“at forstaaeliggjøre og tyde Naturens Runer”

Abstract

Kierkegaard’s attitude to natural science is equivocal. While
the published works deal with the open criticism of Hegel and his Danish
followers, in his journals and notebooks we find a more clandestine,
albeit no less intense, critique of the scientific endeavours of his day. The
biting sarcasm that characterises this critique has often led to the view
that Kierkegaard, as a Christian thinker of subjectivity, naturally has
to be stubbornly against scientific progress. On a closer look, though,
we fi nd a more complex view hidden underneath the noisy surface of
Kierkegaard’s vigorous rhetoric. The point of this article is to articulate
this more complex view against the backdrop of a historical sketch of
the relationship between science and religion at the time of Kierkegaard,
and through an interpretation of the Kierkegaard’s statements in
his journals and notebooks.