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

In contrast to ideality, actuality refers to any action or object that exists in the physical world. Kierkegaard argues throughout The Concept of Anxiety that psychology can address, at least to an extent, the question of sin because sin is a force that affects everyday life and psychology deals with these daily actualities.

A key belief in Christianity mentioned by Kierkegaard, the Atonement is the idea that the death of Jesus Christ offered humanity salvation from its sins through his death and resurrection. This redemption is often equated in traditional Christian thought as offering a corrective to the “original sin” introduced into the human race by Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden.

Concupiscentia is Kierkegaard’s term for “inordinate desire,” and more specifically sexual desire. He argues that such desires are not inherently sinful: Concupiscentia “is a determinant of guilt and sin antecedent to guilt and sin, and yet still is not guilt and sin” (40, emphasis added). Nevertheless, he believes that such inordinate desire can lead to sin.