Parables of Kierkegaard

"[D]iscover a world bursting with both humor and pathos, a world in which despair and hope, doubt and belief, God and self collide in passionate encounter."--Religious Studies Review

• Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 The Human Condition 43 THE ABSURD 45 VACILLATION 50 BEGINNING AND RISKING 53 Stages in Becoming Oneself 57 AESTHETIC EXISTENCE 59 ETHICAL EXISTENCE 63 RELIGIOUS EXISTENCE 69 Inwardness 75 INCONGRUITIES 77 SUFFERING 80 FINDING AND LOSING ONESELF 84 DEATH 88 Christianity 93 BECOMING A CHRISTIAN 95 INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 99 OFFENSE AND PARADOX 103 ETERNAL HAPPINESS IN TIME 107 Theology 111 GOD 113 EXPLAINING HEGEL TO GOD 117 THE HAZARDS OF REGNANT THEOLOGY 120 IMMORTALITY 124 "Christendom" 127 SIN 129 PRAYER 134 THE STATUS OF CHRISTIANITY WITHIN MODERNITY 138 THE BIBLE 143 THE CLERGY 147 REPENTANCE 154 DENMARK 158 Relationships 161 THE HAZARDS OF LOVE 163 LOVE AND DUTY 167 MARRIAGE AND THE SINGLE STATE 170 THE VULNERABILITY OF THE MALE 174 THE STRENGTH OF WOMAN 179 CHILDREN AND YOUTH 186 Truth and Communication 191 LITERARY AND ARTISTIC CRITICISM 193 COMEDY AND CONTRADICTION 197 LAUGHTER AS THE TEST OF TRUTH 203 THE VOCATION OF AUTHORSHIP 208 The Culture of Modernity 217 THE PRESENT AGE 219 OBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE 222 MEDICINE 226 AUTHORITY AND ESTABLISHMENT 229 WORLD HISTORY 232 Sociological and Cultural Analysis 235 CHEAP TALK ON A GRAND SCALE 237 JOURNALISM AND THE PRESS 241 PUBLIC OPINION AND THE CROWD 248 ADVERTISING AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT 251 POLITICS, REVOLUTION, AND REFORM 254 EQUALITY 261 ECONOMICS 267 Psychological Analysis 271 BEHAVIOR CHANGE 273 ANXIETY, GUILT, AND BOREDOM 277 Contradictions within Academia 283 EDUCATION AND THE UNIVERSITIES 285 PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS 290 PURE THOUGHT 296 DOUBT 300 SPECULATION AND IDEALISM 305 SOCRATES 308 TEACHING 313 Appendix: How Comic Episodes Correlate with the Stages 317 Bibliography 323 Index 329