Date of Degree
2011
Document Type
thesis
Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Department
Religious Studies
First Advisor
Diana Fritz Cates
Abstract
In Works of Love (Kjerlighedens Gjerninger) Søren Kierkegaard contrasts two seemingly opposing forms of love. One, "preferential" love, primarily includes the love found in friendships and romances. The other, "non-preferential" or "neighbor love," is associated with Christian agape love. Some interpreters believe Kierkegaard's clear support of neighbor love as the "higher" form of love reveals an incompatibility between preferential relationships, like friendship, and universal Christian love. This reading imagines an "either/or" in which a person is forced to choose between Christian faith on one hand, and friendship/erotic love on the other. The objective of this paper is to argue against such an interpretation and to demonstrate that preferential love understood in the context of neighbor love is endorsed by Kierkegaard himself. A comparison of his thought to that of Robert O. Johann and an analysis both the social and religious context in which Works of Love was written will shed light on the rhetorical strategies at work and reveal the nature of the love that Kierkegaard promotes.
Pages
iii, 100
Bibliography
99-100
Copyright
Copyright 2011 John Haman
Recommended Citation
Haman, John Patrick. "The sanctification of friendship: reconciling preferential and non-preferential loves in Søren Kierkegaard's Works of love." master's thesis, University of Iowa, 2011.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/976.