The Concept of Dread By Soren Kierkegaard (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Concept of Dread. By Soren Kierkegaard. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Walter Lowrie. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944. Pp. xiii+154. $2.00.) The main theme of this book concerns the problem of original sin, viewed by the author as man's dread as he becomes aware of the infinite and indeterminate possibilities of his freedom; thus it was God's command prohibiting the fruits of the tree of knowledge which engendered sin in Adam and brought his innocence to its extremity, rather than Adam's disobedience of this command. Dread is distinctively human and its intensity is a measure of the spirit in man: "If man were a beast or an angel, he would not be able to be in dread, and the greater the dread the greater the man." And further, dread differs from fear in its lack of a definite object, for it is simply the trembling of the spirit in man at "the alarming possibility of being able." Strange as this conception of original sin may seem, making man's fall begin with God's command rather than with man's willful disobedience, S. K. proceeds in the light, or perhaps better, in the darkness of this preconceived notion, to interpret the account of Genesis, "trying to put aside the fixed idea that it is a myth." We shall see very soon how little he succeeds in this attempt to accept the story of Paradise as a statement of fact rather than as a myth, for a little later we find him saying that he prefers to admit bluntly that he can associate no definite thought with the serpent. Therefore, at least this part of the story must be rejected on the grounds that only those parts of the story can be admitted which are, in Kierkegaard's own words, "dialectically consistent," namely, those parts which can be adjusted to Kierkegaard's preconceived idea of what should have happened. Now obviously a dialectically consistent story is not necessarily a true one; and so we must come to the same conclusion as the translator, who says in his introduction that "although S. K. denounced the disposition to treat the story of Adam and Eve as a myth, he nevertheless treats it pretty much as if it were." Briefly stated, S. K.'s interpretation of the story of Paradise consists in the view that Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence until God gave His command to Adam saying: "Only of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat," and adding the threat of punishment: "Thou shalt surely die." Kierkegaard repeatedly identifies innocence with ignorance, and hence it is a matter of course that Adam did not understand the prohibition, "for how could he have understood the difference between good and evil, seeing that this distinction was in fact consequent upon the enjoyment of the fruit?" And yet although Adam could not have understood the command, the prohibition alarms him, i.e. induces a state of dread, because "the prohibition awakens in him the possibility of freedom." "Thus innocence is brought to its last extremity. It is in dread in relation to the prohibition and punishment. It is not guilty, and yet it is in dread, as though it were lost." 115 116BOOK REVIEWS The consequence of Adam's dread which overcame and anulled his innocence is that sin came into the world and that sexuality was posited. "Without sin there is no sexuality and wiüiout sexuality no history." Further on he says: "By eating of the fruit of knowledge the distinction between good and evil came into the world, but with that also the sexual distinction as a propensity." It is difficult for a Catholic thinker to offer any constructive criticism of this book, precisely because it is hard to find the grounds on which the author stands: Does he accept the revelations of Sacred Scripture? Does he admit any teaching authority? Does he recognize any tradition? Is he willing to be assisted and enlightened by the scholarship and thought of the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, by whose collective efforts from...