German Foreword

Abstract

Extract Even as late as the middle of the last century, Danish intellectuals were living in the intellectual tradition of German idealism. This was true of Kierkegaard, and also of Grundtvig,iiClose literary criticism, philosophy of law, and the natural sciences, influenced as they were by natural philosophy—they all got their impetus from German idealism as well. In the course of the second half of the last century and in the early part of the present century, a change gradually took place. Under Anglo-Saxon and partly Swedish influences, empirical and positivist ways of thinking gained a foothold in Danish intellectual life. Now the Danish theologians, who work in a purely positivistic environment, but who, due to their education, are still professionally based in German theology and philosophy, consequently find themselves in a field fraught with problematic tensions. However, surprisingly the possibility presents itself to bring about a problem-free harmony with the aid of Kierkegaard. As is well-known, according to positivism and empiricism, statements such as that God has created the world and human beings, and that love is good in itself and cruelty bad, are meaningless, because they cannot be verified empirically. Instead of engaging in a comprehensive dispute with the positivists about the questions concerning the character of human existence, about the relation of human beings to nature and the world, Kierkegaardian existentialist theology is interested in fencing off one single point only. Transcendence is exaggerated theologically to such a degree that no assumptions about the universe in its immanence and the place of human beings within it are allowed to be involved in the ethical-religious relation. Thus, faith is set in opposition to knowledge and detached from any relation to immanence. For the existentialist theologian faith is realized in ‘the moment’, in ‘the instant of the decision’ only. If the positivist will let them have this ‘instant of decision’ as the proper reality, they do not make any further claim regarding knowledge of reality. Thereby, with reference to Kierkegaard, pressing problems of our time are pushed away as irrelevant. This is reason enough for controversion.