C. Stephen Evans, Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard's “Philosophical Fragments,”

Abstract

C. Stephen Evans’ Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard’s "Philosophical Fragments" was published as part of the Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion , edited by Merold Westphal. The difficulty with grasping the relationship between faith and reason in Climacus’ Philosophical Fragments has much to do with his different, and often strongly worded, formulations of this relationship. Evans makes much of Climacus’ claim that “the understanding and the paradox happily encounter each other in the moment, when the understanding steps aside and the paradox gives itself people shall call it faith.” Even though Evans vigorously defends Climacus’ account of faith and reason from charges of irrationalism, he does seem to think that Climacus’ rhetoric occasionally goes a bit too far in that direction.