Gerhard Schreiber

Who are the real targets of Kierkegaard’s critique of characterizing faith as “the immediate”? A decisive factor in answering this question is the interpretation and dating of the note Pap. I A 273 / Papir 92, in which Kierkegaard equates that which Friedrich Schleiermacher calls ‘religion’ and “the Hegelian dogmaticians” call ‘faith’ with “the first immediate.” After deli-neating the factual context of the expression “the first immediate” in Section I, I will question to what extent this critique of Schleiermacher is justified in Section II. Sections III-V will look at the problem of identifying “the Hegelian dogmaticians.” Here I hope to show that it is not Philipp Konrad Marheineke, but rather Kierkegaard’s contemporaries in Copenhagen, Hans Lassen Martensen and Johan Ludvig Heiberg, who should be considered the particular targets of Kierkegaard’s critique

Die neue deutsche Kierkegaard-Übersetzung beruht auf der dänischen Edition Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, der vollständigen, historisch-kritischen Ausgabe von Kierkegaards Schriften, die seit 1994 im Søren Kierkegaard Forschungszentrum in Kopenhagen erstellt wird. Journale und Aufzeichnungen Die DSKE beginnt mit der Übersetzung der auf elf Bände angelegten Journale und Aufzeichnungen. Hier hat die dänische Ausgabe insofern neue Maßstäbe in der Editionsphilologie gesetzt, als sie frühere Eingriffe in die Manuskripte durch Verwendung von Licht- und Elektronenmikroskopie von Kierkegaards eigenem Text unterscheidet. Dadurch lassen sich auch von Kierkegaard selbst unleserlich gemachte Eintragungen entziffern. Editionsberichte geben Auskunft über Überlieferungsverhältnisse, Chronologie und Inhalt der Bände. Daneben bietet die DSKE eine Fülle von Realkommentaren, die zusammen mit zahlreichen Abbildungen ein neues und tieferes Verständnis von Kierkegaards Gesamtwerk ermöglichen. Eine Besonderheit ist die diplomatische Wiedergabe des Textes: Kierkegaards Gewohnheit, zunächst die Innenseite des Papiers zu beschriften und spätere Bemerkungen am Rand hinzuzufügen, wird - wie in der dänischen Edition - im Druckbild wiedergegeben. So ist erkennbar, dass es sich bei den Texten um gewachsene Einheiten handelt.

Who are the real targets of Kierkegaard’s critique of characterizing faith as “the immediate”? A decisive factor in answering this question is the interpretation and dating of the note Pap. I A 273 / Papir 92, in which Kierkegaard equates that which Friedrich Schleiermacher calls ‘religion’ and “the Hegelian dogmaticians” call ‘faith’ with “the first immediate.” In order to make a fair attempt to interpret Kierkegaard’s critique and the crucial expression “the first immediate,” I will sketch out its factual context in Section I of this article. In Section II, I will question to what extent this critique of Friedrich Schleiermacher is justified. Sections III-V will look at the problem of identifying the “Hegelian dogmaticians.” Here I hope to show that it is not Philipp Konrad Marheineke nor Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel but rather Kierkegaard’s contemporaries in Copenhagen, Hans Lassen Martensen and Johan Ludvig Heiberg , who should be considered the particular targets of Kierkegaard’s critique

The paper explores the relation between Kierkegaard’s concept of a “life-view,” understood as a certain quality of a person’s character, and his early account of Christian faith. To claim the need for such an exploration is motivated by two observations: First, defining a “life-view” as “an unshakable certainty in oneself won from all experience” (Kierkegaard’s formula in his debut book From the Papers of One Still Living [1838]) essentially conforms with his characterization of faith as an “a priori certainty.” Second, the relation between Kierkegaard’s notion of “life-view” and his concept of faith has been interpreted in different, at times in-compatible ways by Kierkegaard-scholars. Thus, after outlining the overall argument in Kierkegaard’s debut book, I will compare in detail the notions of “life-view” and faith, and this by using as a vantage point and paradigmatic example the opposing accounts of Emanuel Hirsch and Ulrich Klenke.

Who is Kierkegaard’s target, when he criticizes the philosophical ‘volatilization’ of Christian faith? In this paper I will argue that Kierkegaard’s early dispute with Immanuel Hermann Fichte in the spring of 1837 can be considered not only as the background of this critique, but also as the key to its proper understanding. After outlining the argument in Fichte’s book The Idea of Personality and Individual Continuity in Section I, I will provide an interpreta-tion of Kierkegaard’s critical remarks on the younger Fichte in journal entry AA:22 in Section II. In Section III, I will then explore the relation between AA:22 and the journal entry CC:12, in which Kierkegaard for the first time expresses his critique of the philosophical ‘volatilization’ of central Christian concepts. Here I hope to show that, according to Kierkegaard, the philosophical ‘volatilization’ of Christian faith consists in the inappropriate usage of this concept within the philosophical realm, a misuse which results from conflating the realms and boundaries of philosophy and Christianity