The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin

The works of Søren Kierkegaard in some ways built upon trends in late- 18th and 19th-century philosophical and religious thought, but in other ways Kierkegaard rebelled against these ideas. First, Kierkegaard lived in a time when some scholars challenged key elements of Christian doctrine by applying historical analysis and source criticism to the Bible and early Christian documents. Such scholarship undermined the idea of Biblical inerrancy, or the belief that everything in the Bible is true and factual. Similarly, many of the major scientific discoveries of the 19th century challenged the traditional Biblical account of creation and historical development. 

Kierkegaard makes several references to such scholarship and the rise of religious skepticism when he writes about living in “an age that produces myths and at the same time wants to eradicate all myths” (46). He argued that matters of religious belief and faith cannot be approached empirically, i.e., through observational evidence and tangible experience, as embodied by the scientific method. Instead, Kierkegaard asserted that one must take a “leap of faith” in religious matters, choosing to follow a belief even when it lacks empirical evidence.  

Kierkegaard was also influenced by German idealism. Immanuel Kant challenged the empiricism of Enlightenment philosophers like David Hume, arguing that people do not have a direct experience of the objects around them. Instead, people’s interaction with things is mediated through their individual consciousness. This idea influenced a number of major German philosophers, such as G.W.F. Hegel and F.W.J. von Schelling. However, Kierkegaard is skeptical of the idea. For example, Kierkegaard writes that Hegel’s concept of mediation or immediacy “belongs to logic” (35) and nowhere else. Nonetheless, German idealism’s emphasis on individual perception instead of universal experience did help shape Kierkegaard’s own ideas about self-consciousness, self-actualization, and individuality.

These influences also shaped Kierkegaard’s skepticism towards systematic theology. Systematic theology responded to the rationalism and skepticism of the Enlightenment by using Enlightenment intellectuals’ own methods, such as source criticism and the rejection of so-called superstition, to prove Christianity was rational. Kierkegaard agreed that scientific and philosophical disciplines like psychology and ethics could be used to help understand and critique ideas related to Christianity. However, he also asserted that there are limits to such approaches, believing that some matters have to be left to dogmatics, meaning faith.