Søren Kierkegaard and the romantics: passion

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, the intention is twofold. To introduce and substantiate Søren Kierkegaard’s notion of love and to put this notion in relation to the Romantics. The article is divided into six sections. I first offer a brief description of Kierkegaard’s view on the Romantics, his affections and his disagreements. Secondly, I will introduce Kierkegaard’s own notion of love that rest partly on Plato’s view on eros as passion, partly on the biblical definitions of love in 1 John and Matthew. Thirdly, I will present Kierkegaard’s notion of love as a double urge to love and to be love and contrast this double-bound urge with Anders Nygren’s (1890–1978) notion of eros and agape and C. S. Lewis’ (1898–1963) differentiation between Need-Love and Gift-Love. In the fourth section, I will discuss the relation between human and divine love. In the fifth section, I will introduce Kierkegaard’s notion of being in love as preferential love. And finally, in the sixth paragraph, I will address Kierkegaard’s view on neighbor love.