1st Edition
Kierkegaard, Aesthetics, and Selfhood The Art of Subjectivity
In the digital world, Kierkegaard's thought is valuable in thinking about aesthetics as a component of human development, both including but moving beyond the religious context as its primary center of meaning. Seeing human formation as interrelated with aesthetics makes art a vital dimension of human existence. Contributing to the debate about Kierkegaard's conception of the aesthetic, Kierkegaard, Aesthetics, and Selfhood argues that Kierkegaard's primary concern is to provocatively explore how a self becomes Christian, with aesthetics being a vital dimension for such self-formation. At a broader level, Peder Jothen also focuses on the role, authority, and meaning of aesthetic expression within religious thought generally and Christianity in particular.
Introduction
1 Kierkegaard’s Ambiguous Aesthetics
2 Becoming Christian
3 Christ and the Art of Subjective Becoming
4 Mimesis, Aesthetics, and Christian Becoming
5 Becoming amidst the Existence Stages
6 Becoming and Art
Postscript
Biography
Peder Jothen is Assistant Professor, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, USA.
’The works of Søren Kierkegaard have long provoked and perplexed readers, and nowhere more than in the relation between his accounts of art, aesthetics, and subjectivity. In this insightful and readable book, Peder Jothen shows how for Kierkegaard coming to exist as a self is nothing other than the art of subjectivity. This work should be widely read by anyone interested in Kierkegaard’s writings.’ William Schweiker, University of Chicago, USA ’Criticizing common views that Kierkegaard rejects both the aesthetic and the arts, Peder Jothen portrays beautifully Kierkegaard’s aesthetically rich concept of selfhood, how the imagination, will, and passion play central roles in various ways of being in the art of subjectivity, particularly in the unexpected yet profound aesthetic dimensions of Christian existence. Readers will benefit too from Jothen’s stimulating reflections on the continuing relevance of Kierkegaard’s critical yet constructive understanding of the role of the arts for Christian faith in the contemporary world.’ David J. Gouwens, Brite Divinity School, USA 'In Jothen we see a gentler, warmer, and richer Kierkegaard than the spiritual rigorism which is the normal lens through which Kierkegaard is interpreted.' Lutheran Quarterly
