Kierkegaard and the Self before God: Anatomy of the Abyss

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.