Der Schatten der Kierkegaard-Renaissance. Eine rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studie über die dezisionistisch-irrationalistischen Kierkegaard-Interpretationen zwischen den Weltkriegen in Deutschland
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Keisuke Yoshida
Abstract
During the first half of the 20th century, especially between the two world wars, the German-speaking countries experienced the so-called Kierkegaard Renaissance. Although at that time a wide range of thinkers engaged with Kierkegaard’s writings, Georg Lukács and Theodor W. Adorno argue that Kierkegaard exercised a particularly strong influence on fascist thought. Furthermore, Wilfried Greve claims that Kierkegaard was widely interpreted in the decisionist-irrationalist fashion during the Third Reich, which resulted in the appropriation of Kierkegaard by the ideologues of National Socialism, particularly by Alfred Baeumler, a leading intellectual of National Socialism, and by Emanuel Hirsch, a leading theologian of the “German Christians” movement at the time. In the present article I examine historical examples of the decisionist-irrationalist Kierkegaard interpretation. Then I discuss Carl Schmitt’s appropriation of Kierkegaard and the critical responses to it from Karl Löwith and Norbert Bolz. This discussion leads to the conclusion that the decisionist-irrationalist Kierkegaard interpretation takes on an “occasionalistic” character and thereby willy nilly renders the arbitrary or accidental content of the decision absolute. It can be maintained that this “occasionalistic” character of the decisionistirrationalist interpretation paved the way for a Kierkegaard appropriation favored by fascist ideologues in the interwar period
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Preface
- Table of Contents
- Section 1: Kierkegaard as a Philosopher
- “The Philosophical Thesis of the Identity of Thinking and Being is Just the Opposite of What it seems to be.” Kierkegaard on the Relations between Being and Thought
- The Posited Self: The Non-Theistic Foundation in Kierkegaard’s Writings
- Climacus and the Arguments for God’s Existence
- The Middle Term: Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Debate about Explanatory Theism
- O2 can do? Kierkegaard and the Debate on Divine Omnipotence
- Section 2: Interpreting Kierkegaard: Some Problems and Contemporary Perspectives
- Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing: In Defense of “Magister Kierkegaard”
- Is Either/Or a Religious Work or Not?
- Kierkegaard and the Self-Conscious Literary Tradition: An Interpretation of the Ludic Aspects of Kierkegaard’s Pseudonymous Authorship from a Literary-Historical Perspective
- “Marvel at Nothing”: Reconsidering Kierkegaard’s Category of Recollection through Social Networking Services
- Section 3: Kierkegaard Reception: Responses and Reflections in the 20th Century
- The Truth Behind the Text: Rachel Bespaloff as a Reader of Kierkegaard from “the Most Torn-Apart Backdrop of History”
- “A Great Awakener”: The Relevance of Søren Kierkegaard in Karl Jaspers’ Aneignung und Polemik
- Der Schatten der Kierkegaard-Renaissance. Eine rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studie über die dezisionistisch-irrationalistischen Kierkegaard-Interpretationen zwischen den Weltkriegen in Deutschland
- Kierkegaard Reception in Modern Theology: A Review and Assessment
- A Matter of Mimesis: Kierkegaard and Ricoeur on Narrative Identity
- Section 4: Editing Kierkegaard
- An Overview of Kierkegaard’s Nachlass. Part One: the Materials
- An Overview of Kierkegaard’s Nachlass. Part Two: the Editions
- Section 5: Appendix
- Index to Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 1996–2014
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Preface
- Table of Contents
- Section 1: Kierkegaard as a Philosopher
- “The Philosophical Thesis of the Identity of Thinking and Being is Just the Opposite of What it seems to be.” Kierkegaard on the Relations between Being and Thought
- The Posited Self: The Non-Theistic Foundation in Kierkegaard’s Writings
- Climacus and the Arguments for God’s Existence
- The Middle Term: Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Debate about Explanatory Theism
- O2 can do? Kierkegaard and the Debate on Divine Omnipotence
- Section 2: Interpreting Kierkegaard: Some Problems and Contemporary Perspectives
- Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing: In Defense of “Magister Kierkegaard”
- Is Either/Or a Religious Work or Not?
- Kierkegaard and the Self-Conscious Literary Tradition: An Interpretation of the Ludic Aspects of Kierkegaard’s Pseudonymous Authorship from a Literary-Historical Perspective
- “Marvel at Nothing”: Reconsidering Kierkegaard’s Category of Recollection through Social Networking Services
- Section 3: Kierkegaard Reception: Responses and Reflections in the 20th Century
- The Truth Behind the Text: Rachel Bespaloff as a Reader of Kierkegaard from “the Most Torn-Apart Backdrop of History”
- “A Great Awakener”: The Relevance of Søren Kierkegaard in Karl Jaspers’ Aneignung und Polemik
- Der Schatten der Kierkegaard-Renaissance. Eine rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studie über die dezisionistisch-irrationalistischen Kierkegaard-Interpretationen zwischen den Weltkriegen in Deutschland
- Kierkegaard Reception in Modern Theology: A Review and Assessment
- A Matter of Mimesis: Kierkegaard and Ricoeur on Narrative Identity
- Section 4: Editing Kierkegaard
- An Overview of Kierkegaard’s Nachlass. Part One: the Materials
- An Overview of Kierkegaard’s Nachlass. Part Two: the Editions
- Section 5: Appendix
- Index to Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 1996–2014
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
