An Introduction to Kierkegaard.

Book Review.
Vardy. Peter. An Introduction to Kierkegaard. Henderson Publishers, 2008.
P.V.- vice principal of Heythrop College, University of London.
Comment. Henry.
As the title suggests, this is a fine introduction to Kierkegaard and his writings. He was no friend of those who represented ‘Enlightenment’ and those who championed modernity. Nor was he a friend of the institutionalized church which in Denmark was the Lutheran Church. He was a friend and champion of those who sought a genuine relationship with God; these were by Kierkegaard’s definition, Christian. He draws a very distinct line between reason and faith and how these two cannot be ‘blended’. It is a situation of ‘either/or’ not both/and. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know in a nutshell (105 pages) what Kierkegaard is all about.
“K. Is a psychologist, philosopher and Christian thinker” (intro) even though he would likely have rejected all these disciplines. His concern for his readers was that they should “think deeply about life and make decisions about how to live and how to die”. (intro) This was the starting point for a good relevant philosophy.
As a young writer K. Fell in love with Regina Olsen and was engaged to her. He broke off this engagement because he was sure he could never make his beloved happy. He never married but he left his estate to Regina who married another man. He became famous for his writings. The details of his life were irrelevant to that fame.
“One of his (K’s) central objectives was to examine the relationship between religious faith (particularly Christian faith) and reason. What would the logical consequences be if in fact Christianity were true?” (8) He challenged Kant and Hegel regarding the priority of reason (over faith). One of the conclusions of the argument for the uniqueness of Jesus, i.e. Incarnation, becomes an element of the definition of faith, “a willingness to trust that God has intervened in human history”. (13) These conclusions are not presented as proof that Jesus is God but consequences of such a declaration. The truth that God’s love is demonstrated by his incarnation is a truth beyond reason. It is an “Absolute Paradox” (19) which can only be accepted by faith. This faith is a gift from God.
The book “Concluding Unscientific Postscript” was written under a pseudonym Johannes Climaus. Here K. declared that reason leads to the conclusion that there is no ultimate Truth. Faith goes beyond reason. “Faith cannot depend on tests or be affected by arguments. It is a subjective being.” (24) What we know is not nearly as important as how we live. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” (29) Faith is made real by a life that demonstrates it in relationship. This involves risk. “Reason has no right to cheat people out of their faith.” (34) (Here, here!)
K. talks about three “stages of life; the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious”. (38) The focus in the aesthetic is the temporal, the ego. The love of this stage is seductive with pleasure being transitory. Unchecked and unchallenged, this stage enters into a “demonic” (44) stage, e.g. Don Giovanni and Faust. This is the ultimate stage of anxiety.
Marriage is portrayed as “the paradigm of the ethical stage”. (49) It demonstrates love as a high calling, of a duty freely chosen. Ethical choices can result in complacency and confidence that lead to relational bankruptcy. “Both the aesthetic and ethical stages end in despair.” (56) From this despair, however, can rise the religious stage which “entails a personal relationship with God and a direct accountability to God”. (57) There are two steps that lead to this relationship. First there comes an awareness of God that provides a “freedom from the distractions of the temporal”. (57) The second step is a step of faith which requires a commitment that implies suffering. The three stages of life are among other things different approaches to love. K. Talks about “religion A and religion B”. (62) It is faith that makes for this difference. There is a great difference between being an admirer of Christ and being a follower of Christ. “Faith is shown in how one’s life is lived.” (64)
When Abraham responded in obedience to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac he was placing obedience above ethics. K. Calls him a “knight of faith”. (72) The journey of faith is personal and is strengthened by community.
Prayer changes those who pray it does not change God. The motivation for a relationship with God cannot be sustained by rewards from God or by the fear of punishment. “Egocentric service” (84) and limited commitment will not do in developing a relationship with God. There will be suffering when we respond to Jesus’ challenge, “take up your cross and follow me”. There will be rejection. When the day comes for us to ‘give an account’ before God it will be on the basis of our relationship with him and how we lived not on what we believed. There is a work of faith and it is (unconditional) indiscriminate love.
K. was not a friend of the institutional (Lutheran) church in his later life. Church leaders “proclaimed a message of comfort and good cheer. And K. did not think Christianity was comfortable”. (99) He declared that the Bible was “a clear handbook which could guide someone who wished to live a life accountable to God” (100), not a book that should be examined critically by scholars. When he was threatened with ‘ecclesiastical sanction’ he responded sarcastically. A Christianity that is limited to social action is not Christianity.
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