Thomas Henry Croxall
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Thomas Henry Croxall was a lover of the works of Soren Kierkegaard
He studied his writings for over twenty years and translated Johannes Climacus (written by Kierkegaard 1843-1844 but never published) and related his works to the scriptures in his book Kierkegaard Studies, where he wrote: “Kierkegaard is in the air these days. He has not yet, so far as I know, become on the air, but that doubtless will come, for he is constantly quoted and discussed (discussed, I fear, more than read). What then is all the fuss about, and what is his distinctive teaching? Now, any lover of Kierkegaard (and such I most certainly am) longs to answer such a question. He has found in Kierkegaard’s teaching a new and stimulating body of thought, which to him is like a pearl of great price, worth anything to possess. But since the pearl is spiritual treasure, not material, that treasure must be shared if its value is not to diminish. Hence I desire to share the treasure.” Studies 1948 p. 11.
Croxall provides the reader with a “wealth of beauty, fragrance, and sustenance” in his Meditations. Most of the meditations came from the Journals and Papers of Soren Kierkegaard from Croxall’s own translations. He recognized, in 1944, the need for better translations of Kierkegaard’s works. His translation, he said, “is “new”; I mean in its form and presentation. Soren Kierkegaard is a deep philosopher, but he is first and foremost a Christian; a penetrating student and exponent of the Scriptures; and above all, a man of prayer and meditation, who, as he himself confesses, spent every day in the quiet of his chamber with God.” Meditations 1955 p. 1.
“Now it is agreed on all sides that Kierkegaard is a great thinker; indeed I do not see how it can be denied. He is a Christian thinker too.” 14 k.studies He was against the “wicked deception” wherein a reader read an introduction to Kierkegaard but never “go on to read Kierkegaard himself”. Studies 1948 p. 17.
Croxall translated Kierkegaard’s works in the aftermath of World War II. He says, again from Kierkegaard Studies, “Need I say that our age, with it industrial “massification”, its twin tyrannies of newspaper and ballot-box (present to-day just as they were in Kierkegaard’s time: unknown to Kierkegaard, those of the radio and the cinema), its trade unions, federations, combines; its feverish enslavement to fashion; its indecision and bewilderment about the meaning and purpose of life; its pursuit of pleasure and of the false gods of aestheticism, superstition, and selfishness, its belief that it has “gone farther” than Christianity, when really it has scarcely even approached Christianity (Heaven turn us from continuing along the path which has disastrously taken us “farther”!)-all this and much more shows that we are in as dire need as were his contemporaries, of Kierkegaard’s great doctrine of the Individual.” Studies 1948 p. 15.
Croxall was against the athiestic use of Kierkegaard's works. "Kierkegaard is Christian. Some “existentialists” – Berdyaev, Dostoevsky, Unamuno, "Maritain, Chestov, Marcel – concur in being, in varying degrees, Christian too. Many, however-Bataille, Sartre, Camus, Jaspers, Heidegger are atheistic, so that atheism and existentialism are sometimes thought synonymous. These writers “extract from religion its most useful attributes and re-secularize them, making a ‘corner’ in thought”." Studies 1948 p. 60.
Kierkegaard studies, with special reference to (a) the Bible (b) our own age. Thomas Henry Croxall, Published: (1948) Meditations from Kierkegaard, Translated and Edited by T. H. Croxall, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press 1955 Glimpses and impressions of Kierkegaard, Welwyn, Herts, J. Nisbet 1959
He refers his readers to other Kierkegaardian writers from the 40's and 50's throughout his book "Kierkegaard Studies". Some of his references include:
Kierkegaard: The Prophet of the Now, by T.S. Gregory, November 21, 1946 The Prophet of the Absolute, by H.V. Martin The Crowd is the Lie, T.H. Croxall, Presbyter, February 1945 Lectures on the Religious thought of Kierkegaard (Lecture IV), Geismar, Augsburg Publishing House Philosophy, July 1941, by Professor Dorothy Emmet Existentialism: Disintegration of Man's Soul, Guido De Ruggiero, 1948, Social Sciences Publishers Inc. New York 'Kierkegaard studies, with special reference to (a) the Bible (b) our own age. Thomas Henry Croxall, Published: (1948) Meditations from Kierkegaard, Translated and Edited by T. H. Croxall, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press 1955 Glimpses and impressions of Kierkegaard, Welwyn, Herts, J. Nisbet 1959} Johannes Climacus, by Soren Kierkegaard, Edited and Introduced by Jane Chamberlain, Translated by T.H. Croxall 2001