Tempo, eternidade e verdade: pressupostos agostinianos da ideia de Paradoxo Absoluto em Kierkegaard

Abstract

In 1844, the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) published his book Philosophical Fragments under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus. In that book, he formulated the expression Absolute Paradox, which designates what Christianity has been traditionally calling the Incarnation of the Word. In Kierkegaard’s thought, the idea of Absolute Paradox is identified with truth itself, and it presupposes an absolute distinction between time and eternity. Both the identification of Incarnate Word with truth and the absolute distinction between time and eternity were also objects of reflection for Aurelius Augustine (354-430), the Roman-Berber thinker and priest. This dissertation intends to show how the Kierkegaardian Absolute Paradox expresses a specifically Christian way of thinking that historically opposes itself to non-Christian perspectives and to ideas that diverge with Christian orthodoxy. Besides, it intends to examine how Kierkegaard’s way of reflecting about time, eternity and truth in the 19th Century echoes the way Augustine dealt with these same issues in late antiquity.