Faith and Philosophy

Volume 17, Issue 1, January 2000

Michael Plekon
Pages 68-86

Kierkegaard at the End
His ‘Last’ Sermon, Eschatology and the Attack on the Church

At the end of his life, in the public attack on the Church of Denmark, Kierkegaard was vicious in his criticism of the clergy and their preaching, ruthless in his condemnation of the abdication of the Church to bourgeois culture and society. So radical is his attack that some have read in this late Kierkegaard a wholesale rejection not only of the Church but of Christianity. In this essay it is argued that Kierkegaard might be understood differently, that his was an eschatological perspective, one which criticized the Church while holding on to a vision of the Kingdom present in her, despite her failings.