From paganism to grace: a philosophical interpretation of religious existence in the thought of S. Kierkegaard

Abstract

The article analyzes the relationship between modes of paganism in Kierkegaard’s thought and the types of religiousness (A and B) distinguished by Climacus in the Postscriptum. By means of a pre-confessional hermeneutics applied to some edifying discourses,
he distinguishes the need of God as a criterion that separates nonreligious paganism from
a paganism that can exist in religiousness A. The article goes on to explain the acceptance of grace as the criterion that distinguishes between the two modes of paganism and a consummate religiousness. Finally, it determines the notion of grace and elucidates the sense in which its acceptance provides religiousness with a certain cosmic meaning. Keywords: Absolute, existence, grace, paganism, religiousness.