Table Of Contentedited by Howard A . Johnson ,
and Niels Thulstrup ' ' -
A KIERKEGAARD CRITIQUE
. KEY ESSAYS BY AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM
OF SCHOLARS RELATING I<IERKEGAARD'S
THOUGHT TO:
A
KIERKEGAARD
,,
CRITI~UE
An international selection of essays interpreting Kierkegaard
BY
F. J. Billeskov Jansen - James Collins -
Hermann Diem - Cornelio Fabro - Paul
L. Holmer - Howard A. Johnson - Valter
Lindstrom - G. Malantschuk - Pierre Mes·
nard - Paul S. Minear - Regin Prenter
Liselotte Richter - Johannes Slflk - N. H.
Sfle - Marie Mikulova Thulstrup - Niels
Thulstrup - John Wild
EDITED BY
HOWARD A. JOHNSON
,
;
~
AND
NIELS THULSTRUP
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
A KIERKEGAARD CRITIQ.UE
A KIERKEGAARD CRITIQUE
Copyright © 1962 by Howard A. Johnson and Niels Thulstrup
Printed in the United States of America
All rights in this book are reserved.
No part of the book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written per
mission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews. For
information address Harper & Brothers
49 East 33rd Street, New York :6, N. Y.
FlUT EDITION
eM
Library of Congress catalog card number: 62-729I
CONTENTS
FOREWORD 1
I. THE LITERARY ART OF KIERKEGAARD ... 11
by F. J. Billeskov Jansen
II. KIERKEGAARD AND CONTEMPORARY
EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY
22
by John Wild
III. ON UNDERSTANDING KIERKEGAARD .... 40
by Paul L. Holmer
KIERKEGAARD'S POSITION IN HIS RE-
IV.
LIGIO-SOCIOLOGICAL SITUATION ........ 54
by Lise10tte Richter
v. KIERKEGAARD AND POLITICS ...........
74
by Howard A. Johnson
VI. KIERKEGAARD AND LUTHER ............ 85
by Johannes Slpk
IS THE CATEGORY OF THE TRAGIC
VII.
ABSENT FROM THE LIFE AND
THOUGHT OF KIERKEGAARD? ............ 102
by Pierre Mesnard
KIERKEGAARD AND NIETZSCHE ......... 116
VIII.
by Gregor Malantschuk
SAR'fRE'S CONCEPT OF FREEDOM
IX.
CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF
KIERKECAARD'S THOUGHT .............
13°
by Regin Prenter
x. FAITH AND REFLECTION IN
KIERKEGAARD 141 \
by James Collins
vi CONTENTS
FAITH AND REASON IN KIERKEGAARD'S
XI.
DIALECTIC ............................... 156
by Cornelio Fabro, C.P.S.
KIERKEGAARD'S DOCTRINE OF THE
XII.
PARADOX ................................. 2°7
by N. H. Sfile
THE PROBLEM OF OBJECTIVITY AND
XIII.
SUBJECTIVITY IN KIERKEGAARD ........ 228
by Valter Lindstrom
XIV. KIERKEGAARD'S BEQUEST TO THEOLOGY 244
by Hermann Diem
xv. KIERKEGAARD'S DIALECTIC OF
IMITATION ............. -................. 266
by Marie Mikulova Thulstrup
XVI. THE COMPLEX OF PROBLEMS CALLED
"KIERKEGAARD" ...... ................ 286
'"
by Niels Thulstrup
XVII. THANKSGIVING AS A SYNTHESIS OF THE
TEMPORAL AND THE ETERNAL .......... 297
by Paul S. Minear
A KIERKEGAARD CRITIQUE
FOREWORD
Few things more forcibly impress upon a man a sense of his
finitude than does his encounter with books in a tongue he cannot
read. It is vexatious to be confronted with a book or article which
might conceivably be of the greatest value to him-if only the
"foreigner" who wrote it had had the kindness to write it in the
reader's own language! But there is the book-its letters so bafflingly
arranged-a distressing, stern reminder of our finitude. The book
we want to read must remain, in most cases, a closed book forever.
As a service to those in many lands who can read English and
are interested in S~ren Kierkegaard, the editors of this present work
have corralled essays interpreting him, essays which originally ap
peared in Danish, French, German, Italian and Swedish, and have
hitherto been "locked up" in those languages for all those who did
not possess the proper sets of keys.
Many of these essays were "locked up" in still another sense.
They had first been published in learned journals and quarterlies
of a technical character-and usually of a severely limited circula
tion. To us it seemed a pity that certain of these studies should
thus be lost to a wider world. This applies also to several articles
in English which are here included. The fact of their being written
in English presents no problem to people who can read that lan
guage, but the other problem is still in force: the essays are all but
buried in sometimes fairly obscure periodicals, little known beyond
the borders of the land of their origin, of which only a few copies
were printed, and thus might easily escape the attention of scholars
in other lands.
What is here offered, therefore, is an international "roundup"
of Kierkegaard studies which, in our opinion, deserve a wider audi
ence and preservation in more permanent form. Casting modesty
aside, each of the editors has ventured to include an essay of his
own. This arrogance will, we feel, be forgiven us-out of the reader's
sheer affection and gratitude toward us for having made the other
essays available.
With so many things being written about Kierkegaard nowadays
and in so many different lands, this book might easily have been
three times its present size without any loss in quality. Out of per-
2 A KIERKEGAARD CRITIQUE
haps fifty worthy candidates, we were obliged to select only seven
teen. Every exclusion was painful. Yet this book does rescue from
relative oblivion seventeen essays, each of which has something
fairly new to say about Kierkegaard. Certain facets of his mind
which hitherto have not been given sufficient attention are here
exhibited. Novelty, however, was not the only criterion. Aspects of
Kierkegaard's thought often discussed before are represented in this
symposium, either because the article goes deeper than is common
in such discussions or else because it suggests a quite different line
of interpreting data already well known. Another factor deter
mining our selection was the principle of correlation; that is, we
deemed it important to include several essays of the "Kierkegaard
and ..." type (e.g., and Nietzsche, and Sartre). Finally, we wanted
a balanced presentation, one which would reflect the fact that
Kierkegaard was not only a theologian or a philosopher or a poet
but all three.
While boasting of what this book has to offer, we will add that
not the least of its merits is the fact that it presents in English
translation for the first time many extended quotations from Kierke
gaard's Papirer which until now have been available exclusively to
Scandinavian students.
It goes without saying that the editors do not necessarily agree
with every point made by every contributor-obviously so, for. the
contributors are not always in agreement with each other. And
after all, it is a great mistake in any realm to read only things with
which one agrees. But that we like these essays should be evident
from the fact that we selected them. And we are thankful that we
had not the slightest difficulty in persuading the house of Harper
& Brothers to publish them.
It will be noted that a majority of the essays included stem from
the year 1955, the Centenary of Kierkegaard's death. Much that is
good has appeared more recently, but of this we can take no ac
count. For the seventeen essays-our limit-were asked for and were
received in 1956, with publication planned for 1957. Unforeseen
and wearisome delays,' over which neither the editors nor the pub
lishers had any control, have held the book up until now. Belatedly,
these centennial studies interpreting Kierkegaard are made avail
able, but in no case are the essays "dated." Here applies the saying,
"Better late than never."
This, then, is our meagre contribution toward overcoming, for
certain people, the language barriers and therefore the enforced
insularity of much of our scholarship. The editors wish it to be
FOREWORD 3
understood that they do not set themselves up as experts in all of
the languages represented in this book. It was their very inexpert
ness which compelled them to enlist the help of several translators,
and for this help they are deeply grateful.
Here it will be in place to identify briefly the contributors. Briefly,
for if all of their distinctions were to be mentioned, the Foreword
would be so long that five of the essays would have to be deleted.
It is notorious that Kierkegaard entertained a profound distrust of
"the professor." He put hardly more reliance upon the paid, pro
fessional holy men, the priest and the parson. The following list
will make clear that it is into just such hands he has fallen in this
book. Kierkegaard knew that this would happen. Three years be
fore his death he entered in his Journal (X4 A 628 f.) the following
"Sad Reflection."
In one place in a Psalm it is said of the rich man that he heaps up
treasures with great toil "and knoweth not who shall inherit them." So
shall I leave behind me, in an intellectual sense, a capital by no means
insignificant-and, alas, I know also who will be my heir. It is he, that
figure so exceedingly distasteful to me, he that ti1l now has inherited all
that is best and will continue to do so: the Docent, the Professor.
Yet this also belongs to my suffering as a necessary part of it-to know
this and then go calmly on with my endeavor, which will bring me toil
and trouble, and the profit of which, in one sense, the Professor will in
herit. "In one sense" -for in another sense I take it with me.
Note. And even if the "Professor" should chance to read this, it will
not give him pause, will not cause his conscience to smite him; no, this
too will be made the subject of a lecture. And again this observation, if
the Professor should chance to read it, will not give him pause; no, this
too will be made the subject of a lecture. For longer even than the
tapeworm which was extracted from a woman (according to a recent ad
vertisement in which the husband expresses his gratitude and gives the
length as 100 yards) -even longer is the Professor, and the man in whom
the Professor is lodged cannot be rid of this by any human power, only
Cod can do it, if the man himself is willing.
It is good for parsons and professors to be stung by irony of this
ilk. Yet the «scientific" investigation of Kierkegaard is inevitable.
Kierkegaard was fully aware that his works would be "studied
and studied," and he would not have wanted it otherwise. Nobody
writes unless he desires to be read and discussed. Of course, Kierke
gaard has had to put up with a lot of nonsense. Detractors who
misunderstand him are not more numerous than admirers who
misunderstand him, and both do him disservice, leaving little to
