Anxious Spirits – Pneumatology in Heidegger, Paul, and Kierkegaard

Article

Abstract

[In English]

The concept of spirit, and, is central in Kierkegaard’s thinking, in particular in The Concept of Anxiety. Yet, with few exceptions this theme has not been explicitly explored in the commentaries. It points back to his deep connection to the Letters of St Paul, that remain an unexplored source for our understanding of Kierkegaard’s philosophical spirituality. The text introduces how the philosophical problem of spirit has obtained a new role and interest in phenomenology and post-phenomenological thinking, especially through the work of Derrida. Through Heidegger’s reading of Paul it then returns to the Pauline Letters for a detailed interpretation of spirit, pneuma, in Paul. It is shown to emerge as a way of conceptualizing the peculiar temporality of passage and transition within a tradition, and thus as having to do with trans-generational communication. In conclusion it argues for the further importance of this source for our understanding
of Kierkegaard.