Articles

In the Depths of Despair: The Kierkegaardian Abyss

Emmanuel Falque

Issue 3

Volume 1

pp. 583 - 655

https://doi.org/10.65172/vgFMV9JotMAbc464

Abstract

Emmanuel Falque explores the Kierkegaardian "phenomenology of dizziness," where despair is radicalized as a constitutive element of human existence. Analyzing the transition from Pascalian disorientation to Kierkegaardian dizziness, Falque examines how the "decision of the infinite" transforms finitude. He distinguishes between trauma as an "extra-phenomenal" event and sin as an "anti-phenomenon." Ultimately, Falque argues that salvation destroys the possibility of despair, enabling the "possibility of the impossible."

Citations

Emmanuel Falque, Hors phénomène: Essai aux confins de la phénoménalité (Paris: Hermann, 2021), 254–97.

Pascal, Pensées, 365 (S. 686, L. 434, B. 199).

Emmanuel Falque, “The Resurrection Changes Everything,” in The Metamorphosis of Finitude, trans. George Hughes (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012).

Michel Foucault, “The Analytic of Finitude,” in The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), 318.

“Pascal et l’inquiétude de la foi,” in Jean Greisch, Les trois âges de la raison, Métaphysique, phénoménologie, herméneutique, ed. Jérôme de Gramont, Stefano Bancalari, and Jean Leclercq (Paris: Hermann, 2016), 255–79.

Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin, ed. and trans. Reidar Thomte and Albert B. Anderson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), 61 (4:331).

Emmanuel Falque, “The Temptation of Despair or Anxiety over Sin,” in The Guide to Gethsemane: Anxiety, Suffering, and Death, trans. George Hughes (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019), 22–25.

Pascal, Pensées, 98 (S. 168, L. 136, B. 139).

Michel Henry, “Desire and the Leap into Sin,” in Incarnation, trans. Karl Hefty (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2015), 198–204.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. Pierre Force et al., ed. Pierre Zoberman (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 117

Emmanuel Falque, Crossing the Rubicon: The Borderlands of Philosophy and Theology, trans. Reuben Shank (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016).

Emmanuel Levinas, Of God Who Comes to Mind, trans. Bettina Bergo (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998).

Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), part 2, 176–177 (2:160).

Jean-Luc Chrétien, L’inoubliable et l’inespéré, 2nd ed. (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2000).

Paul Ricoeur, Vivant jusqu’à la mort (Paris: Seuil, 2007).

Emmanuel Levinas, “A propos de Kierkegaard vivant,” in Noms propres (Paris: Biblio-Essais, 1976), 89.

Emmanuel Falque, The Loving Struggle: Phenomenological and Theological Debates, trans. Bradley B. Onishi and Lucas McCracken (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

John Duns Scotus in God, the Flesh, and the Other: From Irenaeus to Duns Scotus, trans. William Christian Hackett (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2015).

Søren Kierkegaard, “Last Words (to E. Boesen),” in Kierkegaard: The Difficulty of Being Christian, ed. Jacques Colette, trans. Ralph M. McInerny and Leo Turcotte (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 126.

“Apocalypse ou révélation,” in La révélation: Lectures philosophiques et théologiques, ed. Jérôme de Gramont and Vincent Holzer (Paris: Hermann, 2020), 111–34, esp. 120–22.

Jean-Luc Marion, On Descartes’ Metaphysical Prism: The Constitution and the Limits of Onto-theo-logy in Cartesian Thought, trans. Jeffrey L. Kosky (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 306–22.

Marie-Fleur Manchon, Phénoménologie du Royaume, En suivant l’étoile de la redemption de Franz Rosenzweig, doctoral thesis at the Université de Rouen Normandie, 2023, 285–390.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, trans. Carol Macomber, ed. John Kulka (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 37

Emmanuel Levinas, “Existence et éthique,” in Noms propres (Paris: Biblio-Essais, 1976), 81–82.

Emmanuel Falque, “The Visibility of the Flesh (Irenaeus),” in God, the Flesh, and the Other: From Irenaeus to Duns Scotus, trans. William Christian Hackett (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2015), 139–40.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies 3.23.6, trans. and ed. Dominic J. Unger (New York: Newman, 2012), 108.

Jean-Yves Lacoste, Experience and the Absolute: Disputed Questions on the Humanity of Man, trans. Mark Raftery-Skehan (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004).

Falque, “La solitude originelle,” the last chapter of Hors phénomène, 393–451.

Falque, “Ce qu’on nattendait pas,” in Hors phénomène, 346–49.

Emmanuel Falque, “Dieu extra-phenomenal,” in La chair de Dieu (Paris: Cerf, 2023), 123–58.

K. Verstrynge, “D’apprendre que chaque homme particulier est seul: Quelques réflexions sur l’exigence éthique chez Søren Kierkegaard,” unpublished paper.

“La force du lien,” 442–51.

“L’inassimilable,” in Hors phénomène, 349–54.

Søren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to “Philosophical Fragments, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 323 (7:278).

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, trans. M.D. Herter Norton, rev. ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1954), 59.

Theodor Adorno, “La doctrine kierkegaardienne de l’amour,” in Kierkegaard, trans. Eliane Escoubas (Paris: Éditions Payot et Rivages, 1995), 258.

Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), 67 (9:68–69).

Eliane Escoubas, “Adorno lecteur de Kierkegaard: Subjectivité et individualité,” in Tumultes (Paris: Éditions Kimé, 2001), 45–56 (in particular, 51).

Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 62 (11:174).

Søren Kierkegaard’s samlede Vœrker, vol. 1–14, ed. A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg, and H. O. Lange (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1901–6).

Søren Kegaards Skrifter (Copenhagen: Gad, 1997–2012).

Contact us at [email protected] or (866) 928-1237

Word on Fire © 2026 - All Rights Reserved

Word on Fire Catholic Ministries is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit ministry.