Following his acclaimed translations of Fear and Trembling and The Sickness unto Death , Bruce H. Kirmmse presents a new translation of Kierkegaard’s discourses on love. “Bruce H. Kirmmse is among the very best translators of Kierkegaard working today.” ―Christopher B. Barnett A founding figure of existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard is perhaps best known for his writing on anxiety and despair, particularly in such works as Fear and Trembling , The Concept of Anxiety , and The Sickness unto Death . Yet love, too, is a common theme in Kierkegaard’s oeuvre, underlying his various collections of edifying discourses, as well as Either/Or , Stages on Life’s Way , Christian Discourses , and especially Works of Love . First published in 1847, Works of Love is the most important explicitly religious work Kierkegaard published under his own name. Intended to awaken rather than convince―replicating, in Socratic fashion, the stinging, impatient character of a “gadfly”―the book consists of two sets of “deliberations” on love, the first set addressing love as a duty, and the second examining the applications of love. Throughout, Kierkegaard contrasts romantic love and love of one’s friends with the selfless Christian love, or agape , of the New Testament, ultimately contending that the only way to purge self-interest from love is to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and oneself as one’s neighbor, who is “indeed unconditionally every person.” Although careful to distinguish his “deliberations” from clerical “sermons,” Kierkegaard insisted that in order to grasp the full meaning of the texts that constitute Works of Love , one must hear them. Kierkegaard makes this point repeatedly in his journals, and indeed, the preface of a work he published a few years after Works of Love begins with the words: “My dear reader! If possible, read aloud! If you do so, let me thank you for it.” While previous translations have not given sufficient attention to this critical aural aspect of the text, Bruce H. Kirmmse’s translation preserves it, thus making the same request of its readers that Kierkegaard once made of his―to hear the argument by reading it aloud . Featuring an illuminating introduction by Kirmmse, this new translation of Works of Love promises to become the standard for generations to come. "Bruce H. Kirmmse has just published a capacious, generous, and lyrical new translation of this two-part series of ‘deliberations,’ a translation that, like the original, is meant to be read aloud . . . Works of Love is not exactly a beach read, yet for me it was the perfect book for a summer of hate. If in some ways it’s a dense and hefty tome, it’s also sonorous in its melodies and enthralling, paradigm-shifting in its propositions―I don’t know if scholars would agree, but I think it’s fair enough to treat this as a volume to dip in and out of, flipping between chapters, when the mind is calm enough for reflection, to find hope, respite, lessons for living a different kind of world." ― Ania Szremski, 4Columns "Bruce H. Kirmmse translates Kierkegaard’s Danish as clearly as one might wish, while those returning to it after many readings can be grateful that Kirmmse has enabled a fresh encounter with a modern classic whose challenge endures." ― Joel D. S. Rasmussen, author of Between Irony and Witness "Bruce H. Kirmmse has produced an impressive translation. . . . This is not only an accomplishment that commands respect, but is also an occasion for plain delight. Kierkegaard is rejoicing in his grave." ― Joakim Garff, author of Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography "Bruce H. Kirmmse conveys the vigor and lucidity of Kierkegaard’s original text as it persuasively guides us to the paradoxical message of hope that emerges from the Dane’s unequalled analysis of despair." ― George Pattison, author of Kierkegaard and the Quest for Unambiguous Life " The Sickness unto Death is Kierkegaard’s masterpiece of the human self. . . . Bruce H. Kirmmse’s new translation―brisk, readable, accurate―makes fresh a diagnosis of the spirit needed in our time." ― Gregory R. Beabout, author of Freedom and Its Misuses Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher and theologian whose work has been widely recognized as foundational both to modern psychology and existentialism. A professor emeritus at Connecticut College, Bruce H. Kirmmse has published several books and numerous articles on Kierkegaard and is general editor of Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks . He lives in Randolph, New Hampshire, and Copenhagen, Denmark.