Friday, August 29
Switching classes.............
Well, I decided that maybe a doctoral Greek seminar was not the best way to go for someone who doesn't want to be a Scripture scholar. Instead, I'm taking a philosophy seminar on the thought of Soren Kierkegaard. This nineteenth-century Danish philosopher is usually credited with having founded modern existential philosophy and ethics, or at least having developed the concepts that Aquinas laid down for this area. For those interested in John Paul II's theology of the body, Kierkegaard is key to this because existential ethics paved the way for phenomenology, the 20th century school of philosophy upon which the theology of the body is based. From my own perspective, Kierkegaard was an important influence on Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of, if not the greatest theologian of the last century, whom I hope to study in depth. In the class we'll be looking primarily at Kierkegaard's Works of Love, an important work that I read over the summer, not knowing I would take this class - it doesn't usually get regarded as Kierkegaard's most significant work, but my professor seems to think that maybe it ought to be. Whatever the case may be, this class should make an already interesting semester even more so.
Well, I decided that maybe a doctoral Greek seminar was not the best way to go for someone who doesn't want to be a Scripture scholar. Instead, I'm taking a philosophy seminar on the thought of Soren Kierkegaard. This nineteenth-century Danish philosopher is usually credited with having founded modern existential philosophy and ethics, or at least having developed the concepts that Aquinas laid down for this area. For those interested in John Paul II's theology of the body, Kierkegaard is key to this because existential ethics paved the way for phenomenology, the 20th century school of philosophy upon which the theology of the body is based. From my own perspective, Kierkegaard was an important influence on Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of, if not the greatest theologian of the last century, whom I hope to study in depth. In the class we'll be looking primarily at Kierkegaard's Works of Love, an important work that I read over the summer, not knowing I would take this class - it doesn't usually get regarded as Kierkegaard's most significant work, but my professor seems to think that maybe it ought to be. Whatever the case may be, this class should make an already interesting semester even more so.
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