Other books on Kierkegaard by the authorEvans, C. Stephen. Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self: Collected Essays. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006. A collection of “greatest hits,” articles written over a 25-year period with two new essays, focusing particularly on issues of faith and reason, psychology, and ethics.
Evans, C. Stephen. Kierkegaard's Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral Obligations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. This book discusses Kierkegaard as an ethicist, with brief looks at such works as Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits. However, the bulk of the book is devoted to an account of the ethic presented in Works of Love, which is read as a “divine command” view of moral obligations. Arguments are given that this kind of ethic is superior to its secular, contemporary rivals.
Evans, C. Stephen. Faith Beyond Reason. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998. This book discusses in what ways Kierkegaard is and is not a “fideist,” by arguing that he offers a critique of reason that is itself reasonable.
Evans, C. Stephen. Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992. A chapter by chapter commentary, focusing particularly on the issues raised by Kierkegaard's understanding of the incarnation and his view of the relation of faith to history.
Evans, C. Stephen. Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript: The Religious Philosophy of Johannes Climacus. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1983. Reprinted Amherst, New York: Humanity Books, 1999. This work gives an overview of the crucial “Johannes Climacus” pseudonymous books by analyzing the key concepts found in the works.
Other books about KierkegaardSome of the best scholarship about Kierkegaard in the English language can be found in the volumes of the International Kierkegaard Commentary, edited by Perkins, Robert L. and published by Mercer University Press.
Bukdahl, Jørgen. Kierkegaard and the Common Man. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001. A fascinating study of Kierkegaard's political and social attitudes, by a Danish scholar with a translation by Bruce Kirmmse.
Davenport, John J. and Rudd, Anthony, eds. Kierkegaard After MacIntyre. Chicago: Open Court, 2001. A challenge to the influential reading of Kierkegaard by Alasdair MacIntyre as a proponent of “radical choice.” Many essays read Kierkegaard as a virtue ethicist.
Denzil, G. M. Patrick. Pascal and Kierkegaard: A Study in the Strategy of Evangelism. London: Lutterworth Press, 1943. Hard to find but interesting comparative study by a Scotsman who was a returned missionary and takes seriously Kierkegaard's own claim to be a missionary to “Christendom.”
Eller, Vernard. Kierkegaard and Radical Discipleship. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1968. Reads Kierkegaard, quite convincingly, as an Anabaptist-style Christian who was a radical critic of established western society.
Elrod, John W.Kierkegaard and Christendom. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981. Good study of Kierkegaard as a social and political thinker.
Ferreira, M. Jamie. Love's Grateful Striving: A Commentary on Kierkegaard's Works of Love. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Splendid commentary on Kierkegaard's most important work in ethics; demolishes many widely-held misunderstandings and criticisms.
Ferreira, M. Jamie. Transforming Vision: Imagination and Will in Kierkegaardian Faith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Sees the “leap of faith” more as an imaginative reorientation than an arbitrary act of will.
Gouwens, David J.Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. One of the best books on Kierkegaard as a theologian.
Kirmmse, Bruce. Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1990. Groundbreaking work by an historian that sets Kierkegaard's thought in the context of nineteenth-century Denmark; gives attention to the importance of industrialization and social change in this period.
Lippitt, John. Humor and Irony in Kierkegaard's Thought. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. Clearly written and informative study of an important dimension of Kierkegaard's thought.
Mackey, Louis. Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. Takes a literary approach to Kierkegaard that undermines traditional philosophical approaches.
Mackey, Louis. Points of View. Tallahassee, Florida: University Press of Florida (Florida State University Press), 1986. Extends the literary approach of his first book by arguing that there is no single “point of view” for understanding Kierkegaard's authorship; even the non-pseudonymous books are by a “persona.”
Malik, Habib C.Receiving Søren Kierkegaard: The Early Impact and Transmission of His Thought. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1997. Delivers just what the title promises.
Mullen, John Douglas. Kierkegaard's Philosophy: Cowardice and Self-Deceit in the Present Age. New York: New American Library, 1981. Very well-written and personally challenging introduction to Kierkegaard, though marred by an overly “existentialist” reading at the end.
Poole, Roger. Kierkegaard: The Indirect Communication. Charlottesville, Virgina: University of Virginia Press, 1993. Good example of a “deconstructionist” or “postmodern” reading of Kierkegaard.
Rae, Murray. Kierkegaard's Vision of the Incarnation: By Faith Transformed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Good study of the key Kierkegaardian view of the incarnation as “the Absolute Paradox.”
Roberts, Robert. Faith, Reason, and History: Rethinking Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1986. A clear treatment, from the perspective of analytic philosophy.
Swenson, David. Something About Kierkegaard. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1941. A classic set of essays by one of the pioneer translators of Kierkegaard in America.
Taylor, Mark C.Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Authorship: A Study of Time and the Self. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1975. Good study of the spheres of existence in their relation to time, except for a misunderstanding of “Religiousness A.”
Walsh, Sylvia. Kierkegaard: Thinking Christianly in an Existential Mode. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Thoughtful introduction to Kierkegaard's theology.
Walsh, Sylvia. Living Christianly: Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Christian Existence. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. Focuses on the “inverse dialectic” in which for Kierkegaard the positive (blessedness, eternal life) is conditioned by the negative (suffering, dying to self).
Walsh, Sylvia. Living Poetically: Kierkegaard's Existential Aesthetics. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994. This book deals with more than “the aesthetic” in Kierkegaard by seeing all three of the stages as differing views of what it means to live artistically.
Westphal, Merold. Becoming a Self: A Reading of Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1996. Penetrating study of one of Kierkegaard's most important works. Westphal, who is an established Hegel scholar, relates Kierkegaard to Continental philosophers both of Kierkegaard's time and our own.
Westphal, Merold. Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987. Fine collection of essays that gives illuminating treatments of Kierkegaard's view of faith and reason and also his political and social thinking.
