Abstract
Scholars remain divided over the ecclesiological value of Kierkegaard’s corpus. For years Kierkegaardian scholarship has been dominated by attack-related terminology, leaving the impression that in the end, all that remained of a once brilliant and creative provocateur was an embittered and desperate man who lashed out against the facet of Danish culture about which he most cared: the church. A few recent attempts have been made to reconsider the generally negative impression of the church left by Kierkegaard through his final publications. While valuable, these attempts lack either the breadth or focus necessary to mine Kierkegaard’s ideas for anything theologically constructive about the church. This study provides a chronological accounting of the ecclesiological value of Kierkegaard’s entire corpus to determine answers to four questions. (1) What role did Kierkegaard see for the church in the life of the Christian? (2) What was Kierkegaard’s perception of the Danish church? (3) How did Kierkegaard try to address the problem? (4) What is the value of Kierkegaard’s understanding of the church?
This study notes that as soon as Kierkegaard began to write down his thoughts, they were never far from the church. As time passed, nascent ecclesiological claims gave way to proto-ecclesiological ones, which produced a set of claims that can be fashioned into a robust, if not comprehensive, ecclesiology. Though he did indeed condemn the church in Denmark, he did not lose faith in the church. This study argues that Kierkegaard’s writing about the church warrants consideration for contemporary ecclesiology in at least six ways. It provides a biblical context for church leadership, offers preventative measures to mitigate against ecclesiastical complacency, identifies institutional vulnerabilities, sketches an ecclesiastical context commensurate to the Christian faith, and it retains the importance of the individual Christian within the community of faith. Finally, Kierkegaard’s ecclesiology provides an extensive pastoral example of one who sought to follow Christ and encourage others to do the same.