Abstract

In The Sickness unto Death Soren Kierkegaard argues that man is composed of bodily and soulish qualities, and that faith is a synthesizing of these qualities. If man rejects either side of his bodily-soulish polarity he commits sin and is thrown into despair. Despair is "the sickness unto death," and it comes as a result of man's rejection of a portion of his being. Faith is a synthesizing trust in God who has given man both the limitations and the possibilities of life. ;The purpose of this dissertation is to present in survey fashion Soren Kierkegaard's concepts of anxiety and faith as he presents them primarily in The Sickness unto Death and The Concept of Dread , and to discuss parallel concepts in Gestalt Therapy and Psychosynthesis. Following this will be given a description of the use of these concepts with selected church discussion groups, and a presentation of the kinds of experiences the groups had with these concepts. The study closes with some implications this dissertation has for the pastor today