The Divided Soul: A Kierkegaardian Exploration

Clifford Williams

Wipf & Stock, 2009

Soren Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing is an astute analysis of inner dividedness. In this striking little book, Kierkegaard gently yet incisively specifies the precise forms it takes. Like many of Kierkegaard's books, however, Purity of Heart contains a good deal of formidable prose.


The aim of The Divided Soul: A Kierkegaardian Exploration is to make Kierkegaard's scrutiny of our inner terrain in Purity of Heart accessible and inviting. With clear, direct prose, Clifford Williams lays bare Kierkegaard's discerning descriptions of the tension between a desire for goodness and resistance to goodness. Williams then reflects on themes arising from Kierkegaard's conception of faith.


"In this beautifully written little book, full of apt illustrations, Cliff Williams has made the riches of Kierkegaard's thought about the divided self come alive for the ordinary reader. No one can read it without meeting him or herself again again in its pages." – Robert C. Roberts, Distinguished Professor of Ethics, Baylor University


Contents

1 Pursuing Eternity

2 Barriers to Willing One Thing

3 The Price of Willing One Thing

4 What Then Must I Do?

5 Kierkegaardian Faith

Epilogue


A Quote:

“Kierkegaard is largely missing in American religion. I don't think there's enough brooding going on.” – Alan Wolfe in an interview in Books and Culture (March/April, 2004), p. 19.


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Also by Clifford Williams:

Singleness of Heart: Restoring the Divided Soul

The Wisdom of Kierkegaard: A Collection of Quotations on Faith and Life

Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith


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