Abstract
In this latest contribution to Eerdmans’ recent ‘Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker’ series, George Connell constructively teases out the relevance of Kierkegaard’s thought to the contemporary situation of religious diversity. The book expounds upon the ‘aporetic’ character of Kierkegaard’s writings, which Connell describes as ‘a sustained and multifaceted struggle to hold on to both universal and particular dimensions of human existence and divine revelation’ (p. 4). In this regard, Connell suggests that Kierkegaard compellingly offers ‘a vision of counterpoised particularity and universality’ that dialectically affirms both by faithfully maintaining religious distinctions while also ‘foster[ing] peaceful and appreciative coexistence’ (pp. 11–12).
This in mind, chapter one seeks to recount Kierkegaard’s actual statements about Christianity’s relationship to ’religious Others’ (i.e., ‘pagans and Jews’) within the confines of his own socio-historical context (pp. 26–66). Here, Connell advances the conversation by suggesting a more nuanced reading of Kierkegaard than earlier interpreters—a reading that moves beyond Kierkegaard’s ‘Undeniably … lamentable’ anti-Semitism (p. 65) towards the recognition of a deeper underlying polemic against the pervasive lukewarm cultural Christianity that surrounded him (pp. 48, 51, 65–6). This move effectively allows Connell to look deeper into Kierkegaard’s overall nexus of thought (rather than simply at his rhetoric) for its constructive potential in today’s more pluralistic milieu.
Chapters two through five are then creatively patterned after Philip Quinn’s categorising of the ‘four prominent philosophical challenges posed by religious diversity’, specifically the ‘familiar problems’ of ‘epistemological conflict’ (chap. 2), and ‘religious intolerance’ (ch. 3), and the ‘novel opportunities’ of reassessing definitions of religion (ch. 4) and of ‘constructive comparisons’ (ch. 5) (p. 22). As such, chapter two draws upon Alan Race’s typology of exclusivism, pluralism, and inclusivism, respectively correlating these three types to the three Kierkegaardian moods of seriousness, irony, and humour (pp. 67–105). Along such lines, Connell sees inclusivism/humour as being most faithful to Kierkegaard’s dialecticism (pp. 78, 105), describing such as a ‘teleological suspension’ (after Merold Westphal) in chapter four (pp. 126–51). Meanwhile, chapter three provides a fascinating reinterpretation of Kierkegaard’s reimagining of the Akedah (Gen. 22) with the help of two modern Danish films that were inspired by Kierkegaard (Carl Dreyer’s Ordet and Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves) (pp. 106–25), while chapter five insightfully places Kierkegaard in comparative dialogue with Confucius about religion and ethics (pp. 152–75).
Insofar as Kierkegaard is not typically perceived as a resource when it comes to the paradox of religious diversity, Connell’s book is an overwhelming achievement that not only opens new vistas for Kierkegaard scholarship, but also further invigorates the conversation surrounding a (Christian) theology of religions.