The Divided Soul

SOren Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing is an astute analysis of inner dividedness. In this striking little book, Kierkegaard gently yet incisively specifies the precise forms it takes. Like many of SOren Kierkegaard's books, however, Purity of Heart contains a good deal of formidable prose.

The aim of The Divided Soul: A Kierkegaardian Exploration is to make Kierkegaard's scrutiny of our inner terrain in Purity of Heart accessible and inviting. With clear, direct prose, Clifford Williams lays bare Kierkegaard's discerning descriptions of the tension between a desire for goodness and resistance to goodness. Williams then reflects on themes arising from Kierkegaard's conception of faith.


""In this beautifully written little book, full of apt illustrations, Cliff Williams has made the riches of Kierkegaard's thought about the divided self come alive for the ordinary reader. No one can read it without meeting him or herself again and again in its pages. For maximum profit, this book should be read slowly and reflectively, over a period of several days.""
--Robert C. Roberts
Distinguished Professor of Ethics
Baylor University


Clifford Williams teaches philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of Singleness of Heart: Restoring the Divided Soul (1994), The Life of the Mind: A Christian Perspective (2002), and The Wisdom of Kierkegaard: A Collection of Quotations on Faith and Life (2009).