International Kierkegaard Society

International Kierkegaard Society The International Kierkegaard Society is an association dedicated to the study and promotion of the works of Søren Kierkegaard, engaging scholars, translators, and institutions worldwide. It fosters collaboration among universities such as University of Copenhagen, Harvard University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Yale University and libraries including the Royal Library, Denmark and the British Library. The Society interacts with publishers like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, Routledge, and CrossCurrents while coordinating with centers such as the Kierkegaard Research Centre and archives like the Danish National Archives.

History

Founded amid renewed interest in 20th-century existentialism and modern theology, the Society emerged as part of broader scholarly movements connected to figures like Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Gabriel Marcel. Early conferences and correspondences involved scholars from University of Marburg, University of Heidelberg, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Postwar reconstruction of European intellectual life saw involvement from academics associated with Hannah Arendt, Ernst Troeltsch, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and institutions such as the American Philosophical Society and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. The Society has navigated scholarly debates influenced by editions like the Kierkegaardiana series and by translation projects linked to Walter Lowrie and Howard V. Hong.

Organization and Membership

Governance typically includes a board with representatives from universities and research institutes such as Aarhus University, University of Toronto, Uppsala University, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Stanford University. Membership categories mirror practices at organizations like the Modern Language Association, American Philosophical Association, and European Society for the Study of English, offering individual, institutional, and student affiliations. Honorary membership has been extended to notable Kierkegaard scholars associated with Jørgen Jørgensen (philologist), Alastair Hannay, George Pattison, Merold Westphal, C. Stephen Evans, R.J. Hollingdale and links to editorial boards of journals such as The Journal of Philosophy, Theological Studies, and Religious Studies Review. Regional chapters connect to departments at McGill University, University of Melbourne, Seoul National University, University of São Paulo, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Activities and Conferences

The Society organizes triennial and biennial symposia patterned after gatherings like the World Congress of Philosophy, the International Congress of Medieval Studies, and the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR). Conferences attract presenters from programs at Columbia University, New York University, University of Paris (Sorbonne), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and University of Cape Town, often featuring keynote lectures referencing works by Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Augustinus of Hippo, and Blaise Pascal. The Society collaborates on panels with associations including the American Academy of Religion, British Society for Phenomenology, European Society for Continental Philosophy, and the International Federation of Philosophical Societies. Workshops focus on themes connected to specific texts like Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto Death, Works of Love, and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and convene at venues such as the Royal Danish Academy, Institut Catholique de Paris, and the Getty Research Institute.

Publications and Translations

The Society supports critical editions and translation projects comparable to the efforts of Cambridge University Press and the Indiana University Press Kierkegaard series, collaborating with translators following traditions established by Edwin Muir, Thomas Mann, Walter Lowrie, Howard V. Hong, and Edna H. Hong. It sponsors journals and monograph series akin to Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook, Existential Analysis, Faith and Philosophy, Journal of the History of Ideas, and Modern Theology, and partners with academic presses including Brill, De Gruyter, Continuum, Bloomsbury, and Palgrave Macmillan. The Society has aided bibliographies and concordances referenced in library catalogs such as the Library of Congress and the Danish National Bibliography, and has facilitated translations into languages with publishing centers at Universidade de São Paulo, Waseda University, Beijing Normal University, Universität Zürich, and Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Awards and Grants

Award programs mirror prizes from organizations like the Guggenheim Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the European Research Council, offering fellowships, travel grants, and publication subsidies. Grants have supported projects at institutions including the Kierkegaard Archives, the Center for Theological Inquiry, Harvard Divinity School, Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and the Danish Institute in Rome. Prize committees have included scholars affiliated with Princeton University, Brown University, Duke University, University of Edinburgh, and University of St Andrews, awarding recognition for monographs, translations, and dissertations that engage Kierkegaard’s oeuvre, such as scholarly work on Concept of Anxiety and studies linking Kierkegaard to thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard-related scholarship in comparative projects with Karl Marx, John Calvin, Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas.

Category:Philosophical societies