M. Jamie Ferreira

Soren Kierkegaard's Works of Love (1847), a series of deliberations on the commandment to love one's neighbor, has often been condemned by critics. Here, Ferreira seeks to rehabilitate Works of Love as one of Kierkegaard's most important works. He shows that Kierkegaard's deliberations on love are highly relevant to some important themes in contemporary ethics, including impartiality, duty, equality, mutuality, reciprocity, self-love, sympathy, and sacrifice. Ferreira also argues that Works of Love bears on issues peculiar to a religious ethic, such as the role of God as "middle term," and the possibility of preserving the aesthetic dimensions of love in a religious ethic of relation.

The first comprehensive introduction to cover the entire span of Kierkegaard’s authorship. Explores how the two strands of his writing—religious discourses and pseudonymous literary creations—influenced each otherAccompanies the reader chronologically through all the philosopher’s major works, and integrates his writing into his biographyEmploys a unique “how to” approach to help the reader discover individual texts on their own and to help them closely examine Kierkegaard’s languagePresents the literary strategies employed in Kierkegaard’s work to give the reader insight into subtext

The first comprehensive introduction to cover the entire span of Kierkegaard’s authorship. Explores how the two strands of his writing—religious discourses and pseudonymous literary creations—influenced each otherAccompanies the reader chronologically through all the philosopher’s major works, and integrates his writing into his biographyEmploys a unique “how to” approach to help the reader discover individual texts on their own and to help them closely examine Kierkegaard’s languagePresents the literary strategies employed in Kierkegaard’s work to give the reader insight into subtext

Søren Kierkegaard's Works of Love (1847), a series of deliberations on the commandment to love one's neighbour, has often been condemned by critics. This book seeks to rehabilitate Works of Love as one of Kierkegaard's most important works. Jamie Ferreira shows that Kierkegaard's deliberations on love are highly relevant to some important themes in contemporary ethics including: impartiality, duty, partiality, equality, mutuality, reciprocity, self-love, sympathy, and sacrifice. Works of Love also has implications for postmodern concerns about the normative relation between Self and Other - questions of "gift" and responsiveness, "infinite demand" and responsibility. In addition, Ferreira argues, Works of Love also bears on such issues as the role of God as "middle term," and the possibility of preserving the aesthetic dimensions of love in a religious ethic of relation.