How to Speak the Truth According to Kierkegaard (original) (raw)
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Kierkegaard and Christianity: The Difficulty of Communication
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.
The Age of Enlightenment brought about the emergence of rationalism, or the theory that knowledge should be based on objective reason rather than more traditional sources, such as religious beliefs. During the Enlightenment, in Denmark, Lutheran Christianity was firmly planted as the official state church. It was against these two influences of rationalism and state-instituted Christianity that Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) penned his work from Copenhagen titled Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments in 1846, noted by theologian Roger E. Olson as "perhaps Kierkegaard's most systematic statement of his philosophy" against these influences. To provide a historical understanding of Kierkegaard’s impetus for writing his Postscript, key theories and events from the Enlightenment period and immediately following—specifically those in and around Denmark—are briefly summarized. Attention is then focused on Kierkegaard’s pushback in his Postscript to these theories and events. Finally, Kierkegaard’s philosophy in his Postscript about the traits that inhabit a true and authentic Christian, over and against these theories and events, are explored. Kierkegaard's Postscript captures the heart of his existentialist philosophy about what it means to be a true and authentic Christian.
Kierkegaard and the Problem of Truth and Religious Diversity
Kierkegaard and the Problem of Truth and Religious Diversity, 2019
What does it mean to follow one Truth in our contemporary world full of religious, cultural and philosophical diversity? Is that even possible or desirable anymore? Søren Kierkegaard, arguably both an existentialist and a Christian, can, despite his deep understanding of the paradoxical construction of the world, be viewed as a proclaimer of devotion and commitment to one Truth and one sense of self. This essay examines Kierkegaard’s philosophy in a way relevant to an inhabitant of the contemporary secular age through three main enquiries: 1) What is the Kierkegaardian Truth? 2)What insight does such sense of Truth offer concerning the attitude one should take towards religious diversity? 3)And finally, what kind of message does Kierkegaard as a prophet of Truth leave to the secular people of the twentieth century? The first part will discuss whether truth is to be understood as objective or subjective, single or multiple, Christian or free of religion. The second part will examine Kierkegaard’s definition of a pagan versus a non-pagan and see how Kierkegaard defines a true believer. Finally, we will see how the levelling, typical in Western societies today, supports our falling away from conscious inwardly self-reflection, leading us to worldly despair.
The Singular Approach to the Concept of Truth in Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Work Post Scriptum
2022
Background: In the development of this article, we set out to achieve the following objectives: a) to elucidate Kierkegaard‘s notion of truth, basing the analysis on his Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments; b) to contrast Kierkegaard‘s position on truth with respect to Aristotle, Heidegger, Hegel and other exponents of 19th century French positivist philosophy; and c) to provoke an interest in Kierkegaard‘s thought and philosophical legacy. Methods: The documentary review, in which the qualitative analysis of the philosophical approaches' of Kierkegaard, in his work Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the dialectical contrast, characteristic of philosophy, with some connoted approaches such as Aristotle, Heidegger, Hegel, among others.The interpretative exploration is a key tool, since its use guarantees a plausible hermeneutic understanding of the subject raised: truth in Kierkegaard. This methodological process will make it possible to fulfil the proposed objectives. Results: In the application of the hermeneutic analysis to the work Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments by S. Kierkegaard, we obtain the following results, according to the proposed approach, and with the mentioned qualitative analysis tool. Therefore, we will consider, firstly, the question of existential truth; then, secondly, subjective truth; and, finally, the question of the communication of Kierkegaardian truth. Keywords: The single individual – Existential truth – Subjective truth – Communication.
UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIAN FAITH WITH AN EXISTENTIAL EYE OF THE SERPENT IN KIERKEGAARD
Angel Agencies, 2017
In the contemporary world, philosophy focuses on life’s deep questions related God, cosmos and humanity. In this article we are going to have brief understanding of Christian faith as related to human experience. In doing this, the writer wants to bring out the fact that our concrete understanding of faith practices tend from our existential and experiential planes. Though Soren Kierkegaard has many times been perceived as a controversial Christian existentialist by some scholars, to the point of excluding him among theistic existentialists, he is at the center of discussion in this article. This is because he is not an abstract thinker but an existential and practical thinker with prophetic insights. Additionally, in discussing his stages to the way of life (through which a human being can acquire deep satisfaction and become or attain authentic existence), which are employed in this brief, he clearly shows that philosophy should be relevant to our daily deepest concerns.
The Posited Self: The Non-Theistic Foundation in Kierkegaard’s Writings
Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook, 2015
We may correctly say that Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most influential Christian-religious thinkers of the modern era, but are we equally justified in categorizing his writings as foundationally religious? This paper challenges a prevailing exclusive-theological interpretation that contends that Kierkegaard principally writes from a Christian dogmatic viewpoint. I argue that Kierkegaard’s religion is better understood as an outcome of his philosophical analysis of human nature. Conclusively, we should appreciate Kierkegaard first as a philosopher, whose aim is the explication of human subjectivity, and not primarily as an orator of Christian orthodoxy.
Kierkegaard's Christology as a Cure for What Ails Us
Presented paper at Evangelical Theological Society, 2021
In this paper, I want to walk through the outlines of Kierkegaard’s Christological convictions in order to show the following things. First, how the context of his writings established issues he was intent on correcting. Second, his output regarding Christ as Paradox is decidedly Chalcedonian and orthodox in content. Third, I want to indicate how his concept of Christ’s Incognito existence as the God-Man was a necessary component undergirding what faith and only faith has always been the only way to know God and be reconciled to God. And finally, to show that the way he addresses the identity of Christ for us as a matter of existential immediacy is critically important.
Kierkegaard’s Existential Conception of the Relationship Between Philosophy and Christianity
Open Theology, 2019
This paper explores the implications of Kierkegaard’s concern with the existential meaning of Christianity on his treatment of the relationship between philosophy and theology. It will be argued that Kierkegaard offers an existential corrective to the predominantly scholarly-scientific engagement with this debate, to point to the much more serious matter of the individual’s existence and the impossible difficulty and challenge that the religious sphere poses to the human being, both epistemologically and ethically. This will be shown by taking into account Kierkegaard’s definitions of the terms philosophy, theology, and Christianity, as well as the distinction he draws between objective and subjective philosophy: Whereas Kierkegaard separates from Christianity what can be termed objective philosophy (in particular Hegelian-speculative philosophy), subjective philosophy (specifically Socratic philosophy) is revealed to have a much more complex relationship to the religious sphere. So...