Works of Love - Kierkegaard Orientation Session
Kierkegaard’s challenge to live beyond preference, in the demanding space of the other.
Works of Love is a beautiful and challenging meditation on what it means to love - in action, not just in theory or feeling.
The writing is dense, philosophical, sometimes poetic. Works of Love is unmistakably a Christian text, but it has value and appeal more broadly. Kierkegaard’s psychological depth, existential honesty and ethical reasoning promise to provoke deep reflection and fruitful conversation.
We’ll kick off our reading in week one with an orientation session, that’s intended to encourage discussion around these & related themes:
* how / where does this book fit into the wider canon?
* how is related to the other books we’ve read so far?
* what else have we read by this author or on this theme (either as a group, or outside)?
* what’s at stake here? what are the themes & goals & methods?
* what’s our pace & schedule for reading the book? how should we best split it across the weeks - ie set readings or more flexible, how many weeks should we take overall, eg flexible or set end date?
* what version or translation does everyone have? are there big differences? do we have a favourite or a recommendation?
Hopefully by thinking about these things in a semi-structured way in the first session, we’ll all be aligned & have the most positive & enjoyable reading experience as we work through the text.
We usually head to the pub after our discussion.
We're a group that welcomes all, young, old, completely new to philosophy or well versed, students to those who've never darkened the door of a lecture. And you don't have to have been coming from the start of our long reads. It can be helpful, but also don't feel you can't dive in at some point along the way!
Locations ongoing:
Teaching Room 2 law school until 21st may.
28th May 1.37 (so different room) patersons land
4 June- 3 Sept 1.27 patersons land
