Doctoral defence: Igor Ahmedov "Kierkegaardian Theology of Education"

On 2 June at 16:15 Igor Ahmedov will defend his doctoral thesis "Kierkegaardian Theology of Education" for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Theology).

Supervisors:

Professor Anne Kull, University of Tartu

Professor Nigel Tubbs, University of Winchester (Great Britain)

Opponent:

Professor Solveig Magnus Reindal, NLA Høgskolen (Norway)

Summary

Can the truth be learned? This question has troubled philosophers and theologians since the dawn of Western philosophical tradition. Kierkegaardian Theology of Education invites us to reconsider the relationship between education and theology. At its core are bold questions: Can education be more than the transmission of knowledge? Could it be an existential journey? Is God education?

Thesis explores a new understanding of God and education through Kierkegaard’s division of theology into objective, subjective, and existence-communication. Through this lens, the boundaries of theology are expanded, incorporating Nigel Tubbs’s contemporary metaphysical theory into theological thinking to construct a new educational logic. This new educational logic, inspired by modern metaphysics, argues that truth is found neither in the object nor the subject but in the relation. To demonstrate this, the thesis examines Søren Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous work, "Philosophical Fragments" through the perspectives of the “Socratic,” “Climacian,” and “Tubbsian” readings. These three readings reveal how the relationship between God and humanity, mirrored in the relation between teacher and student, is established.

This relationship is revisited through the paradigm of the Incarnation, which was missing from Tubbs' theory of modern metaphysics. In the incarnational paradigm, God is no longer abstract but embodied in Jesus Christ. The aspect of incarnation highlights a distinctive element of the theology of education – the experience of God as a teacher, explored through the theoretical study of the relationship within the educational context. This approach challenges the view prevalent in Kierkegaard studies, which separates Kierkegaard’s educational theory in "Fragments" into divine and human teaching.

Instead, the thesis presents a new Kierkegaardian educational theory, where God is education. The thesis challenges the perspective in the theology of education that separates the practice and study of theology into two irreconcilable spheres within modern secular universities. The thesis’ unique contribution to the field of the theology of education lies in the rediscovery of a way of theological thinking that serves as an educational experience inherently present within the discipline of theology itself when theology's task is understood as existence-communication.