Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Message and the Messenger
Chapter 2 Being One Self
Chapter 3 The Eternal in a Twinkling
Chapter 4 Communing with God
Chapter 5 Self, Solitude, and Society
Chapter 6 Comparisons

Bibliography

Promotional Information

Søren Kierkegaard is typically presented as hiding behind pseudonyms or writing himself into his works. Yet here, Alastair Hannay shows him to be an outsider presciently aware of the problems surrounding personal identity and authenticity that are so relevant today.

About the Author

Alastair Hannay is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oslo. He has published numerous articles and books on Kierkegaard, including Kiekegaard: A Biography (2001) and Kierkegaard and Philosophy: Selected Essays (2003).

Reviews

Alastair Hannay has written another brilliant and exemplary study. No one knows the corpus better nor approaches it with such sustained imaginative and subtle flair.
*Edward F. Mooney, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Philosophy, Syracuse University, USA*

Alastair Hannay is amongst the most respected Kierkegaard translators and interpreters and his latest book takes us deep into the inner drama of Kierkegaard’s notion of selfhood and of the ‘inner distress’ that drove his view that human beings’ showed an infinite need of God. But Hannay write as more than an expositor: he also shows how and why this difficult and paradoxical philosophy can help nurture a sense of self that is not dependent on the identity politics of our time and that provides a defence against the anger on which such politics feeds and that it too often amplifies.
*George Pattison, Professor of Theology and Modern European Thought, University of Glasgow, Scotland*

A masterful translator and one of the most perspicacious interpreters of Kierkegaard, Alastair Hannay seamlessly weaves together Kierkegaard’s life and works. His book delivers a clear, concise, and convincing response to long-standing questions about Kierkegaard’s understanding of the self. Hannay also gives Kierkegaard a voice at the table of current debates about identity politics and secularization.
*Gordon Marino, Professor of Philosophy, Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, USA*