Abstract

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. ;The purpose of this essay is to examine the "negativity" of Kierkegaard's thought. By "negativity" we mean those elements of Kierkegaard's philosophy which emphasise the inadequacy and incapacity of human thought, knowledge and language; the hiddenness and incomprehensibility of God; and the mystery of the Incarnation. ;The thesis falls into two parts. This first part of the thesis is itself made up of three sections. The first section consists of an analysis of the fundamental precepts of Kierkegaard' s thought. Here we show that negativity is a feature of Kierkegaard's "qualitative" or "existential dialectics." The second section comprises chapters two to five. This deals with the anthropological basis of Kierkegaard's negativity. That is, an examination is undertaken of those elements in human existence which preclude man from establishing a direct relationship with God. The third section comprises chapters six and seven. Here we are concerned with the theological basis of Kierkegaard's negativity. This involves an analysis of Kierkegaard's doctrine of God and his Christology. We show that Kierkegaard develops a theology in which God remains hidden both before and after his revelation of himself in the Incarnation. ;The second main part of the thesis consists of a comparison of Kierkegaard's negativity with the apophaticism of a select group of negative theologians. This takes place in the final chapter. Here a brief survey is undertaken of the thought of Dionysius the Areopagite and Meister Eckhart and the attempt made to show that there is a similarity between certain aspects of their thought and that of Kierkegaard. We conclude by arguing that not only can Kierkegaard be understood as a negative theologian but that he is in certain important respects more negative than the negative theologians themselves.