Abstract :
In Wisdom in Love: Kierkegaard and the Ancient Quest for EmotionalIntegrity, Rick Furtak argues that emotions are cognitive phenomena to beunderstood in terms of the relation between subject and object. Furtak uses hisconception of emotion to argue (in what he takes to be a Kierkegaardian spirit) thatlove is the source of meaning and value in human (and, specifically, Christian) life.This paper places Kierkegaard’s views, and the role love plays in them, in hishistorical context. I argue that Furtak’s approach fails to account for the subtle andcomplex role religious love plays in Kierkegaard’s thought, and ultimately leaveshim at odds with Kierkegaard methodologically and metaphysically
