The Kierkegaardian Understanding of Violence

Abstract

Kierkegaard emphasizes that God is love; God desires the maximum of human flourishing. Therefore, if human beings perceive God as a threat to their immature egos, they are mistaken at the core of their being. Human rejection of the divine call is seen most dramatically in the crucifixion of Christ. The root of ill will toward others is ill will toward the self that one is in the process of becoming.

Kierkegaard on indiscriminate love

“…35 Devotion ("Hengivenhed") easily deteriorates to being directed toward a copy of oneself ("det andet Jeg"), whereas the eternal indifference of the commandment targets the otherness of the other in a way that implies a rejection of one's self ("Selvfornegtelsen", 60-61). 36 Falling in love or finding a friend is thus not to realize the Christian commandment of loving one's neighbour (64). On the contrary, the commandment is equal to the immensity of an infinite requirement (95).…”

“…Both Nazism and Communism are arguably later examples of what Kierkegaard here is hinting at. 64 Kierkegaard is less critical of his own time here than he was in A Literary Review. Democracy has come to stay, and it does not make sense to shoot it down.…”