Faith, Spirituality and Anxiety in Thought of Søren Kierkegaard

Abstract

Obviously, faith and anxiety are two basic concepts in the thought of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. In a hastier and more ordinary interpretation, such concepts would exclude each other. However, a careful reading of Chapter V of the Concept of Anxiety reveals the error of such an interpretation. One cannot divorce faith from anxiety, because the latter is an indispensable feature of spirituality, particularly because anxiety is what is saved by faith. In this sense, this text tries to establish the relationship between the infinite passion of faith and the vulnerability towards feeling anxious. In other words, the way through which these two categories complement each other at the light of the Kierkegaardian thought.