Works of Love

Book by Søren Kierkegaard

Works of Love  (1847-09-29)&rft.pub=C.A.+Reitzel&rft.place=[[Denmark]]&rft.pages=317&rft.series=Second+authorship+(Discourses)">

Author| Søren Kierkegaard
Original title| Kjerlighedens Gjerninger
Translator| David Swenson 1946, Howard Hong and Edna Hong 1995, George Pattison 2009
Language| Danish
Series| Second authorship (Discourses)
Genre| Christianity, psychology
Publisher| C.A. Reitzel

Publication date

| September 29, 1847 (1847-09-29)
Publication place| Denmark

Published in English

| 1946 – first English translation
Media type| Paperback
Pages| 317
ISBN| 0691037922
Preceded by| Edifying Discourses in Diverse Spirits
Followed by| Christian Discourses

Works of Love (Danish: Kjerlighedens Gjerninger) is a book by Søren Kierkegaard, written in 1847. It is one of the works which he published under his own name, as opposed to his more famous "pseudonymous" works. Works of Love deals primarily with the Christian conception of agapic love (Greek: agape), in contrast with erotic love (eros) or preferential love (philia) given to friends and family. Kierkegaard uses this value/virtue to understand the existence and relationship of the individual Christian. Having helped found existentialism, he uses it and a high level of theology, citing the scriptures of the Christian Bible.

Many chapters take a mention of love from the New Testament and center reflections about the transfer of individuals from secular modes (the stages of the aesthetic and ethical) to genuine religious experience and existence. Since human experience is key to understanding Kierkegaard, the actual relationships and experiences of disciples and of Christ are characterized here as tangible models for behavior.

Kierkegaard as a Christian ethicist (represented by this work) is likely to be considered distinct from many ways in which the religion's mainstream seems to function from the viewpoint of an outside observer. This is not only a function of Christian existentialism but also of his time period and political events occurring in his native Denmark.

## Themes

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* Part One — Topics include: Love's Hidden Life and Its Recognisability by Its Fruits, You Shall Love, You Shall Love Your Neighbor, Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law, Love Is a Matter of Conscience, Our Duty to Love Those We See, and Our Duty to Be in the Debt of Love to Each Other
* Part Two — Topics include: Love Builds Up, Love Believes All Things and Yet Is Never Deceived, Love Hopes All Things and Yet Is Never Put to Shame, Love Seeks Not Its Own, Love Hides the Multiplicity of Sins, Love Abides, Mercifulness, a Work of Love, Even If It Can Give Nothing and Is Capable of Doing Nothing, The Victory of Reconciliation in Love Which Wins the Vanquished, The Work of Love
in Remembering One Dead and The Work of Love in Praising Love

## Style

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The Works as Kierkegaard himself states are Christian reflections and not discourses. It is written in a rhetorical style where he often repeats his words and gives numerous examples.

## External links

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* Quotations related to Works of Love (Kierkegaard) at Wikiquote
* Works of Love, Swenson translation, 1972 edition
* Works of Love, Howard Hong's 1962 translation Google Books
* Works of Love, Howard and Edna Hong English-language translation with George Pattison's 2009 foreword
* Works of Love, Princeton University Press, 2013 Hong translation'
* M. Jamie Ferreira, Love's Grateful Striving : A Commentary on Kierkegaard's Works of Love 2001
* Storm's commentary on Works of Love

* v
* t
* e

Søren Kierkegaard

* Influence and reception
* Philosophy
* Theology

Works|

| 1841–1846|

* On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates
* Either/Or
* De omnibus dubitandum est
* Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1843
* Repetition
* Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843
* Fear and Trembling
* Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1843
* Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1844
* Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1844
* Philosophical Fragments
* Prefaces
* The Concept of Anxiety
* Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844
* Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses
* Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions
* Stages on Life's Way
* Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
* Two Ages: A Literary Review

|

1847–1854|

* Edifying Discourses in Diverse Spirits
* Works of Love
* Christian Discourses
* The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress
* The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air
* Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays
* The Sickness unto Death
* Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
* Practice in Christianity
* The Book on Adler
* For Self-Examination

Posthumous|

* The Point of View of My Work as an Author
* Judge for Yourselves!
* The Journals
* Writing Sampler

Ideas|

* Angst
* Anguish
* Authenticity
* Double-mindedness
* Indirect communication
* Infinite qualitative distinction
* Knight of faith
* Leap of faith
* Levelling
* Present age
* Ressentiment
* Rotation method
* Despair

People|

* Regine Olsen
* Peter Kierkegaard
* Hans Lassen Martensen
* Jacob Peter Mynster
* J. L. Heiberg
* Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd
* Adolph Peter Adler

Related topics|

* Danish Golden Age
* Søren Kierkegaard Research Center
* Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library
* Prayers of Kierkegaard
* Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
* Nytorv 27 (birthplace)
* Rosenborggade 7–9
* Skindergade 38 (last home)
* Statue of Søren Kierkegaard
* The Central European Institute Søren Kierkegaard

Authority control databases |

* Yale LUX

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