Philosophy and Theology

Volume 17, Issue 1/2, 2005

Who is the Single Individual?
On the Religious and the Secular in Kierkegaard

The aim of this study is to show that, because the single individual, to whom Kierkegaard dedicates his entire authorship, is no less secular than religious, the secular does not exist outside of the religious and the religious does not exist outside of the secular. To this end four concepts central to Kierkegaard are examined: (1) authority; (2) the either/or decision or choice and its relationship to the concepts of stages and history; (3) indirect communication and the claim that truth is subjectivity; and (4) metaphor as the language of spirit, both divine and human.