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THINKING THROUGH KIERKEGAARD'S ANTI‐CLIMACUS: ART, IMAGINATION, AND IMITATION
Author(s) -
GREGOR BRIAN
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the heythrop journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1468-2265
pISSN - 0018-1196
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00409.x
Subject(s) - imitation , admiration , painting , christian art , philosophy , pseudonym , phenomenology (philosophy) , christianity , literature , portrait , art , aesthetics , epistemology , art history , theology , psychology , social psychology
What place do imagination and art have in Christian existence? This paper examines this question through the writings of Kierkegaard's pseudonym Anti‐Climacus: The Sickness Unto Death and Practice in Christianity . I focus on the latter work in particular because it best illustrates the importance of imagination in following after ( Efterfølgelse ) Christ in imitation, which Anti‐Climacus presents as the proper task of faithful Christian existence. After outlining both his critique and his affirmation of the imagination, I then consider what role the notion of ‘Christian art’ might play in his account of the imitation of Christ. Anti‐Climacus gives a severe critique of Christian art, insofar as it disposes the viewer to detached observation and admiration – rather than imitation – of Christ. However, an earlier passage in the same text gives a provocative yet cryptic indication of the sort of art that would not succumb to this danger. Taking a cue from the phenomenology of Jean‐Luc Marion, I draw out this suggestion and argue for the important role that visual art can play in imitating Christ. The final section illustrates this point briefly with three paintings: Matthias Grünewald's Crucifixion , Hans Holbein's The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb , and Albrecht Dürer's Self‐Portrait (1500).