Waterstones Works of Love
194 ratings
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: One of Kierkegaard's central writings, Works of Love is a profound and indispensable examination of the human heart. 'Deep within every man', Kierkegaard writes, 'there lies the dread of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the household of millions upon millions'. Love, for Kierkegaard, is one of the central aspects of existence; it saves us from isolation and unites us to each other and God. This new edition of Works of Love features an original introduction by Oxford theologian George Pattison.
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780061713279
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780061713279
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Author: A. Nim
Rating: 5
Review: Works of Love is the first book I've actually completed reading from Kierkegaard. Like all philosophical texts they are usually extremely difficult to read, for me anyway haha. I managed to finish Works of Love in 2 weeks, it wasn't too difficult to take in unlike some of his other works. I really enjoyed reading it, and it opened a new dimension to the unconditional love which is practised in Christianity. Kierkegaard makes an in-depth analysis of the love commanded in 'Love thy Neighbour' K. states that the love of eros and friendship is essentially selfish where good acts are only performed because it indirectly benefits yourself, only the love of 'love thy neighbour' is true love, where the person shows love regardless of their distinctions and relationship with each other. K. tells us to love people regardless of our distinctions, to recognise that we have differences but to also recognise that we are all lovable human beings. Maybe this doesn't sound convincing to you, initially this will sound like illogical madness but K. puts forth a extremely strong argument and draws the reader to want to understand the perfect form of love, the unconditional love of Christianity. This book will certainly change your views on love and life in general. Although highly Christian content, I think it doesn't matter whether you're Christian or not, this book is a fantastic read. I highly recommend this book, but it can be difficult to persevere at times but it is worth the read! I promise (:
Author: Patricia Batten
Rating: 5
Review: This is my second Kierkegaard read, after Fear and Trembling. I was pleased to find a lot of similarities between these two works: SK's humor, pathos, and meticulous logic carried over into Works of Love. As in F&T, SK begins with a brief scripture passage that he analyzes in minute detail and from which he extracts a complex framework of psychological and spiritual reasoning. This style perhaps does not make for the best exegesis (SK pays little heed to context or authorial intent), but it shows his deep reverence for God and his desire to make all of his philosophy essentially spiritual in nature. Readers should be aware that this book is not primarily intellectual but rather spiritual and emotional in nature. SK's logic is complex, to be sure, and his sentences often difficult to untangle, but the time it takes to digest his lines of reasoning is well worth the result. I cannot emphasize enough that this book is profoundly Christian in nature, and that anyone approaching it either unfamiliar with or opposed to Christianity will find it utterly unendurable. That being said, pious Christians reading WoL might find it jarring for SK's radical critique of self-righteous, surface-level religion. You should prepare to be challenged in all of your assumptions and have your heart changed. With regard to this particular edition, readers should be aware that the translation (despite the modern-looking cover) is about eighty years old, so the prose will sound slightly dated and the scholarship (if you're that kind of person) behind the times. The translation is slightly choppy in parts, but is aided by helpful endnotes that tie into other works by Kierkegaard and explain the numerous literary, philosophical, and cultural allusions that Kierkegaard makes. In a few places, literary devices that are apparent in the original Danish but do not easily come across in translation are clarified by the Danish being put in brackets alongside their English equivalents.
