“No, not only because of that. Toward the end of his life, especially, he
became aggressively critical of society. ‘The whole of Europe is on the road to
bankruptcy,’ he said. He believed he was living in an age utterly devoid of
passion and commitment. He was particularly incensed by the vapidness of
the established Danish Lutheran Church. He was merciless in his criticism of
what you might call ‘Sunday Christianity.’ “
“Nowadays we talk of ‘confirmation Christianity.’ Most kids only get
confirmed because of all the presents they get.”
“Yes, you’ve got the point. To Kierkegaard, Christianity was both so
overwhelming and so irrational that it had to be an either/or. It was not good
being ‘rather’ or ‘to some extent’ religious. Because either Jesus rose on
Easter Day—or he did not. And if he really did rise from the dead, if he really
died for our sake—then this is so overwhelming that it must permeate our
entire life.”
“Yes, I think I understand.”
“But Kierkegaard saw how both the church and people in general had a
noncommittal approach to religious questions. To Kierkegaard, religion and
knowledge were like fire and water. It was not enough to believe that Chris-
tianity is ‘true.’ Having a Christian faith meant following a Christian way of life.”
“What did that have to do with Hegel?”
“You’re right. Maybe we started at the wrong end.”
“So I suggest you go into reverse and start again.”
“Kierkegaard began his study of theology when he was seventeen, but
he became increasingly absorbed in philosophical questions. When he was
twenty-seven he took his master’s degree with the dissertation ‘On the
Concept of Irony.’ In this work he did battle with Romantic irony and the
Romantics’ uncommitted play with illusion. He posited ‘Socratic irony’ in
contrast. Even though Socrates had made use of irony to great effect, it had
the purpose of eliciting the fundamental truths about life. Unlike the
Romantics, Socrates was what Kierkegaard called an ‘existential’ thinker.
That is to say, a thinker who draws his entire existence into his philosophical
reflection.”
“So?”
“After breaking off his engagement in 1841, Kierkegaard went to Berlin
where he attended Schelling’s lectures.”
“Did he meet Hegel?”
“No, Hegel had died ten years earlier, but his ideas were predominant in
Berlin and in many parts of Europe. His ‘system’ was being used as a kind of
all-purpose explanation for every type of question. Kierkegaard indicated that
the sort of ‘objective truths’ that Hegelianism was concerned with were totally
irrelevant to the personal life of the individual.”
“What kind of truths are relevant, then?”
“According to Kierkegaard, rather than searching for the Truth with a
capital T, it is more important to find the kind of truths that are meaningful to
the individual’s life. It is important to find ‘the truth for me.’ He thus sets the
individual, or each and every man, up against the ‘system.’ Kierkegaard
thought Hegel had forgotten that he was a man. This is what he wrote about
the Hegelian professor: “While the ponderous Sir Professor explains the entire
mystery of life, he has in distraction forgotten his own name; that he is a man,
neither more nor less, not a fantastic three-eighths of a paragraph.”