| Soren Kierkegaard, reflecting on his life's work just days before he died, proposed that the fundamental task of his entire life had been "to audit the definition of what it is to be a Christian." My project in this dissertation is to take this suggestion seriously. Kierkegaard, I argue, rethinks the familiar concepts of "God" and "faith" in a way that radically breaks with classical metaphysics and traditional philosophy of religion, and by that same token, foreshadows a postmetaphysical, post-"death of God" philosophy of religion capable of handling the critiques of classical religion offered by the likes of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger. By distinguishing Kierkegaard's conception of God from the onto-theological "what" of classical apologetics and the "moral God" of Christendom, and by distinguishing Kierkegaard's notions of faith and truth as subjectivity from objective "belief" or intellectual assent to creeds and doctrines, I thereby defend the value of Kierkegaard as a philosopher and prophet for our contemporary postmetaphysical situation. Accordingly, the concluding chapter of the dissertation argues that a Kierkegaardian philosophy of religion offers a clear path forward for establishing a foundation for religious pluralism. |
