Philosophy Compass 5/2 (2010): 127–135, 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00276.x
Kierkegaard’s Conception of God Paul K. Moser*, Mark L. McCreary Loyola University Chicago
Abstract
Philosophers have often misunderstood Kierkegaard’s views on the nature and purposes of God due to a fascination with his earlier, pseudonymous works. We examine many of Kierkegaard’s later works with the aim of setting forth an accurate view on this matter. The portrait of God that emerges is a personal and fiercely loving God with whom humans can and should enter into relationship. Far from advocating a fideistic faith or a cognitively unrestrained leap in the dark, we argue that Kierkegaard connects this God-relationship to (a particular kind of) evidence and even knowledge. However, such evidence and knowledge – and hence God himself – may remain hidden from many individuals due to misconceptions of God and misuses of the human will.
In one of his last philosophical works, Kierkegaard (hereafter K) exclaims: ‘Oh, to what degree human beings would become – human and lovable beings – if they would become single individuals before God’. This exclamation expresses a main goal of K’s literary efforts, early and late: to invite readers to ‘become single individuals before God’ (1851a, 11). Accordingly, he remarks: ‘To me, not personally but as a thinker, this matter of the single individual is the most decisive’ (1859, 114). He also puts this goal as: ‘To come to oneself in self-knowledge and before God’ (1876, 106). A key limitation on K’s invitation to self-knowledge before God is that ‘I cannot make my God-relationship public’ in a way that disregards its ‘purely personal inwardness’ (1859, 25). We shall examine K’s understanding of God and a God-relationship, in the light of his mature work beginning with his ‘turning-point’ in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846). 1. Method Although K wrote some books under pseudonyms and some under his own name, each of these works reveals, directly or indirectly, a conception of God. For instance, a particular conception of God is revealed by Johannes de Silentio, the pseudonymous author of Fear and Trembling, and commentators have written much about this conception. Even so, because their writing focuses on a pseudonymous work, it does not immediately address the issue of Kierkegaard’s conception of God. To avoid this problem, we shall survey views of God from some of K’s later works regarding which we can be confident of K’s own views. K, however, is not interested in a speculative, or abstract philosophical, understanding of God; instead, he aims to portray God as the One with whom humans can and should be in life-giving ‘spiritual relationship’. We follow K’s own suggested distinction between the first and the second authorship. The first consists of the works prior to Concluding Unscientific Postscript, most of which are written under pseudonyms. The second consists of works written after the Postscript, most of which are written under K’s own name. The Postscript itself occupies a middle ground designated by K as ‘the turning point in the whole authorship’, a point that belongs ª 2010 The Authors Journal Compilation ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd