What does Kierkegaard say about religion?

What does Kierkegaard say about religion?

Kierkegaard considers the religious life to be the highest plane of existence. He also believes that almost no one lives a truly religious life. He is concerned with how to be “a Christian in Christendom”—in other words, how to lead an authentically religious life while surrounded by people who are falsely religious.

What did Kierkegaard believe about Christianity?

Kierkegaard believed that Christianity was not a doctrine to be taught, but rather a life to be lived. He considered that many Christians who were relying totally on external proofs of God were missing out a true Christian experience, which is precisely the relationship one individual can have with God.

What was Soren Kierkegaard famous for?

In addition to being dubbed “the father of existentialism,” Kierkegaard is best known as a trenchant critic of Hegel and Hegelianism and for his invention or elaboration of a host of philosophical, psychological, literary and theological categories, including: anxiety, despair, melancholy, repetition, inwardness, irony …

What is truth for Kierkegaard?

Kierkegaard’s definition of “truth”: “An objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation-process of the most passionate inwardness is the truth, the highest truth attainable for the individual.” It is not so much as what is believed as it is how it is believed.

How does Kierkegaard characterize faith?

Through a discussion of Fear and Trembling we learn that faith is a “task for a lifetime”, that it expresses “trust in divine promises” and is “obedience to God’s commands”. We also learn that it is a “teleological suspension of reason” and “the highest passion”.

Who did Soren Kierkegaard influence?

Kierkegaard has also had a considerable influence on 20th-century literature. Figures deeply influenced by his work include Walker Percy, W. H. Auden, Franz Kafka, David Lodge, and John Updike.

Is Kierkegaard a Climacus or a Christian?

In his journals Kierkegaard said, “Climacus is lower, denies he is a Christian. Anti-Climacus is higher, a Christian on an extraordinarily high level”. Kierkegaard used Anti-Climacus to write from the vantage point of a perfect Christian because he himself could not claim to be one.

What is Kierkegaard’s ideal of the Christian ideal?

The Christian ideal, according to Kierkegaard, is even more exacting since the totality of an individual’s existence is the artefact on the basis of which s/he is judged by God for h/er eternal validity.

What was Kierkegaard’s concern in church politics?

There were two main foci of Kierkegaard’s concern in church politics. One was the influence of Hegel, largely through the teachings of H.L. Martensen; the other was the popularity of N.F.S. Grundtvig, a theologian, educator and poet who composed most of the pieces in the Danish hymn book.

What does Søren Kierkegaard mean by “offensive Christianity”?

Kierkegaard examines the inherent offense of Christianity and its nature, as well as how the established church seeks to remove that offense to accommodate itself to the world. He bluntly proposes that Christendom be revitalized with nascent, that is, offensive Christianity.