On Kierkegaard and the truth
By: Paul L. Holmer ; edited by David J Gouwens and Lee C Barrett III ; foreword by Stanley Hauerwas ; afterword by David Cain
Contributors: Gouwens, David Jay; Barrett, Lee C.
Series: The Paul L. Holmer Papers; Paul L. Holmer Papers
Publisher: Cascade Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Eugene, Or
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9781608992720
Subjects: Ethics
Description: Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987). Among his many acomplishments, Holmer was one of the most significant American students of Kierkegaard of his generation. Although written in the 1950s and 1960s, Holmer's theological and philosophical engagement with Kierkegaard challenges much in the contemporary scholarly discussions of this important thinker. Unlike many, Holmer refuses reductionist readings that tie Kierkegaard to any particular "school." He likewise criticizes biographical readings of Kierkegaard, much in vogue recently, seeing Kierkegaard rather as an indirect communicator aiming at his reader's own ethical and religious capacities. Holmer also rejects popular existentialist readings of Kierkegaard, seeing him as an analyzer of concepts, while at the same time denying that he is a "crypto-analyst." Holmer criticizes the attempt to construe Kierkegaard as a didactic religious thinker, appreciating Kierkegaard's "cool" descriptive objectivity and his ironic and stylistic virtuosity. In his important reading of Kierkegaard on "truth," Holmer pits Kierkegaard against those who see "truth" empirically, idealistically, or relativistically. Holmer's carefully textured account of Kierkegaard's conceptual grammar of "truth" in ethical and religious contexts, fifty years after it was penned, addresses immediately current discussions of truth, meaning, reference, and realism versus antirealism, relativism, and hermeneutics. It will be of great interest to all interested in Kierkegaard and his importance for contemporary theology and philosophy.
Notes: "Paul L. Holmer : a select bibliography": p. 299-301

Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-307) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: An introduction to the problem; title: A glance at a contemporary effort in Danish philosophy; title: A new way of philosophizing; title: The Bible and Christianity; title: History and the sciencens; title: Truth is subjectivity : some radical criticisms; title: Truth is subjectivity : some logical considerations; title: Some epistemological questions; title: Kierkegaard and metaphysics; title: Kierkegaard and the nature of philosophy; title: Indirect communication; title: Kierkegaard and the sermon; title: Faith and Christianity.