Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death: A Critical Guide

Description

The Sickness unto Death (1849) is commonly regarded as one of Kierkegaard's most important works - but also as one of his most difficult texts to understand. It is a meditation on Christian existentialist themes including sin, despair, religious faith and its redemptive power, and the relation and difference between physical and spiritual death. This volume of new essays guides readers through the philosophical and theological significance of the work, while clarifying the complicated ideas that Kierkegaard develops. Some of the essays focus closely on particular themes, others attempt to elucidate the text as a whole, and yet others examine it in relation to other philosophical views. Bringing together these diverse approaches, the volume offers a comprehensive understanding of this pivotal work. It will be of interest to those studying Kierkegaard as well as existentialism, religious philosophy, and moral psychology.

Jeffrey Hanson is Senior Philosopher in the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. He is the author of Kierkegaard and the Life of Faith: The Aesthetic, the Ethical, and the Religious in 'Fear and Trembling' (2017) and the editor of Kierkegaard as Phenomenologist: An Experiment (2010). Sharon Krishek is Lecturer in Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of Kierkegaard on Faith and Love (Cambridge, 2009), Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Love (in Hebrew, 2011) and Lovers in Essence: A Kierkegaardian Defense of Romantic Love (2022).