Between Irony And Witness: Kierkegaard’s Poetics of Faith, Hope, And Love

This book offers a novel interpretation of the relationship between religious concern and artistic creativity in the works of the self-styled ＂Christian poet and thinker＂ S ren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Although Kierkegaard articulated neither a ＂Christology＂ in the sense that the term has for systematic theology, nor a generic ＂theory of poetry＂ in the sense that phrase has for literary criticism, this study makes the case that Kierkegaard’s writings nevertheless do advance a ＂Christomorphic poetics,＂ a tertium quid that resists conventional distinctions between theology and literature. Arguing that Kierkegaard’s poetics takes shape in conversation with many of the major themes of early German Romanticism (irony, imaginative creativity, paradox, the relativization of imitation [mimesis], and erotic love), this book offers a fresh appreciation of the depth of Kierkegaard’s engagement with Romanticism, and of the contours of his alternative to that literary movement.

Joel Rasmussen is a teaching fellow in religion at Harvard University.