| Between Religion and Philosophy offers a new point of departure to examine the complex relation between existential and phenomenological traditions in the modern period. It does so by recovering the centrality of "conversion"---seen as a radical re-orientation in one's self-understanding---in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger and by showing the roots of this concept in Christian models of conversion. The central argument of my dissertation is that such conversion is an overarching ethical ideal for both Kierkegaard and Heidegger, to the point that each comes to define it as the ultimate criterion of a person's "authenticity." As I show, Heidegger and Kierkegaard not only posit radical change as end and goal, but also define their work as part of the individual's preparation for this end. Scholars often view the history of existentialism, with its affirmation of contingency, human finitude, and freedom, through the narrative of a progressive withdrawal from religious and theological worldviews. Heidegger's appropriation of Kierkegaard, on this view, is seen as a paradigm in the philosophical secularization of a religious thinker. The dissertation demonstrates that by using the ideal of conversion as a lens, we can see philosophical and religious models of personal transformation as they are intertwined at the very core of existential thought. Through a reexamination of the relation between Kierkegaard and Heidegger and the deeply interwoven relation between religious and philosophical reflection that characterizes their respective studies of conversion, I show how each of these two figures struggled to redefine the role of religious ideas in an increasingly "secular" intellectual landscape. |
