Robert C. ROBERTS, Recovering Christian Character: The Psychological Wisdom of Soren Kierkegaard. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Books, 2022. 392 pp. $49.00 hb. ISBN 978-0-8028-7316-3. Reviewed by David DAULT, Loyola University Chicago Institute of Pastoral Studies, Chicago, IL 60611.

Recovering Christian Character is a book that succeeds on a number of levels. It is a comprehensive introduction to the main ideas and texts of Kierkegaard for those seeking orientation and overview. This book offers clear exposition for those who find the writing of Kierkegaard daunting, particularly the pseudonymous works. At the same time, Roberts takes an interpretive position in opposition to the prevailing currents of Kierkegaard scholarship. 

As Roberts notes early in Recovering Christian Character, Kierkegaard saw his writing as a form of Christian mission work, particularly aimed at those members of Christendom that regarded themselves as Christians but who were, in actuality, living as pagans. "Inevitably," Roberts writes, "Christian missionary work centers on communication, on a presentation of the Christian message in such a way that it is taken up, grasped, and appropriated by those to whom the missionary is sent." It is this mechanism of appropriation that, in Roberts's reading, offers his departure from the main body of Kierkegaard's critics.

 Notably, Roberts asserts that Kierkegaard is best understood not as the precursor and progenitor of the Existentialist movement, as he is so often regarded, but rather as being in conversation with the much older stream of virtue ethics. As Roberts points out, the hero for Kierkegaard is Socrates, and the values that Kierkegaard esteemed were more in line with those of ancient Athens than with his contemporary Denmark. and therefore, Roberts argues, the most important aspect of human life for Kierkegaard is continuity of self, as opposed to the continued "reinvention of self" pursued by the Existentialists. 

A crux point in Roberts's reading is his argument that the question of Christian character was central to Kierkegaard's project of "re-introducing Christianity to Christendom." Using various personae and literary techniques, Kierkegaard sought to draw his readers into a reconsideration of their passions (those matters of greatest concern in one's life) in light of a reimagined and reinvigorated set of Christian ideals, moving them from a superficial religious practice to a Christianity of depth and authenticity. Through Kierkegaard's writings, Roberts argues, we are encouraged to become courageous, temperate, generous, and wise, among the several other classical Christian virtues. 

Another aspect that Roberts highlights in Recovering Christian Character is the deeply Lutheran grounding of Kierkegaard's thought, particularly regarding the idea of despair, from which the only hope is throwing ourselves on the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our modern quest for happiness is bound to bring us to the brink of this despair, and Kierkegaard's many pseudonyms embody the varieties of failed attempts different types of people use to lift themselves out of this despair. Despite the failure, the fact that we can fall into despair draws us to an understanding of ourselves as human. In Roberts's analysis, this becomes a type of therapeutic dynamic between Christ and the reader, rooted in an ever-deepening empathy. Roberts reads Kierkegaard as inviting us to think with the whole of who we are, as whole human beings. 

A real strength of Roberts's work is the deftness with which he brings a systematic clarity to the sprawling compass of Kierkegaard's varied works. This is no small feat, given Kierkegaard's resistance to and even disdain for systematization in his writings. The book divides into two parts. The first, "The Psychological Framework," presents Roberts's case for reading Kierkegaard as a virtue ethicist, demonstrating how such a reading offers greater coherence than the prevailing Existentialist reading. Following the model of Socrates, Roberts presents Kierkegaard as a "poet-dialectitian," who uses vast rhetorical skill to build up the character of his readers. 

In the second part, "Features of Christian Character," Roberts re-reads Kierkegaard's writings through the lenses of various Christian virtues: Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, Humility, Patience, Gratitude, and Generosity. Roberts contends that Kierkegaard deployed each of these in his prose as part of his ultimate missionary goal: "the recovery of Christian character in the Denmark of his time." Though Roberts never says so directly, it seems clear that his hope for Recovering Christian Character is similar. His patient and thorough work here is an invitation to readers in our contemporary context to reflect deeply on the authenticity of their lives, and the state of their souls.