Lehmann: The Liberal Alternative to the Golden Age Mainstream
15. The Golden Age and Its Alternatives
Part Two: Denmark's Kierkegaard
16. Soren Kierkegaard: Life and Literary Career to February 1846
17. A Literary Review
18. Edifying Discourses in Various Spirtis
19. Works of Love
20. The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress
21. Two Minor Ethico-Religious Essays
22. Christian Discourses
23. The Sickness Unto Death
24. Training in Christianity
25. Autobiographical Pieces, "Two Notes" Concerning "the Individual," and the "Open Letter" to Dr. Rudelbach
26. Two Series of Discources "Recommended to the Present Age"
27. The Attack on Christendom
Epilogue: The Response to the Attack on Christendom
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Illustrations follow page 247