Kierkegaard learned from Socrates the value of (being) the
single individual, especially in the subjective pursuit of truth. Before
Socrates, truth (and morality) was to be found externally, in culture and
tradition, and thus in an objective sense. Kierkegaard learned from Socrates
the value of the individual’s subjectivity in the pursuit of truth; that truth
can be internal without devolving into relativist nihilism. The Danish
philosopher appropriated what he had learned from Socrates methodologically in the
self-declared “Socratic task” of auditing “the definition of what it is to be a
Christian.”[i]
Behind Kierkegaard’s authorship is “the task of becoming a Christian.”[ii]
This applies to helping others—as a Socratic midwife!—to become Christian and,
relatedly, to Kierkegaard’s own willingness accept the inexpressible grace of being sacrificed by the Danish Church—those
self-declared Christians actually oriented to money. Kierkegaard ironically
exclaims, “I am not a Christian.”[iii]
Such irony! “I do not call myself a Christian,” Kierkegaard wrote
strategically, “but I can make it manifest that the others are that even less.”[iv]
Herein lies the acceptance of being sacrificed in the interest of truth. Kierkegaard
observed that “’Christendom’ lies in an abyss of sophistry that is even much,
much worse than when the Sophists flourished in Greece.”[v]
The success of comfortable pastors justifying their earthly wealth
theologically under the auspices of the Prosperity Gospel renders the Socratic
Kierkegaard still relevant today.[vi] Fortunately, Kierkegaard would assure us that
the individual Christian can still find truth within rather than outwardly comprehending the doctrines that the
pastors, whose claim to being Christians is dubious at best, claim to know. In this essay, I show how
Kierkegaard appropriates Socrates’ method in service of this point. The Danish
philosopher gained from his Greek model the tools with which to undercut the
doctrines as knowable (by the theologians and pastors), so he could privilege becoming and being a Christian as a matter of personally discovered inward faith yet without positive
epistemological content getting in the way.
The full essay is at "Kierkegaard's Socratic Task."
The full essay is at "Kierkegaard's Socratic Task."
[i]
Soren Kierkegaard, The Moment, in The Moment and Late Writings, Howard V.
Hong and Edna H. Hong, trans. (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 341.
[ii]
Soren Kierkegaard, The Point of View: On
My work as an Author, the Point of View for my Work as an Author, Armed
Neutrality, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, trans. (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1998), 55.
[iii]
Soren Kierkegaard, The Moment, in The Moment and Late Writings, Howard V.
Hong and Edna H. Hong, trans. (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 340.
[iv] Ibid.,
341.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] On the historical shift in theological interpretation from anti-wealth to pro-wealth, see Skip Worden, God's Gold (Seattle, WA: Amazon, 2016).