Recovering Christian Character: The Psychological Wisdom of Søren Kierkegaard (Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker)

by Robert Campbell Roberts

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2022

Overview

Discipleship guidance from the writings of Kierkegaard.

Genuine Christian character often runs counter to prevailing notions of Christianity—as much in today’s era of nationalistic religiosity as in the staid Christendom of Søren Kierkegaard’s time. Kierkegaard responded to the hypocrisy around him by becoming a missionary of sorts in the Western world. Through his writing he exposed the illusions of conventional wisdom while advancing a compelling vision of the true Christian life that would give rise to essential virtues like faith, hope, love, patience, gratitude, and humility. What might Kierkegaard say to us today about recovering a genuine Christian character amid manifold corruptions of the gospel?

Robert C. Roberts guides the reader through Kierkegaard’s thought about character—clarifying while never unduly simplifying—to show how Kierkegaard’s prescient psychological insights can be applied in the lives of twenty-first-century Christians interested in personal formation. Taking on a Kierkegaardian voice of his own, Roberts powerfully illustrates how virtue arises not from the mastery of individual ethical principles but from the continuity of one’s soul with the heart of God.

Key Features

• Examines how Kierkegaard’s prescient psychological insights can be applied in the lives of twenty-first-century Christians
• Illustrates how virtue arises not from the mastery of individual ethical principles but from the continuity of one’s soul with the heart of God
• Guides the reader through Kierkegaard’s thought about character

Contents

• Introduction: Kierkegaard’s Mission

Part One: The Psychological Framework

• Human Nature
• Character
• Flight from Character
• Virtues
• Sin
• Passion and Thought
• Understanding and Rhetoric

Part Two: Features of Christian Character

• Joy
• Faith
• Hope
• Love
• Humility
• Patience
• Gratitude
• Concluding Postscript

Product Details

• Title: Recovering Christian Character: The Psychological Wisdom of Søren Kierkegaard
• Author: Robert Campbell Roberts
• Series: Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Pages: 380
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855; Character › Religious aspects--Christianity; Religion › Christian Ministry--Discipleship; Philosophy › Ethics & Moral Philosophy
• ISBNs: 9780802873163, 0802873162
• Resource ID: LLS:RCVRNGCHRSTHNKR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:35:16Z

About Robert Campbell Roberts

Robert C. Roberts is Distinguished Professor of Ethics at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Among his other books are Taking the Word to Heart: Self and Others in an Age of Therapies (Eerdmans) and (with Jay Wood) Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology (Oxford).