David Cain

Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion

Mary Washington College

Julia Watkin's remarkable work is an encyclopedia of surprises. The author refers to "a handbook" (xi). "Dictionary" surely results from the title of the series in which this volume participates, but is too "direct," and "Philosophy" is too comfortable, for Kierkegaard's indirect pseudonymous dazzle. Jon Woronoff makes essentially this point in his "Editor's Foreword." Julia Watkin concurs: "As soon as one attempts to pin Kierkegaard down as a theologian, a philosopher, or a psychologist, his writings, through his stratagem of using pseudonyms and Socratic 'indirect communication,' defy such classifications" (xi). Once past the title, this book is a cornucopia-thesaurus-treasure-trove. These comments are celebration-ovation-acclamation--and some indication of riches to be encountered.

Julia Watkin's dedication of the book bespeaks her own dedication and offers two clues to the volume's character: delight in exacting scholarship and lively respect across centuries: "To Christian Molbech and Ludvig Meyer / in gratitude for their wonderful dictionaries / that are as invaluable now as when they were / first written" (v). (All right: "dictionary" does not want to go away.) Watkin refers readily to "the assistance from the many 19^th- and 20^th- century friends inhabiting my library…" (xiv). She achieves an impressive "contemporaneity with Kierkegaard" and his times, and can observe one of Kierkegaard's favorite actors, Joachim Ludvig Phister, "He was particularly good at portraying stupid people without overdoing it" (196) – as if she had just seen Phister on stage. In this "contemporaneity," the crisscross and interconnectedness of the "little world" of Golden Age Denmark is evidenced on most every page, a reason why an index – there is none – would have been valuable in addition to the cross-referencing.

The two major sections of the book are "The Dictionary" (well over half) and "Bibliography" (one-fourth). These are framed by "Preface," maps of 19^th century Denmark and Copenhagen, "Chronology," "Introduction" ("Kierkegaard's Life," "Kierkegaard's Cultural Background," "Kierkegaard's Authorship" and "Kierkegaard's Thought"), and by three surprise appendices. "Appendix A" is "Kierkegaard's Writings." Following a brief note on the "Journals and Papers" are two detailed sections, "Books and Articles Under His Own Name or Published Posthumously" and "Pseudonymous Books and Articles or Published Posthumously." Works are listed chronologically in each section. Titles and contents are given in English and Danish. An admirable aspect of the entire work is Watkin's keeping in touch with the Danish. A second, thorough appendix is on "Kierkegaard's Pseudonyms" (twenty-eight entries; but there is a double entry – "Nicolaus Notabene" and "N.N." – as well as such "pseudonyms" as "One Still Living" and "Writer of the Letter, The"). Here one finds intriguing suggestions concerning the possible significance of some of the "names," e.g., "H.H. might indicate the Danish word for higher (høiere), with the use of initials at the same time expressing his modesty of pretension" (403). A third appendix, "Some Historical Notes," gives us "Monarchs," "Historical Events (Chronological Order)" and "Places Where Kierkegaard Lived in Copenhagen."

The author's "Preface" provides helpful previews of the varied treasures in this chest. The economy and detail of the "Introduction" are impressive. A "theme" recurs (to be found also and not surprisingly in Julia Watkin, Kierkegaard [London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1997]), that of tension and paradox: "the tension between the world-affirming Christianity of Judge William and the world-denying Christianity of the imitator of Christ" (3), "past poverty and present wealth" (4), "the rural religion of peasant pietism and the urban religiosity of bourgeois city life" (4). These are but examples. Of the latter, Watkin observes, "The Kierkegaard family attended the Moravian meetings and Mynster's services and so in a sense had a foot in two camps" (4). This could serve as a title for the "Introduction": "A Foot in Two Camps." I suppose a foot in two camps means two feet. Are these two feet planted in both camps, or might we think instead of a dialectical dance? The former is static and spatial; the latter is dynamic and temporal as well as spatial. Kierkegaard's thought takes time. The dialectic is in motion, and motion requires time. A static Kierkegaard is not Kierkegaard. Watkin writes, "Finally, one can see dialectic, if not paradox in the intellectual life of the Kierkegaard home. Like his father and elder brother Peter, Søren Kierkegaard had a talent for philosophical and theological discussion. He was exceptionally good at being able to put forth both sides [and often there are more sides than "both"] of an argument" (5): a dialectical tackling of paradoxes in time.

"The Dictionary" from A to Ø, from "ABSURD" to "ØRSTED, HANS CHRISTIAN (1777-1851)," contains two-hundred eighty-two entries, though with many cross-references, e.g., "MEN AND WOMEN. See WOMEN AND MEN" (166). (There are cross references and …cross references.) These entries are widely varied. The predictable: concepts, persons, subjects, places, societies, books of the authorship, events, schools, publishers, and publications. The not-so-predictable: 20^th-century thinkers influenced by Kierkegaard (Barth, Bultmann, Heidegger, Jaspers, Sartre) are accorded extensive entries. Precursors give way to successors--no Plato, no Kant, no Hamann. Hegel is here, but the entry is "HEGEL, HEGELIANISM." In the same way, "SOCRATES" is a topic: "See INDIRECT COMMUNICATION; PAGANISM; RECOLLECTION; SIN" (240). Of the eighty-three biographical entries (not counting three cross-listings and the "20^th-century five"), only four are not Kierkegaard's contemporaries or are without dates overlapping his: Hans Adolf Brorson, Ludvig Holberg, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and Kirstine Nielsdatter Røyen (Kierkegaard's father's first wife). Also less predictable--but illuminating and engaging--are explanations of now obscure references in the authorship, e.g., "BIRD KING," "HORSE, DRIVING ROUND THE," "NEXT HOUSE, TRY THE," "SNOWDROP AND WINTER FOOL." Reading through rather than going directly to what one is looking for (and most often one can find it) is an adventure and fun. One never knows what is coming next. Examples: one goes from "ANIMALS" to "ANXIETY" to "ART," from "GREAT DAY OF PRAYER" to "GREEKS, THE" to "GRIB FOREST, THE," from "MOVING DAY" to "MUSIC" to "MYNSTER, JAKOB PETER (1775-1854)." These entries come with striking specificity from dates onward: "Kierkegaard was vaccinated when he was three and a half months old, on September 23, 1813" (44). "Mrs. Pätges, the mother of Johanne Luise Heiberg [the bold means a separate entry], ran a refreshment tent at Bakken" (63). "Kierkegaard entered the Pastoral Seminary (as number 252) on November 17, 1840. On January 12, 1841, at noon, Kierkegaard took his turn (in Holmen's Church) at a trial sermon, choosing as his text Philippians 1, verses 19-25" (190). Libraries would be challenged to locate the information Library Watkins has collected and catalogued. The injunction, "You don't study Talmud; you swim in it," is apposite. Though this is not quite Talmud, dive in: start swimming.

If all of this is a bit staggering, one may be led to ask: Why did Professor Watkin not edit such a volume, inviting contributions from a motley legion of Kierkegaard students or, as she nicely puts it, from "the living world of ongoing, interacting Kierkegaard scholars and Kierkegaard lovers" (xiii)? She also raises the question indirectly, rivaling Kierkegaard for (ironic) understatement: "I have been very conscious that to write such a dictionary without collaborators is a considerable project for one person" (xiii). The obvious minus is loss of diverse voices and specialized expertise. The plus is continuity and control. Patterns are evident. The person entries begin with a brief biographical sketch (again, with often amazing detail) and then address the connection with Kierkegaard. The concept entries attend to the organic relation between one concept and a cluster of others. Of course there are interpretations which one could question: perhaps the recurring use of "as" -- as in "Kierkegaard as Anti-Climacus" (61) and "Kierkegaard as Johannes Climacus" (72) -- falls short of respecting the pseudonyms (see also 60, 64, 127-128, 178, 208, 212-213, 215, 252, 259, 263). But overall the presentations are judicious, balanced, and insightful.

This is not all. There is the one-hundred-plus page "Bibliography" with an orienting "Introduction." Watkin declares that the "two main aims" of the bibliography "are to create satisfactory categories and to include only good material" (278). Both aims are problematic. The "categories" spill over into one another. The placement of a work "here and not there" often seems (almost) arbitrary. Many works could appear appropriately in several categories. Then there is "only good material." Watkin knows she is in trouble: "the difficulty…is to decide what counts as 'good'…this ["to stick to what one finds relevant and interesting about Kierkegaard in relation to one's own field of research"] can result in the 'bad' books becoming good through the quality of annoyed scholarly reaction provoked, an annoyance that can provoke the writing of insightful articles and books. So in this bibliography there are at least two books and some articles that I find appalling, but I included them in the hope that they will succeed in stimulating the reader in the way they stimulated me" (279). (She writes herself here into a near "mini-theodicy.")

Ten categories: "Texts of Kierkegaard in Danish" (this is divided into "Single Editions" and "Collected Works and Papers"); "Kierkegaard Texts in Translation" (again, "Single Editions" and "Collected Works and Papers"); "Introductory Works"; "Background Material" (these last two categories leak into one another); "Kierkegaard and Aesthetics"; "Kierkegaard and Ethics"; "Kierkegaard and Religious Perspectives" (these three categories follow, roughly, the "three spheres" or "stages"). The eighth category is "Kierkegaard and Other Thinkers." If a certain arbitrariness haunts the earlier bibliographical categories, "Other Thinkers" is likewise haunted. These "Other Thinkers" are Adler, Andersen, Anselm, Aristotle, Augustine, Balle, Barth, Brandes, Buber, Bultmann, Bunyan, Confucius, Dante, Derrida, Dickinson, Dinesen, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, Feuerbach, Fichte, Foucault, Freud, Goethe, Goldschmidt, Greene, Grundtvig, Hamann, Hawking, Hegel, Heidegger, Heine, Holberg, Husserl, Ibsen, Jaspers, Kant, Lessing, Levinas, Lewis (C.S.), Lukács, Luther, Løgstrup, Marcel, Martensen, Marx, Mozart, Møller (P.L.), Møller (P.M.), Nietzsche, Pascal, Plantinga, Plato, Plotinus, Rahner, Santayana, Sartre, Schelling, Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Schopenhauer, Shakespeare, Socrates, Tillich, Trendelenburg, Unamuno, Weil, Wittgenstein. Missing precursors now make their appearance, together with Plato, Kant, Hamann. In several cases, one reference establishes an entry. References to Watkin's own writings secure the inclusion of Bunyan, Hawking, and Lewis. Category nine is extensive: "Other Studies." To be noted especially are the detailed contents regularly included. For instance, here we find Kierkegaard Studies: Yearbook of the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Liber Academiœ Kierkegaardiensis: Yearbook of the Kierkegaard Academy, International Kierkegaard Commentary, and Kierkegaardiana: the articles included in each volume are given. Finally, "Bibliographical and Lexical Aids" is divided into "Printed Materials" and "Electronic Materials."

The book is attractive and clean, a voluminous volume of extraordinary range and depth, of invaluable historical specificities--a service and gift to us all. "No Kierkegaard library should be without one." Kierkegaard is surrounded; we are besieged. Tusind tak, Julia Watkin.