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

“Faith loses by being regarded as the immediate, since it has been deprived of what lawfully belongs to it, namely, its historical presupposition.”

This passage introduces readers to what will become one of Kierkegaard’s main ideas: Faith is not something that can be immediately gained through a rational argument, but through deeper understanding and knowledge via The Development of the Self. Faith does not belong to “the immediate” because it is also intrinsically linked to the eternal.

“The present work has set as its task the psychological treatment of the concept of ‘anxiety,’ but in such a way that it constantly keeps in mente [in mind] and before its eye the dogma of hereditary sin. Accordingly, it must also, although tacitly so, deal with the concept of sin.”

Kierkegaard hints here at his theme of The Psychological Precondition of Sin. In fact, this passage may be considered the thesis of the entire text, as Kierkegaard’s goal is to apply psychology and the psychological concept of anxiety to investigate the origins of sin in freedom of choice.

“But this abiding something out of which sin constantly arises, not by necessity (for a becoming by necessity is a state, as, for example, the whole history of the plant is a state) but by freedom—this abiding something, this predisposing presupposition, sin’s real possibility, is a subject of interest for psychology.”

Although Kierkegaard believes that sin as a whole is a matter for dogmatics, he also believes The Psychological Precondition of Sin can be examined scientifically. Since the origin of sin is humanity’s ability to freely choose, that part of sin is within the realm of psychology.