Kierkegaard's theory and critique of art: its theological significance

The thesis starts by arguing that Kierkegaard's emphasis on the tension between the aesthetic imagination and religious experience deserves attention in the context of contemporary discussions of religion, imagination and art. After discussing some of the main relevant aspects of the literary and philosophical background the thesis presents an exposition of Kierkegaard's own philosophy of art. This provides a theoretical account of aesthetic experience, establishes principles of aesthetic criticism and offers a critique of aesthetic experience. A comprehensive account of the first form of this philosophy of art in the early Papirer is given. Kierkegaard describes art as developing through a sequence of dialectical stages ' until it touches upon themes and questions which require a religious or existential, not an aesthetic, approach. The use to which Kierkegaard put this understanding of art in his mature work is examined with particular reference to his works of aesthetic criticism and to his 'novels'. His work as a critic shows how art approximates to religious and existential concerns, without being able to give adequate expression to them, but it is in his 'novels' that he delineates most finely the boundary between the aesthetic and the religious. His account of this boundary is seen to be closely connected with his concept of angst. Though he emphasizes the difference between the aesthetic and the religious he does allow art a proper autonomy. His stress on the priority of the religious may even be construed as beneficial to art in an age when art is threatened by a pervasive nihilism which only religion can decisively challenge

Presence and Power

Contextualized by the use of icons during the current war in Ukraine, the paper finds a point of orientation in the veneration of the icon of Our Lady of Smolensk by the Russian army on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, as portrayed by Tolstoy. Is this turning the icon into a battle-­flag? The use of icons in historic conflicts parallels the use of relics as a means of making present the power of the saint. Peter Brown shows that the cult of relics was closely associated with the sacralization of the burial site and dead body of the saint, democratized through the dismemberment of the saints' bodies and the use of physical items associated with them, a process that icons take still further, making the saint present in every church and household. Showing the saint as both heavenly and earthly, the icon recalls human beings to their own finitude and mortality, as we see in Tolstoy's image of Kutuzov kneeling before the icon of Our Lady of Smolensk. As expressive of human beings' individual and collective incapacity in the face of the last things, this understanding of icons provides a defence against the misuse of the icon as a battle-flag or its instrumentalization as a means of political domination and manipulatio

"Who" is the Discourse? A Study in Kierkegaard’s Religious Literature

"Who" is the Discourse? A Study in Kierkegaard’s Religious Literatur

God speaks within: from mystical vision to devout listening

In the Bible, the human God-relationship is typically established through and by the phenomenon of “calling”. However, for much subsequent theology, this has been displaced by “vision”, “taste” or “feeling”. Referring to the notion of an inner word, the paper follows Kierkegaard's treatment of silence as, alternatively, a mode of inattention and attention to such an inner word. With Heidegger, the paper turns to the notion of vocation, both as in the discussion of the call of conscience in Being and Time and the poetic vocation exemplified in the figure and poetry of Hölderlin. Finally, it considers the possible difference between such a poetic vocation and a divine calling

Kirkestormen, neo-Gnosticism and Secular Christianity

The article notes that Kierkegaard’s writings on the Church had a considerable impact on theology in the 20th century including, not least, the theological movement sometimes referred to as ‘religionless’ or ‘secular’ Christianity. Like that movement, Kierkegaard problematized the very idea of a Church. However, his writings also reflect a rejection of life in the world rather than the ‘secular’ affirmation of thisworldliness. This can seem like a version of Neo-Gnosticism. However, it is argued that Kierkegaard’s rejection of the world is neither to be understood in the perspective of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin nor of Gnostic dualism but reflects a modern understanding of theworld as a unitary whole. The question then is whether such a world is favourable to human flourishing

Looks of Love: The Seducer and the Christ

Looks of Love: The Seducer and the Chris

Representing Love: From Poetry to Martyrdom or Language and Transcendence in Kierkegaard's Works of Love

Representing Love: From Poetry to Martyrdom or Language and Transcendence in Kierkegaard's Works of Lov

Formation of Boron Enolates by Nucleophilic Substitution

Enolates have proven to be one of the key building blocks available to the synthetic chemist. Here we summarize a novel strategy for their preparation, involving the addition of α-borylated nucleophiles to esters to yield boron enolates. The enolates prepared by the addition of lithiated geminal bis(boron) compounds to esters can be trapped with two equivalents of halogen and alkyl electrophiles to yield α,α-difunctionalized compounds

SFRP4 drives invasion in gastric cancer and is an early predictor of recurrence.

OBJECTIVE: Gastric cancer patients generally have a poor outcome, particularly those with advanced-stage disease which is defined by the increased invasion of cancer locally and is associated with higher metastatic potential. This study aimed to identify genes that were functional in the most fundamental hallmark of cancer, namely invasion. We then wanted to assess their value as biomarkers of gastric cancer progression and recurrence. DESIGN: Data from a cohort of patients profiled on cDNA expression arrays was interrogated using K-means analysis. This genomic approach classified the data based on patterns of gene expression allowing the identification of the genes most correlated with the invasion of GC. We evaluated the functional role of a key protein from this analysis in invasion and as a biomarker of recurrence after curative resection. RESULTS: Expression of secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) was identified as directly proportional to gastric cancer invasion. This finding was validated in multiple, independent datasets and its functional role in invasion was also confirmed using invasion assays. A change in serum levels of SFRP4 after curative resection, when coupled with AJCC stage, can accurately predict the risk of disease recurrence after curative therapy in an assay we termed PredictR. CONCLUSIONS: This simple ELISA-based assay can help predict recurrence of disease after curative gastric cancer surgery irrespective of adjuvant therapy. The results require further evaluation in a prospective trial but would help in the rational prescription of cancer therapies and surveillance to prevent under or over treatment of patients after curative resection