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

Anxiety does not go away when a person takes their qualitative leap into sin and guilt. Instead, anxiety returns with “what is posited as well as the future” (111). Kierkegaard rejects the view that sin is absolutely inevitable as a result of an individual’s choices. Freedom means people are not limited to choosing only between good and evil, but rather that they have endless choices. Similarly, the qualitative leap into guilt and sin is unique to each individual, and this uniqueness puts a limit on psychology when it is used to understand anxiety.

Sin is an “unwarranted actuality” (113), which refers to an action that went against some kind of restriction or taboo. Anxiety is a way of trying to negate that action. It is also generated by thoughts of a hypothetical consequence of the sin. However, anxiety wants the “sin to continue […] only to a certain degree” (114). While both forms of anxiety come from the freedom to choose, the anxiety that comes from innocence precedes sin, while the latter “is directed toward the further possibility of sin” (115).

After the sin is committed, the anxiety over sin can become repentance. However, this repentance does not cancel out the sin.