Publisher's Synopsis
Reading devotionally--reading to recall sacred text in ways that call the reader to respond ethically to that text--runs contrary to reading habits of many scholars and lay readers of Søren Kierkegaard. Reading Kierkegaard with an ear to hear the religious note that he repeatedly strikes directly or indirectly, however, may be the primary means a reader becomes what Kierkegaard calls ""his"" reader. Such a reader is one who is most likely disposed to hear and then ethically respond to Kierkegaard's tuning fork, the pitch of which Kierkegaard sets to conscience's perfect silence. As much as Jamie Lorentzen attends to devotional reading habits in this book, he writes for readers to whom Kierkegaard himself attended, namely, individuals navigating innately human crossroads of existence where nihilism, religious skepticism, and religious belief meet. After considering Kierkegaard as a devotional writer and reader, Lorentzen writes of how he came to understand what reading Kierkegaard devotionally meant for him, from his childhood days in the 1960s to the post-2020 COVID-19 pandemic. He ends with a paean in honor of Kierkegaard translator and writer Edna Hong, an exemplar of reading Kierkegaard devotionally and a model of a well-lived Kierkegaardian life.
