Kierkegaard and the Bible. Tome I: The Old Testament

294 Pages·2010·2.4 MB·English

by  Jon Stewart

KierKegaard and the BiBle
tome i: the old testament
Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources
Volume 1, Tome I
Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources
is a publication of the søren Kierkegaard research Centre
General Editor
Jon stewart
Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre,
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Editorial Board
Katalin nun
peter ŠaJda
Advisory Board
istvÁn CzaKÓ
Finn gredal Jensen
david d. possen
heiKo sChulz
This volume was published with the generous financial support
of the danish agency for science, technology and innovation
Kierkegaard and the Bible
tome i: the old testament
Edited by
lee C. Barrett and Jon stewart
First published2010 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprintof the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2010 lee C. Barrett, Jon stewart and the contributors
lee C. Barrett and Jon stewart have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage orretrieval s ystem,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kierkegaard and the Bible.
tome 1, the old testament – (Kierkegaard research ; v. 1)
1. Kierkegaard, søren, 1813–1855. 2. Bible–use–history–
19th century. 3. hermeneutics–history–19th century.
i. series ii. Barrett, lee C. iii. stewart, Jon
198.9–dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kierkegaard and the Bible / lee C. Barrett.
p. cm. — (Kierkegaard research: sources, reception, and resources)
includes indexes.
isBn 978-1-4094-0285-5 (v. 1 : hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Ki erkegaard, søren, 18 13– 1 8 55.
2. Bible—use—history—19th century.
3. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—history—19th century.
i. Barrett, lee C. ii. title.
B4378.B52B37 2009
220.6092—dc22
2009050212
isBn 9781409402855(hbk)
Cover design by Katalin nun.
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
PART I INDIVIDUAL TEXTS AND FIGURES
adam and eve:
human Being and nothingness
Timothy Dalrymple 3
abraham:
Framing Fear and Trembling
Timothy Dalrymple 43
moses:
the positive and negative importance of moses in Kierkegaard’s thought
Paul Martens 89
david and solomon:
models of repentance and evasion of guilt
Matthias Engelke 101
Job:
Edification against Theodicy
Timothy H. Polk 115
psalms:
source of images and Contrasts
Matthias Engelke 143
ecclesiastes:
vanity, grief, and the distinctions of wisdom
Will Williams 179
vi Kierkegaard and the Bible
nebuchadnezzar:
the King as image of transformation
Matthias Engelke 195
PART II OVERVIEW ARTICLES
Kierkegaard’s rewriting of Biblical narratives:
the mirror of the text
Iben Damgaard 207
Kierkegaard’s use of the old testament:
From literary resource to the word of god
Lori Unger Brandt 231
Kierkegaard’s use of the apocrypha:
is it “scripture” or “good for reading”?
W. Glenn Kirkconnell 253
Index of Persons 265
Index of Subjects 271
list of Contributors
Lori Unger Brandt, toronto school of theology, 47 Queen’s park Crescent east,
toronto, ontario, m5s 2C3, Canada.
Timothy Dalrymple, Center on the study of religion, Barker Center, harvard
university, Cambridge, ma, 02138, usa.
Iben Damgaard, department of systematic theology, aarhus university,
tåsingegade 3, 8000, Århus C, denmark.
Matthias Engelke, pfarrerhaus, steegerstr. 34, 41334 nettetal-lobberich,
germany.
W. Glenn Kirkconnell, department of humanities and Foreign languages, p–152,
santa Fe College, 3000 nw 83rd st., gainesville, Fl, 32606, usa.
Paul Martens, department of religion, Baylor university, one Bear place #97284,
waco, tX 76798–7284, usa.
Timothy H. Polk, hamline university, Box 132, 1536 hewitt ave, st. paul, mn,
55104, usa.
Will Williams, department of religion, Baylor university, one Bear place #97284,
waco, tX, 76798–7284, usa.

preface
the articles in this volume all explore Kierkegaard’s complex use of the Bible,
a use that pervades and sometimes even structures his literature. the authors of
these essays use source-critical research and the tools of many different disciplines,
ranging from literary criticism to theology and biblical studies, to situate
Kierkegaard’s appropriation of the biblical material in his cultural and intellectual
context. The essays seek to identify the possible sources that may have influenced
his understanding and employment of scripture, and to describe the debates about
the Bible that may have shaped, perhaps indirectly, his attitudes toward it. whenever
possible, the authors have sought to document the texts that were influential, either
positively or negatively, for Kierkegaard’s reading of the Bible. the authors also pay
close attention to Kierkegaard’s actual hermeneutic practice, carefully analyzing the
implicit interpretive moves that he makes as well as his more explicit statements about
the significance of various biblical passages. This close reading of Kierkegaard’s
texts enables the authors to elucidate the unique and sometimes odd features of his
frequent appeals to scripture.
many of the essays in this volume deal with particular biblical characters, such as
abraham and Job, who were important to Kierkegaard, or portions of the Bible that
played significant roles in Kierkegaard’s authorship, such as the Psalms, the Pauline
epistles, and the crucifixion narratives. Other essays present overviews of various
aspects of Kierkegaard’s interpretive practice such as his renarration of biblical
stories, his latin translations of the greek new testament, his appropriation of
contemporary biblical scholarship, and his approach to the old testament. Because
the Christian canon with which he wrestled was and is composed of two different
testaments, this volume devotes one tome to the old testament and a second tome
to the new testament. the canonically disputed literature of the apocrypha is
considered in the tome on the old testament.
reading Kierkegaard with an eye to his use of the Bible is essential for making
sense of his texts. Kierkegaard was an intensively scripturally shaped writer whose
natural idiom was the language of the Bible and who viewed the world through
biblical lenses. oddly, this aspect of Kierkegaard’s work has rarely received sustained
attention. although a few monographs have been written about Kierkegaard’s use
of the Bible,1 this literature seems puny when compared to the vast corpus that
1 see, for example, matthias engelke, Kierkegaard und das alte Testament. Zum Einfluss
der alttestamentarischen Bücher auf Kierkegaards Gesamtwerk, rheinbach: Cmz-verlag
1998 (Arbeiten zur Theologiegeschichte, vol. 3); peter parkov, Bibelen i Søren Kierkegaards
Samlede Værker, Copenhagen: C.a. reitzel 1983; timothy polk, The Biblical Kierkegaard:
Reading by the Rule of Faith, macon, georgia: mercer university press 1997; Jolita pons,