Kierkegaard, Religion, and Existence

Professor Avi Sagi teaches general and Jewish philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Bar Ilan University, Israel. He is the founder and director of a graduate program of Hermeneutic and Cultural studies at the university. He is also a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Sagi has published many books and articles in several areas: continental philosophy, philosophy of religion and ethics, current Jewish philosophy, philosophy and sociology of Jewish law. Among his books: Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd; Religion and Morality (with Daniel Statman); Judaism: Between Religion and Morality; Conversion and Jewish Identity (with Zvi Zohar); “Elu va-Elu”: A Study on the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse

”very sound …Kierkegaard’s philosophy, he argues convincingly, sways between the hope of overcoming alienation (despair, anxiety, self-denial) by creating unity and harmony (marriage, repetition, faith), and readopting the experience of alienation as the ultimate meaning of existence, as an unbridgeable gap.” in: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 67/2005

• ForewordPrefaceIntroductionPART I: FROM EXISTENCE TO RELIGIONONEFirst Steps1. The Voyage To The Self2. The Development of the Existential Element in Kierkegaard's Thought3. “What God Wills That I Shall DoTWOThe Meaning of Personal Alienation1. The Experience of Alienation2. Alienation and Marriage THREEFrom Existence to Religion1. Failure as a Turning Point2. Religion as Escape?3. Religion as the New Metaphysical Horizon4. From Existence to ReligionFOURInterlude: The Literary Medium and theRelationship between Existence and Religion1. Introduction2. Kierkegaard Living and the Problem of Literary Philosophical Writing3. The Pseudonymous Writing4. The Literary Failure and the Implications of a Growing Alienation: The Turn to Religion5. Methodological ConclusionsFIVEFaith as a Contest with Alienation1. Immediacy: Reflection and Unity2. The Dialectic of Faith: Unity and Contradiction3. The Ontological Meaning of Faith4. Faith and AlienationSIXThe Voyage toward Fate1. Models of Self-Affirmation2. Endorsing the Biography: Accepting Destiny3. Freedom and Fate4.Fate and Destiny: The Voyage toward FatePART II: FROM RELIGION TO EXISTENCESEVENExistence or Religion1. The Problem2. Christianity and Existence3. Obedience and ExistenceEIGHTFrom Religion to Existence: The Theological Foundation1.The Perception of God2.God and the Relationship with God3. Decoding God’s Will: “What God Wills That I Shall Do?”4. The Perception of God and the Religious Demand: A Reconsideration5. From Religion to Existence: Religious LifeNINEAffirming and Denying the World: The Problematic1. Introductory Remarks: On “Double Reading”2. The Problematic of Affirming and Denying the WorldTENReligious and Existence in Kierkegaard’s Thought: A SummaryWorks Cited1. Works by Kierkegaard (with Abbreviations Used in This Book)2. Secondary SourcesAbout the AuthorIndex