In this welcome new addition to the Kierkegaard scholarship Lee C. Barrett extends further his impressive record of providing expert guidance on the substance of Søren Kierkegaard’s Christian theology. Barrett here explores a theological puzzle to which Kierkegaard himself returned again and again, namely the relation between divine grace and human freedom. Is the Christian in the matter of salvation so utterly dependent upon divine agency that they are powerless to resist, or indeed to contribute anything at all, as some accounts of election or predestination propose; or is human agency decisive for salvation, as variously claimed in Pelagian or Arminian accounts? Kierkegaard at times stresses the importance of absolute reliance on God’s agency, famously rendered in his pseudonymously authored Philosophical Fragments as the insistence not only that human beings do not know the Truth but that they are bereft of the condition for learning the Truth. On this account, the individual contributes nothing to learning the Truth that is found in Jesus Christ. All is gift. On the other hand, however, Kierkegaard stresses throughout his works the need to take responsibility for one’s own life.
Following an ‘Introduction’ setting the scene and providing an overview of Kierkegaard’s authorship, Barrett’s investigation of this conundrum begins with three chapters exploring the philosophical and theological milieu in which Kierkegaard was raised and in which he undertook his university education. The notes Kierkegaard took on lectures delivered by H. N. Clausen and H. L. Martensen reveal his agreement with their respective critiques of the doctrine of predestination. Martensen also introduced Kierkegaard to Immanuel Kant’s notion of metaphysical antinomies, to which Kierkegaard was attracted. While Kierkegaard rejected many aspects of Kant’s philosophy, he was impressed by Kant’s recognition of the limits of metaphysical speculation, particularly the antinomy between the affirmation of human freedom and the proposition that causal necessity governs all phenomena. From a phenomenal perspective, all human action is considered to be part of a causal nexus and is governed by necessity, but from a moral perspective at least some human actions must be regarded as freely chosen and performed.
Of particular interest for Kierkegaard was the relation between divine and human agency in the life of faith. Precisely in order to uphold human freedom and the need for an earnest striving in Christian life, Kierkegaard maintained a strong antipathy towards the doctrine of predestination throughout his authorship. And yet he is also convinced that human agency contributes nothing to the reconciliation with God brought about through Christ’s atoning work. Can these two convictions be held together?
In dealing with this issue, Kierkegaard again appears to have been influenced by Kant, particularly by Kant’s critique of speculative metaphysics. Kierkegaard resists any conception of Christian theology that strives after a systematic arrangement of objective propositions about God. His reconception of the theological task is grounded in his conviction that ‘our Lord Jesus Christ did not bring any doctrine into the world and never delivered lectures’ (p. 72). Instead of requiring assent to a catena of objectively certain theological propositions, Christ invites people into a new way of being: before God. Theological language, accordingly, accrues meaning only in the midst of the passionate striving of the person immersed in the pathos of existing before God. Barrett explains, ‘In order to grasp the meaning of the term ‘God’, a person would need to imagine the hopes and fears that typically attend the use of the concept’ (p. 74). They would need to understand God as the one to whom they look for help in times of trouble, and to whom they confess their sins, as the one to be thanked in all things, as the one whose Word incarnate is the prototype of authentic human life that they strive to imitate, and so on. Apart from these existential commitments and passions, a person cannot know what the word God means.
How then does this help address the tension between divine and human agency in the Christian life? It does not resolve the conceptual tension, but it does point to the more important task of living one’s life with unadulterated thankfulness for and absolute dependence upon the workings of divine grace while also accepting the imperative to strive to follow Christ. Kierkegaard is not particularly interested in resolving conceptual tensions in theology but is concerned rather to encourage appreciation in his readers of the form of life necessary for the intelligibility of Christian themes and concepts.
Having established this central point, Barrett then proceeds to show how this is worked out through a selection of Kierkegaard’s writings, notably, Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, a number of the ‘Discourses’, and The Point of View for My Work as an Author. Barrett is an astute and reliable guide to Kierkegaard’s thought. Anybody seeking to understand what drives Kierkegaard’s theology will certainly benefit from reading his account of ‘Kierkegaard’s Unconventional Practice of Theology’. They will also find in Barrett’s work an echo of Kierkegaard’s own concern to create for his readers an occasion of existential challenge and edification.
