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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
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| The Concept of Anxiety | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Concept_of_Anxiety | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:53:14.338620+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Contemporary reception == Walter Lowrie translated The Concept of Dread in 1944. He was asked "almost petulantly" why it took him so long to translate the book. Alexander Dru had been working on the book, and Charles Williams hoped the book would be published along with The Sickness unto Death, which Lowrie was working on in 1939. After the war started, Dru was wounded and gave the job over to Lowrie. Lowrie could find no adequate word to use for Angst. Lee Hollander had used the word dread in 1924, a Spanish translator used angustia, and Miguel Unamuno, writing in French used agonie while other French translators used angoisse. Rollo May quoted Kierkegaard in his book Meaning of Anxiety, which is the relation between anxiety and freedom. I would say that learning to know anxiety is an adventure which every man has to affront if he would not go to perdition either by not having known anxiety or by sinking under it. He therefore who has learned rightly to be anxious has learned the most important thing.— Kierkegaard, The Concept of Dread. Robert Harold Boethius, in his 1948 book Christian Paths to Self-Acceptance, discusses Kierkegaard's concept of dread, explaining that the distorted doctrines of man's depravity from the Reformation and Protestant scholasticism are clarified by neo-orthodox theologians. While sin is often preached in undialectical forms, Kierkegaard offers a modern reinterpretation, linking sin to anxiety. He explains that "dread or anxiety" precedes sin, coming close to it but without fully explaining it, which only breaks forth through a "qualitative leap." Kierkegaard views this "sickness unto death" as central to human existence, teaching that a "synthesis" with God is necessary for resolving inner conflicts and achieving self-acceptance.
In 1958, George Laird Hunt interpreted Kierkegaard's writing as basically asking "How can we understand ourselves?" and wrote: Kierkegaard views man’s humanity through his creatureliness, defined by his position between life and death. Made in God's image, man feels the presence of eternity but also knows his inevitable death. This tension creates his anguish and possibility of immortality. Man sins by avoiding faith and the uncertainty of existence, either denying death or rejecting eternity. He refuses to face the anguish of being both mortal and dependent on God. True humanness lies in acknowledging both life and death, which marks the beginning of redemption.
== See also == Hans Urs von Balthasar René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
== References ==
=== Footnotes ===
=== Bibliography === Søren Kierkegaard The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin June 17, 1844 Vigilius Haufniensis, Edited and translated by Reidar Thomte Princeton University Press 1980 Kierkegaard's Writings, VIII ISBN 0691020116 Søren Kierkegaard "The Concept of Anxiety" 1844, translation by Alastair Hannay, March 2014 Kirkus Review Søren Kierkegaard The Concept of Anxiety The only book by Kierkegaard in audio format (Hannay translation) Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety, Introduction, Marxists.org Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, Rosenkranz's Philosophy of Education (February 18, 1887), Science, Vol. 9 Anthony D. Storm, Anthony D. Storm's Commentary on The Concept of Anxiety
== External links == Quotations related to The Concept of Anxiety at Wikiquote Walter Lowrie, The Concept of Dread free text from archive.org Arne Grøn, The Concept of Anxiety in Soren Kierkegaard Mercer University Press, Oct 1, 2008 Retrieved 1/15/2012 Walter Kaufmann, Kierkegaard and the Crisis in Religion 1960 Audio Archive.org Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety 1950, 1996 p. 170ff Professor Alison Assiter, Kierkegaard and Kant on Freedom and Evil, YouTube Dr. Patrick McCarty, Anxiety: Its Source, Nature, Solution Audio about The Concept of Anxiety from Archive.org Henrik Stangerup, The Man Who Wanted To Be Guilty July 2000 Arland Ussher, Journey Through Dread: A Study of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre 1955