Book contents
- Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kierkegaard’s Place of Rest
- Chapter 2 Publishing The Sickness unto Death
- Chapter 3 Kierkegaard on the Self and the Modern Debate on Selfhood
- Chapter 4 From Here to Eternity
- Chapter 5 Kierkegaard’s Metaphysics of the Self
- Chapter 6 The Experience of Possibility (and of Its Absence)
- Chapter 7 Sin, Despair, and the Self
- Chapter 8 Sin and Virtues
- Chapter 9 Despair as Sin
- Chapter 10 Fastening the End and Knotting the Thread
- Chapter 11 Despair the Disease and Faith the Therapeutic Cure
- Chapter 12 The Long Journey to Oneself
- Chapter 13 Accountability to God in The Sickness unto Death
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Chapter 7 - Sin, Despair, and the Self
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 August 2022
- Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kierkegaard’s Place of Rest
- Chapter 2 Publishing The Sickness unto Death
- Chapter 3 Kierkegaard on the Self and the Modern Debate on Selfhood
- Chapter 4 From Here to Eternity
- Chapter 5 Kierkegaard’s Metaphysics of the Self
- Chapter 6 The Experience of Possibility (and of Its Absence)
- Chapter 7 Sin, Despair, and the Self
- Chapter 8 Sin and Virtues
- Chapter 9 Despair as Sin
- Chapter 10 Fastening the End and Knotting the Thread
- Chapter 11 Despair the Disease and Faith the Therapeutic Cure
- Chapter 12 The Long Journey to Oneself
- Chapter 13 Accountability to God in The Sickness unto Death
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Summary
This chapter first offers an overview of key concepts in The Sickness unto Death, such as human nature, self, despair, and wholeheartedness. It then discusses the relation between Part One and Part Two of The Sickness unto Death, offering a comparison of different types of despair (or doublemindedness). In this connection, it discusses the relations between faith and reason, and philosophy and theology. It is argued that the relatively neglected Part Two of The Sickness unto Death, entitled “Despair is Sin,” reinterprets the problem of despair from Part One by introducing the Christian concept of sin. In Part Two, sin represents an unwillingness to be oneself before God that involves self-deception. Overcoming despair, on the other hand, requires an unconditional will to be oneself before God. However, the latter does not accept everything as it is but rather hopes against hope to reconcile ideals with reality. For Kierkegaard, this hope is interconnected with Christian faith, charity, and moral commitment. Indeed, overcoming despair by forming a wholehearted or coherent self represents a fundamental moral and religious task according to Kierkegaard.
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- Information
- Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto DeathA Critical Guide, pp. 110 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022