Kierkegaard and the Question Concerning Technology

Christopher B. Barnett

Aug 2019 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this eBook

Over the last several decades, technology has emerged as an important area of interest for both philosophers and theologians. Yet, despite his status as one of modernity's seminal thinkers, Søren Kierkegaard is not often seen as one who contributed to the field. Kierkegaard and the Question Concerning Technology argues otherwise. Christopher B. Barnett shows that many of Kierkegaard's criticisms of "the present age" relate to the increasing dominance of technology in the West, and he puts Kierkegaard's thought in conversation with subsequent thinkers who grappled with technological issues, from Martin Heidegger to Thomas Merton.

Barnett shows that Kierkegaard's writing, with its marked emphases on personal "upbuilding," stands as a place where deeper, non-technical modes of thinking are both commended and nurtured. In doing so, Barnett presents a Kierkegaard who remains relevant--perhaps all too relevant--in today's digital age.

About the author

Christopher B. Barnett is Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, USA. He is the author of Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness (2011) and From Despair to Faith: The Spirituality of Søren Kierkegaard (2014), and as well as the editor and translator of Kierkegaard: Discourses and Writings on Spirituality (2019), which will be part of the well-known Classics of Western Spirituality series. He is also coeditor of Theology and the Films of Terrence Malick (2016) and Scorsese and Religion (2019).