The complexity of Søren Kierkegaard's (1813-1855) œuvre has captured the attention of scholars in many different fields such as philosophy, theology, religious studies, aesthetics, literature and the social sciences. Some interpreters have attempted to define the Danish thinker exclusively as a philosopher, theologian, religious writer, novelist, literary critic, drama critic, literary theorist or psychologist. The present approach differs from these interpretative positions inasmuch as it tries to present the complexity of Kierkegaard's thoughts and texts, in a way which demonstrates the appropriateness of a variety of different methodological and hermeneutical approaches.

The volume provides an overview of the results of years of research in different subfields of Kierkegaard studies. The author uses mainly the methods applied in source-work research and the history of reception, although some of the investigations are also based on extensive conceptual analyses. The first chapter focuses on Kierkegaard's reception of the scholastic dialectician Peter Abailard (1079-1142) and the German critics of religion Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) within the framework of philosophical Quellenforschung. The second chapter is dedicated to the problems of immortality in the Danish Golden Age with a special focus on the renowned littérateur and philosopher Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860) and his Hegelian, idealist positions in contrast to Kierkegaard's existential, dialectical views. The third chapter deals with the intense reception and interpretation of Kierkegaard in the work of the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969). Finally, the last two chapters contain an extensive analysis of Kierkegaard's concept of religion along with a brief survey of the different forms of reception within the existentialist movement. The diverse approaches of the volume follow a unifying principle: the effort to overcome some received misconceptions, simplifications and ahistorical clichés found in previous interpretations and to sketch a more adequate picture of the Danish thinker, based on recent historical and systematic research.

Budapest-Paris, L'Harmattan, 2016.