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Kierkegaard On Doctrine: A Post–Modern Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Steven M. Emmanuel
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside

Extract

Though Kierkegaard never explicitly formulated a theory of religious doctrine, he did have a clear position on the role that Christian doctrine ought to play in the lives of believers. Briefly stated, he maintained that Christianity, as a human activity, involves more than merely believing certain propositions about matters of fact. The doctrines of Christianity take on a true religious significance only when they are given the power to transform the lives of those who accept them; only when they are given expression in the existence of the believer. This was, however, far from evident to Kierkegaard's theological contemporaries who, in the collective absentmindedness of the age, sought to replace the Christian virtue of faith with the philosophical ideal of objective knowledge.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

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page 364 note 1 Ibid. p. 35.

page 364 note 2 Ibid. p. 81.

page 365 note 1 Ibid. p. 35.

page 365 note 2 Ibid. p. 33.

page 366 note 1 Ibid. pp. 64–8.

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page 368 note 6 Ibid. p. 42.

page 368 note 7 Culture and Value, p. 53c

page 368 note 8 Ibid. p. 64c

page 368 note 9 Ibid. p. 53c

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page 369 note 6 Ibid. p. 29 (SV ix, p. 24).

page 369 note 7 Ibid. p. 27 (SV ix, p. 26).

page 370 note 1 Ibid.

page 370 note 2 Ibid. p. 25 (SV ix, p. 24).

page 370 note 3 Ibid. p. 30 (SV ix, p. 29).

page 370 note 4 Ibid. p. 31 (SVix, p. 30). Cf. Wittgenstein's remark: ‘The historical accounts in the Gospels might, historically speaking, be demonstrably false and yet belief would lose nothing by this… because historical proof (the historical proof-game) is irrelevant to belief.’ [Culture and Value, p. 32c]

page 370 note 5 CUP, p. 37 (SV ix, p. 36).

page 371 note 1 Ibid. p. 178 (SV ix, p. 166).

page 371 note 2 Ibid. p. 193 (SV ix, p. 179).

page 371 note 3 Ibid. p. 339n. (SV x, pp. 75–6).

page 371 note 4 Ibid. p. 193 (SV ix, p. 179).

page 371 note 5 Ibid. pp. 184–8 (SV ix, pp. 171–5).

page 372 note 1 Culture and Value, p. 32c

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page 378 note 1 CUP, p. 181 (SV ix, p. 169).

page 378 note 2 Ibid. pp. 179–80 (SV ix, pp. 167–8).