The Edifying Influence of Soren Kierkegaard

Prairie Bible Institute My focus in this paper is on the theological value of the philosophy of nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard. My task is to address Kierkegaard's philosophical compatibility with and contribution to Christian theology and the significance Kierkegaard may (not) have for the tasks of the Christian theologian. What frames this issue for my purposes here is the supposed irrelevance of Kierkegaard to theology, as some would have it, while others take an even dimmer view, arguing that Kierkegaard leaves theology in an irrationalist and subjectivist quagmire and that he is best avoided by Christian thinkers.

A short draft paper with some key aspects of the philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkegaard.

The main purpose of Kierkegaard’s work is a communicative one: to introduce Christianity again into a Christendom, that has completely forgotten what it means to be a Christian. However, this is not an easy task. Communicating Christianity is difficult first, because the object of communication is a paradoxical truth: God has become a man; secondly, because the incarnation of God needs a condition in order to be accepted, that can only be a gratuitous gift from God; thirdly, because the consequence of accepting this paradox by faith is an existential conversion. The difficulties in communicating Christianity are not, however, only with regard to the content, but also with regard to the most appropriate way to communicate it. Indeed, the tensions that characterize Kierkegaard’s thoughts arise especially when he resorts to the combination of direct and indirect communication. In the end, however, Kierkegaard decides to address Christianity itself in a decidedly provocative, but this time actually clear and direct, disavowing his previous Socratic tactic. Yet he shows deep variations not only in the way of communicating, but also in his conception of «being Christian». If in some texts the man of faith is someone who trusts in a forgiving a providential God, and lives every day joyfully as a gift, without being overwhelmed by bourgeois cares for tomorrow, in the last works Christianity is exclusively suffering and martyrdom.

Faith and Philosophy, 2012

2013

Soren Kierkegaard as a prolific riter, composing during his short life 35 intellectually captivating writings. In addition to his dissatisfaction with the state of religion and that of the established church in Denmark, his relationship to his father and his unfulfilled love to his fiance, Regina, gave impulses to his incisive critical reflection. Kierkegaard can be considered a misunderstood prophet of his time who focused his intellectual capacity on topics such as: theology and anthropology – where he emphasized the ‘otherness’ of God and the gravity of human sin, overcome only on the basis of God’s initiative as actualized in daily decisions and acts of following Christ; critique of the power of the press and the indifference of the people to manipulation; and criticism of formal Christianity and the status of the ‘State-Church’ common throughout Europe of his time. Kierkegaard can be considered as one of the forerunners of modern individualistic existentialism, though one with ...

Kierkegaardiana, 1971

Kierkegaard is nearly universally acknowledged among philosophers as an interesting, if sometimes tendentious thinker. He is not so universally accorded the distinction of philosopher. That there is philosophical content in his work is readily admitted, yet this is only incidental, it is said, to his primary import as a religious thinker. Such commentators can point to numerous places throughout Kierkegaard's authorship where he makes it unquestionably clear that his overwhelming concern, both personally and qua author, is with the problem of becoming a Christian. This problem, according to Kierkegaard, is one of fidus not intellectus and one of the greatest weaknesses within the professed community of faith was their all too willing acceptance of the philosophical systems of Kant and Hegel. Thus, it could seem easily concluded, Kierkegaard's authorship is fundamentally non-philosophical, his spurious critique of certain theological applications of philosophy aside. His profundity lies in his deft analysis of that significant range of human experience sur rounding personal faith but this-and on his own ground-is outside the purview of reason and is therefore, ipso facto, outside philosophy. Briefly stated this viewpoint finds Kierkegaard a religious irrationalist, if not voluntarist, who constituted faith and reason as separate and immisible domains, the first of ultimate concern and the latter of only minor interest. As a religious thinker concerned with the thus formulated problem of Christian faith, it is similarly sometimes said that Kierkegaard's ethics are private and aesthetic and that he therefore has little or nothing to contribute 1 B olin , Torsten, Søren Kierkegaards etiske åskådning med sårskild hansyn til begreppet 'den enskilde\ academic dissertation, Stockholm , 1918, passim. Buber, M artin, Between Man and Man, R outledge K egan Paul, London, 1947, p. 40. Mackey, Louis, ''T h e Loss o f the W orld in Kierkegaard's Ethics," The Review of Meta physics, X V ,

2012

Faith and Philosophy, 2004

Kierkegaard is well known for being critical of a scholarly reading of the bible. It is generally understood that his primary concern was that “objective” biblical scholarship was undermining the possibility of a reader's subjective life being affected, challenged and provoked by its message. That is, it encourages an overly detached reading of Scripture that distracts persons from responding to its call to discipleship. It is indeed the case that Kierkegaard devoted himself to challenging the fact that the nominal Christians in Denmark were not actively responding Scripture. However, I shall argue that there is something much more fundamental to his critique of biblical scholarship. For Kierkegaard, the faithful reader is not primarily called to respond to the message of Scripture but to the living God who communicates to persons through Scripture. This paper will look at how Kierkegaard sought to remind Christians that Scripture is not an end in itself but a witness to the living God (who is the primary focus of the Christian life).