St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

​Communion and the remission of sin : a Kierkegaardian account

Thumbnail
View/Open
Cockayne_2020_Participatio_Communion_CC.pdf (286.4Kb)
Date
23/05/2020
Author
Cockayne, Joshua
Keywords
BT Doctrinal Theology
T-NDAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
In this paper, I argue that by drawing comparisons between Søren Kierkegaard’s discussion of Communion in his Discourses at Communion on Fridays and the account of sin presented in the pseudonymous The Sickness Unto Death, we can address a problem discussed in contemporary philosophy of religion. This problem, as Terence Cuneo describes it, is just how the seemingly mundane acts involved in the practice of the Eucharist can play a role in the remission of sin. I argue that by expanding Kierkegaard’s discussion of sin in the Discourses at Communion on Fridays with reference to the account of sin presented in The Sickness Unto Death, we can provide a response to Cuneo’s problem. According to this Kierkegaardian response, what prevents a person from being united to God in this life is not a lack of God’s forgiveness, but rather, a weakness and fragmentedness of the human will. Not only does the practice of Communion bring about an awareness of one’s willed distance from God, but it also strengthens the will in such a way that one draws closer to Christ. Thus, by drawing together these seemingly distinct areas of Kierkegaard’s writings, I will show that we can begin to explain how the ordinary actions involved in the Eucharist can release human beings from the grip of sin.
Citation
Cockayne , J 2020 , ' ​Communion and the remission of sin : a Kierkegaardian account ' , Participatio , vol. 5 , pp. 144-166 . < https://tftorrance.org/2019-jc3-1 >
Publication
Participatio
Status
Peer reviewed
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 The Author. Open Access article, licensed by the T. F. Torrance Theological Fellowship under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
https://tftorrance.org/2019-jc3-1
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/20320

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter