RT Article
T1 A Hermeneutic for and from Reading Kierkegaard’s For Self-Examination
JF Religions
VO 11
IS 10
A1 Dickman, Nathan Eric
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1736642286
AB This essay provides a close reading of Kierkegaard’s later signed text, For Self-Examination. While many of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous texts often are selected for their philosophically explicit engagements with Hegelian philosophy, I use Hegel’s dialectic of lordship and bondage to draw out how Kierkegaard circumvents it in this one. I first provide historical context, noting how Kierkegaard turned to earnest works after his public humiliation in the Copenhagen newspaper, undermining his ability to deploy irony effectively. Second, I briefly develop Hegel’s lordship and bondage dialectic as a model for how selfhood is constituted through work and labor. Third, I dwell with a close reading of Kierkegaard’s book both in its composition and in its interpretation, bringing out how it donates grace rather than work (à la Hegel) to the reader’s attempt at self-realization. I conclude by noting one challenge to Kierkegaard’s ideal of addressing the “single individual” from the perspective of intersectional analysis.
K1 Hegel
K1 Kierkegaard
K1 Lutheranism
K1 lordship and bondage dialectic
K1 self-examination
K1 Subjectivity
DO 10.3390/rel11100491