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Notes
The book follows the first volume in the series, Sergia Hay’s, excellent Ethical Silence: Kierkegaard on Communication, Education, and Humility (Hay, 2020).
The most important volumes devoted to the attack on Christendom are the (very helpful) editorial matter included in Howard and Edna Hongs’ translation of the attack on Christendom (Kierkegaard, 2010) and the volume of the International Kierkegaard Commentary devoted to the attack on Christendom (Perkins, 2009). Historical context for the attack is available in Kirmmse (1990) and Garff (2005).
Millay addresses nationalism as a global political trend but focuses most extensively on white Christian nationalism in the U.S. (see, e.g., pp. 105ff).
Millay’s account here draws extensively on Kirmmse (1990) and the interested reader would be well-served to consult this work for socio-political context and the major players involved in Kierkegaard’s attack on Christendom.
On this opposition, see Kierkegaard, 2007: 25).
I.e., his account of Romantic irony in Kierkegaard’s 1842 dissertation On the Concept of Irony, the critique of aestheticism and ethics as holistic ways of life in Either/Or, and the criticism of a Hegelian ethics in which society, religion, and ethics can be mediated into a consonant whole (pp. 25ff).
To that end, were one to accept the thorough-going theological asceticism for which Millay argues, one might have to reject a philosophical Kierkegaard in toto—revealed truth of Christianity would have absolute sway, while the purvey of unassisted human reason would be a stumbling block.
References
Backhouse, S. (2011). Kierkegaard’s critique of Christian nationalism. Oxford University Press
Garff, J. (2005). Søren Kierkegaard: A biography. Trans: Princeton University Press. Bruce H. Kirmmse
Hay, S. (2020). Ethical silence: Kierkegaard on communication, education, and humility. Lexington Books
Kierkegaard, S. (1991). Practice in Christianity (Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Trans.). University Press
Kierkegaard, S. (1998). The point of view (Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Trans.). Princeton University Press
Kierkegaard, S. (2007). Kierkegaard’s journals and notebooks, volume 1 (Bruce H. Kirmmse, et al., Trans.). Princeton University Press
Kierkegaard, S. (2010). The moment and late writings (Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Trans.). Princeton University Press
Kierkegaard, S. (2011). Kierkegaard’s journals and notebooks, volume 5 (Bruce H. Kirmmse, et al., Trans.). Princeton University Press
Kirmmse, B. (1990). Kierkegaard in golden-age Denmark. Indiana University Press
Perkins, R. (Ed.). (2009). The moment and late writings. Mercer University Press
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Snell, C. Thomas J. Millay: Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism: A Contemporary Reinterpretation of the Attack upon Christendom. Hum Stud 45, 607–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-022-09644-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-022-09644-4