Robert C. Roberts - Recovering Christian Character: The Psychological Wisdom of Søren Kierkegaard

KIERKEGAARD AS A CHRISTIAN THINKER

C. S TEPHEN E VANS AND P AUL M ARTENS

General Editors

The K IERKEGAARD AS A C HRISTIAN T HINKER series seeks to promote and enrich an understanding of Sren Kierkegaard as a Christian thinker who, despite his many critiques of Christendom, self-consciously worked within the Christian tradition and in the service of Christianity. Volumes in the series may approach Kierkegaards relationship to Christianity historically or topically, philosophically or theologically. Some will attempt to illuminate Kierkegaards thought by examining his works through the lens of Christian faith; others will use Kierkegaards Christian insights to address contemporary problems and competing non-Christian perspectives.

That Sren Kierkegaard profoundly influenced nineteenth- and twentieth-century theology and philosophy is not in doubt. The direction, extent, and value of his influence, however, have always been hotly contested. For example, in the early decades of the twentieth century, German theologians Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Emil Brunner all acknowledged deep debts to Kierkegaard, debts that would echo through the theological debates of the entire century. In spite of this, by the middle of the twentieth century, Kierkegaard was also hailed (or cursed) as a father of existentialism and nihilism because of his appropriation by Heidegger, Sartre, and others. At the same time, however, he was beginning to become the reveille for a return to true Christianity in North America through the translating efforts of Walter Lowrie and David Swenson. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Kierkegaards legacy is once again being seriously and rigorously debated.

While acknowledging and affirming the postmodern appreciation of elements of Kierkegaards thought (such as irony, indirect communication, and pseudonymity), this series aims to engage Kierkegaard as a Christian thinker who self-consciously worked as a Christian in the service of Christianity. And, as the current discussion crosses the traditional boundaries of philosophy and theology, this series will necessarily do the same. What these volumes all share, however, is the task of articulating Kierkegaards continuities with, challenges to, and resources for Christianity today. It is our hope that, in this way, this series will deepen and enrich the manifold contemporary debates concerning Kierkegaard and his legacy.

KIERKEGAARD AS A CHRISTIAN THINKER

Eros and Self-Emptying: The Intersections of Augustine and Kierkegaard

Lee C. Barrett

Kierkegaard and the Paradox of Religious Diversity

George B. Connell

Kierkegaard and Spirituality

C. Stephen Evans

Recovering Christian Character

Robert C. Roberts

Kierkegaards Concept of Faith

Merold Westphal

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2022 Robert C. Roberts

All rights reserved

Published 2022

Printed in the United States of America

28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN 978-0-8028-7316-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Roberts, Robert Campbell, 1942 author.

Title: Recovering Christian character: the psychological wisdom of Sren Kierkegaard / Robert C. Roberts.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, [2022] | Series: Kierkegaard as a Christian thinker | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: A call to Christian discipleship that draws on the works of Sren Kierkegaard to illustrate how prevailing notions of Christianity are often at odds with genuine Christian characterProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021038190 | ISBN 9780802873163

Subjects: LCSH: Kierkegaard, Sren, 18131855. | CharacterReligious aspectsChristianity. | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Discipleship | PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Classification: LCC BX4827.K5 R63 2022 | DDC 198/.9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021038190

Unless otherwise noted, quotations from Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

In memory of Paul Leroy Holmer, who taught me the way of reading Kierkegaard that this book evinces

Several recent books have attempted to interpret Kierkegaard as a thinker who has something to teach us about the virtues. Some other writers have questioned whether Kierkegaard should be considered a virtue ethicist at all, chiefly because of a well-known quote from The Sickness unto Death, where the Kierkegaardian pseudonym Anti-Climacus affirms that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith. In Recovering Christian Character Robert Roberts offers a convincing way to resolve this argument by first giving us a clear picture of Kierkegaards view of the human self. This portrait of a Christian psychology then serves as a basis for Roberts to explore Kierkegaards account of what it means to become a person who possesses a genuinely Christian character.

I can think of no one better qualified than Roberts to tackle these issues. He brings to the task a lifetime of reading Kierkegaards works, both for scholarly purposes and for personal edification, as well as a formidable and highly respected body of work on moral psychology, especially emotions, and the virtues.

It turns out that Christian character as Kierkegaard understands it requires the development of a number of excellent qualities, including, as one might expect, faith, hope, and love, often described by other Christian writers as the theological or infused virtues. Roberts shows us that Kierkegaards account of these central Christian qualities is deep and penetrating. Surprisingly, Roberts shows that Kierkegaard, who is often disparaged as the melancholy Dane, sees these Christian qualities as accompanied by a kind of deep joy that can be had even in the midst of suffering. Faith, hope, and love in turn undergird a number of other excellences that are usually described as virtues: patience, gratitude, generosity, and both pride and humility, which, understood rightly, turn out to be virtues on Kierkegaards view. (Though other qualities called by those names turn out to be vices.)

So far as I can see, the only grounds for questioning whether all these qualities deserve the label of virtues is that, as Kierkegaard understands them, they seem quite different in important ways from those described in the philosophical literature as Aristotelian virtues. Even if this is so, why should Aristotles account of the virtues be the only one deserving of the name? It seems plausible that there are many different accounts of human excellences: Confucian virtues, Nietzschean virtues, Stoic virtues, and Buddhist virtues, to name just a few. Roberts uses Kierkegaards writings to give us a finely delineated account of some important virtues, qualities that indeed have a distinctively Christian character. Christian virtues, unlike Aristotelian virtues, turn out to be ones that humans cannot acquire without divine assistance. However, Kierkegaard is not the only Christian thinker who sees things this way. Even Thomas Aquinas, who tries to follow Aristotle when he can, recognizes that the infused virtues are impossible apart from Gods actions. Furthermore, Aquinas also says that when faith, hope, and love are received, all the other virtues are transformed as well. Kierkegaards account of the virtues, as Roberts explains them, can, like that of Aquinas, be compared in illuminating ways with Aristotles, with interesting similarities as well as differences.