Real Love
Kierkegaard, The Seducer, The Judge, and The Altar
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14760239 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Amber Bowen (0000-0003-2973-9784, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 577-595 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jore.12364 |
| OpenAlex | W3205354590 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
While Kierkegaard creates characters who represent various ways of existing as lovers in the aesthetic and the ethical spheres, namely, Johannes the Seducer and Judge William, he does not have a corresponding character for love in the religious sphere. Is there truly only marginal space for romantic love in Kierkegaard’s religious sphere, or did his own personal history prevent him from being able to imagine what that might look like? This paper examines a commonly overlooked discourse, “On the Occasion of a Wedding,” for Kierkegaardian insights on erotic love in the religious sphere. Against understanding erotic love as a moment (in the aesthetic sphere), or a duty (in the ethical sphere), this paper explores how “On the Occasion of a Wedding” recasts erotic love as gift. Kierkegaard stages the “imagined occasion” of a wedding as a phenomenological reduction through which love presents itself with gift‐like characteristics. Respecting the gift‐status of love transforms the lover into a grateful recipient rather than a seducer or a conqueror. This paper concludes that the proper response to love as gift would be neither to refuse it in favor of nihilistic uncertainty nor to possess it through triumphalistic objectivity, but to humbly embrace both its “already” and its “not yet” dimensions
Aesthetics · Character (mathematics · Duty · Epistemology · Objectivity (philosophy · Philosophy of love · Psychoanalysis · Public sphere · Romance · Sociology · Theology · Kierkegaardian Philosophy and Influence · Law · Literary and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |