Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion

by C. Stephen Evans

Johannes Climacus, Søren Kierkegaard's pseudonymous author of Philosophical Fragments , "invents" a religion suspiciously resembling Christianity as an alternative to the assumption that humans possess the Truth within themselves. Through this literary device, Climacus raises in a fresh and audacious way age-old questions about the relation of Christian faith to human reason. Is the idea of a human incarnation of God logically coherent? Is religious faith the product of a voluntary choice? In a comprehensive discussion of one of Kierkegaard's most important books, C. Stephen Evans elucidates Kierkegaard's novel explanation that the tension between faith and reason must be understood as a consequence of the passionate character of reason itself. Passionate Reason situates Kierkegaard's philosophy in the context of postmodern religious thought, providing a contemporary reading of Fragments as a challenge to both the modern Enlightenment critique of reason and the postmodern abandonment of truth.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

C. Stephen Evans (b. Atlanta , Georgia) is an American historian and philosopher, he is one of the United States' leading experts on Søren Kierkegaard having published six books on Kierkegaard over 25 years. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University. He holds a B.A. with High Honors (philosophy), from Wheaton College, an M.Phil. (philosophy) from Yale University, and a Ph.D. (philosophy) from Yale University.

He has won numerous awards, and reviews manuscripts for several university presses, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, as well as Harper and Rowe. He does the same for several academic journals. He was curator of the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library. He has organized several major conferences. He served five years on the the editorial board for Kierkegaard Monographs and for the International Kierkegaard Commentary Series. He is a past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Søren Kierkegaard Society.