Kierkegaard, Modernity & Critique

We aim to study the thought of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard to uncover intellectual resources for answering a longstanding question at the intersection of ethics, politics, and theology: What is the basis of the distinction between the secular and the religious? This question takes on new urgency in light of the global resurgence of populist political movements, which—much to the bewilderment of many journalists and political theorists—often consolidate support by drawing from religious traditions and religiously-inflected conspiracy theories. Though Kierkegaard has often been considered a reactionary who defended the centrality of Christian faith against secular forms of rationality and politics, recent research reveals overlap between Kierkegaard and philosophers associated with secularization (including Kant and Hegel), demonstrating the feasibility of deploying Kierkegaard’s religious thought to address pressing questions about secularism. Accordingly, we argue that Kierkegaard’s concept of faith offers essential tools for refining scholarly methods of distinguishing between the secular and the religious. First, we defend an interpretation of faith as articulated in Kierkegaard’s 1844 Philosophiske Smuler; despite its Christian roots, this text reveals that Kierkegaardian faith engenders the possibility of both secular and non-secular worldviews. Indeed, his concept of faith blurs the boundary between religious and secular ideas, proving itself applicable to various religious practitioners and to non-practitioners alike. Second, we intervene in scholarly conversations about the role of religion in populism, demonstrating that Kierkegaard’s concept of faith is crucial for illuminating how divisive, binary thinking problematically structures today’s populist politics, as well as scholarship about the role of religion in populist politics.