The Discussion Of Kierkegaard's Christian Philosophy

Kierkegaard,Dannish thinker, is one of special and outstanding thinkers in the history of Western modern thought and he chiefly reconsiders the meaning of Christianity to human beings against the humanistic background of the enlightenment, whose thought's core question is that "How to become a true Christian?" The establishing and developing of this core question have a close relationship with Kierkegaard's criticizing his age and Hegel's speculative philosophy. The main part of his criticism is that the speculative system and the objective nature of speculative method had replaced the concrete existence of the individual. Christian faith had the scientific and speculative natures and Christian world was in an illusion. The existential individual also disappears in "the craved", which he regards as an illusion, and self also disappears. As a religious thinker, Kierkegaard takes it as a lifetime task to establish Christianity's meaning to human beings again and make the individual find self back and transform him from "the Crowd" into the existential individual, namely, into a true Christian in front of God."The existential individual" is a fundamental condition to form Kierkegaard's Christian faith and it is also key category for his thought. Kierkegaard mostly expounds the existential individual two aspects meaning from the perspective of existence. Firstly, the existential individual has inwardness and subjectively. The two existential characteristics those have a tight relationship with each other have real nature, which chiefly manifest that the existential passionately concerns himself with no reason and the highest aspect of this passionate concern is faith. Secondly, the existential individual has three basic existential life stages to choose and this choosing is free. For Kierkegaard,he stresses the existential individual chooses true religious life through inward and subjective experience to become a Christian, which is best life because this can realize self's meaning and value.Kierkegaard does not regard Christian faith as a set of beliefs or doctrines, but a kind of existential dealing. So, he states that Christian faith is a kind of existential becoming state or process, therefore becoming a Christian's process is regarded as afaith-process. For Kierkegaard, Christianity begins at sin; he primarily analyzed the relation that sin is related with dread and despair. The existential individual experiences existential states of dread and despair, which manifests that self of the individual is gradually awaked and intensified. The existential individual finally realizes that self of himself does not depend on himself but depend on God. Therefore, the existential individual must depend on God to find self and realize self's meaning and value because man has sin in front of God when he was horn. Kierkegaard emphasizes that the existential individual only through "faith leap" discards the reason and has faith in Paradox and absurdness of Christianity, which he must bear the best of God and stand tremendous suffering. Then he becomes a true Christian and rescues self from sin.Kierkegaard's thought of Christian philosophy has a great influence on 20 Century's existential philosophy and Christian theology. This dissertation attempts to affirm Kierkegaard as a religious philosopher, from this perspective, following the core clue of "How to become a true Christian?" analyses this thought's establishing, developing and special features to discuss a great deal inspiration and many questions or meanings of his Christian philosophy.