宗敎的實存の實存的課題 (完) : キェルケゴール諸著作の位置と意義

Abstract

From 1843 to 1855, i.e. during the last years of his life, Kierkegaard wrote about 40 pieces of work. In those writings he said he was a ‘religious author’ and his central theme was to convey the truth of Christianity. But it is by no means possible to grasp the true character of his thoughts uniformly, for the contents of his thought gradually changed and especially various unique changes are made in his attitude and qualification as an author and in the style of his writings. Particularly he said he had no qualification to show people how to become Christian; rather, his attitude was indirectly or inductively as a third person to arouse the reader's attention and to induce him to reflection. Consequently there may be exaggerations, embellishments, artifices etc. in his writings; and his readers may feel somewhat untrustworthy about them. But we should pay sufficient respect to the answer which he produced as a result of his earnest inquiry into the existence of man, especially his existence before God, based on the experiment of kierkegaard's own existence. Man in his existential structure is rejected by the Eternal. Between the Eternal and man who is only finite there is a rupture. The ultimate end of man is to recognize this fact. Speaking from the Christian point of view, the only cardinal point for a man who wants to be a Christian is to know that man is ‘a sinner in his own nature’. From such a viewpoint of his came out his unique interpretation of Christ and the original basic reason and significance of ‘suffering’ and ‘despair’. On the whole, the development of his thoughts corresponds with the situation of his own existence and his writings are, so to speak, diagnoses of his own life. Therefore, if his writings, complicated and intricated as they are, are studied correspondingly with the path of his life and with his inner situation, we shall be able to make clear the position and significance of each of his works and thus find the key to the understanding of his thoughts throughout his whole writings. So it is the object of my article to seek to correlate Kierkegaard's life and writings. I should like to add that the above mentioned essential thoughts of Kierkegaard had already been conceived in the period before he began writing. That part, however, has been omitted in my present article.