Following the Cultured Public's Chosen One

Book excerpt: "Soren Kierkegaard never shared the cultured public's enthusiasm for Hans Lassen Martensen, whom it identified as its chosen one. This volume examines the Kierkegaard-Martensen relationship, establishing ways in which the speculative theologian Martensen was a source for Kierkegaard's thought." "While these two never saw things eye-to-eye, and Kierkegaard's dislike for Martensen received expression in his writings, this spiteful ridicule and derision was directed toward one upon whom Kierkegaard was significantly dependent." "The development of Kierkegaard's intellectual life and work can be better grasped by investigating developments that Martensen himself was going through. The questions and issues preoccupying Martensen changed over the years, and these changes did not go unnoticed by Kierkegaard." "It is argued here that Kierkegaard followed Martensen's intellectual development very closely and that Martensen's shifting theological agenda in fact notably shaped the evolving agenda of Kierkegaard's own developing religious thought."--BOOK JACKET.