Kierkegaard's Vision of the Incarnation

Abstract

This book is a study of Søren Kierkegaard's elucidation of the condition by which the Truth may be learned. Like Kierkegaard's pseudonym, Johannes Climacus, we are concerned in particular with that Truth which concerns us ultimately and which is confessed by Christians to be disclosed in Jesus Christ. Called faith by Climacus in Philosophical Fragments, this condition is characterized by a transformation of the individual under the impact of revelation and is received as a gift from God rather than attained through human resourcefulness. The epistemological ramifications of this transformation are explored both in terms of the New Testament concept of metanoia and in comparison with claims to cognitive progress in other fields. This book concludes that the account of Christian conversion given by Climacus in Philosophical Fragments and approved by Kierkegaard in his acknowledged works is a faithful elucidation of the concept of metanoia and remains a pertinent challenge to the persistent attempts of moderns and post-moderns alike who propose to learn the Truth on quite different terms. The book thus seeks to develop a new interpretation of Kierkegaard and to challenge some widely followed theological epistemologies.