Parables of Kierkegaard delivers what it promises; a collection of Parables written by Kierkegaard. It is edited by Thomas C Oden. Basically what Oden did is go through all of Kierkegaard’s works and found the best little stories and parables that he could and condensed them into this slim little package.

The book works like this; the parable’s title is given, the gist of the parable is shown, next the actual body of the parable is contained, and finally, the listing of where the parable can be found is given. Sometimes the parable might have a little illustration to go alongside it. Not all of the stories have that though, I would say about a fifth of them do.

There isn’t really much more to say about the book. Normally I would be confused as to where the parable came from since it doesn’t have any surrounding text explaining it. However, as I mentioned before, there is a little blurb at the beginning that gives you the gist. Also, the final footnote indicates where the parable was drawn from.

I would be hard pressed to ask for more from this work. If you are studying Kierkegaard or are merely a fan of his works, then this book is pretty good. The collection goes a bit heavy on religion, but it was edited by a Professor of Theology so I tried to keep that in mind. ( )

Soren Kierkegaard is not always the easiest writer to follow. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed his parables so much. They do provide an interesting avenue toward an understanding of some of his ideas.

Soren Kierkegaard is not always the easiest writer to follow. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed his parables so much. They do provide an interesting avenue toward an understanding of some of his ideas. ( )