Thursday, June 03, 2010

Kierkegaard's (Not So) Private God

I am rereading the conclusion to Kierkegaard's Works of Love and will post a more formal summary later but I was struck by a line that again dismantles any notion of how Kierkegaard's self leads to away from a social vision.

O, men so gladly deceive themselves; men so gladly imagine that a person should for his part have, as it were, a private relationship to God. But relationships to God are like relationships to authorities: you cannot speak privately with one in authority about things which are his business - but God's business is to be God.
In as much as the self emerges naked before God to that extent the self is brought to account for and in relationship with his or her neighbour.

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