Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies Series

SÃ?ren Kierkegaard wrote that Pietism is 'the one and only consequence of Christianity'. Praise of this sort - particularly when coupled with Kierkegaard's significant personal connections to the movement in Christian spirituality known as Pietism - would seem to demand thorough investigation. And yet, Kierkegaard's relation to Pietism has been largely neglected in the secondary literature. Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness fills this scholarly gap and, in doing so, provides the first full-length study of Kierkegaard's relation to the Pietist movement. First accounting for Pietism's role in Kierkegaard's social, ecclesial, and intellectual background, Barnett goes on to demonstrate Pietism's impact on Kierkegaard's published authorship, principally regarding the relationship between Christian holiness and secular culture. This book not only establishes Pietism as a formative influence on Kierkegaard's life and thinking, but also sheds fresh light on crucial Kierkegaardian concepts, from the importance of 'upbuilding' to the imitation of Christ.

Part I Kierkegaard and Pietism; Chapter 1 The Origin and Development of Pietism: A Selective History; Chapter 2 Pietism in the Danish Context: From Its Beginning to the Family Kierkegaard; Chapter 3 Kierkegaard’s Reading of Pietist Literature:An Investigation of Themes Christian and Socratic; Part II Holiness in ‘the Present Age’; Chapter 4 ‘Misunderstanding the Meaning of Venturing Everything’: Kierkegaard’s Analysis of Monastic and Pietist Separatism; Chapter 5 Kierkegaard, ‘The Present Age’ and the Call for Suffering Servants; Chapter 6 Should One Suffer Death for the Truth?: Kierkegaard’s Development of Imitatio Christi; conclusion Conclusion Kierkegaard, Pietism and Issues in Theology: Some Anticipatory Remarks;

Christopher B. Barnett is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Berry College, Georgia, USA. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Theology at the University of Oxford in September 2008, working under Professor George Pattison, one of the world's best known Kierkegaard scholars and holder of the prestigious Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity. Also, during his doctoral research, Dr Barnett served as a guest researcher at the Moravian Archives in Herrnhut, Germany and at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre in Copenhagen. Dr Barnett has issued articles on Kierkegaard in the Journal for the History of Modern Theology and in the book series, Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception, and Resources, edited by Jon Stewart of the Kierkegaard Research Centre, Copenhagen (Ashgate).