Kierkegaard and the Self Before God

<p>Simon D. Podmore claims that becoming a self before God is both a divine gift and an anxious obligation. Before we can know God or ourselves we must come to a moment of recognition. How this comes to be as well as the terms of such acknowledgment are worked out in Podmore's powerful new reading of Kierkegaard. As he gives full consideration to Kierkegaard's writings Podmore explores themes such as despair anxiety melancholy and spiritual trial and how they are broken by the triumph of faith forgiveness and the love of God. He confronts the abyss between the self and the divine in order to understand how we can come to know ourselves in relation to a God who is apparently so wholly Other.</p>