In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Kierkegaard: A Christian Missionary to Christians by Mark Tietjen
  • Walter Wietzke
Kierkegaard: A Christian Missionary to Christians. By Mark Tietjen. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016. 169 pp.

At the beginning, Tietjen recalls how he met a group of Christian missionaries in the former Soviet Union. Tietjen thought that they seemed more interested in spreading the message of American popular culture rather than Christianity. Shortly after this episode he came across a quotation by Søren Kierkegaard, which stated that a real missionary must commit himself just as much to his own personal transformation as he does to the transformation of other people’s lives. This idea resonated with Tietjen, and points to a basic theme in Kierkegaard, that an apathetic and confused world has [End Page 116] forgotten how rigorous, and indeed radical, the demands are that Christianity places upon an individual’s life.

Tietjen deserves credit for a very well-written book. He presents complicated ideas lucidly and uses examples to which the layperson should be able to relate easily. This book is not written for the Kierkegaard scholar. It is a general introduction to Kierkegaard’s philosophy that directs the reader to consider how it could effect a transformation in his or her own spiritual life. To this end Tietjen includes questions at the end of each chapter to motivate reflection and discussion.

One of Tietjen’s purposes is to assure his readers that it is “safe” to read Kierkegaard. Here Tietjen evidently has an evangelical audience in mind. As he explains in the first chapter, “Kierkegaard: Friend to Christians?,” writers such as Dan Breese and Francis Schaeffer have expressed misgivings that one can both appreciate Kierkegaard’s ideas and remain a true Christian. But these doubts are based on serious misunderstandings, and Tietjen duly corrects these mistakes to show that Kierkegaard’s ideas do not threaten an evangelical understanding of Christian faith.

In the chapters on “Jesus Christ” and “Christian Witness” Tietjen provides an overview of Kierkegaard’s understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what it means to be a follower of Christ. Essential to this account is that Christian belief and practice must reflect what Kierkegaard calls “offense.” Christ represents the possibility of offense in a variety of ways: for one, it is offensive to human reason to think that God revealed Himself as a human being at a particular moment in time and to a particular group of people with a message of salvation for all of humanity. Christ’s message is also offensive to those who think they can fulfill God’s expectations simply by following the ethical norms embedded within their cultural and social traditions. In both cases offense essentially relates to the radical demands that Christian life places upon the individual.

One problem needs to be addressed, however. In the chapter that forms the heart of the book, “The Human Self,” Tietjen claims that in Kierkegaard’s view a human’s spiritual needs can only be fulfilled through Christian faith, but in this reviewer’s opinion Kierkegaard’s position is more complicated. Several of Kierkegaard’s works [End Page 117] demonstrate how Socrates exemplifies a secular form of spiritual striving facilitated by human reason, without any need for divine revelation. Kierkegaard’s most important philosophical work, the Concluding Unscientific Postscript calls this Socratic pursuit Religiousness A, and argues that it always provides a sufficient spiritual task. Given his audience it is understandable why Tietjen would emphasize Christianity, but from a methodological standpoint it is important to maintain the alternative because it otherwise suggests that Christianity represents the most reasonable and rational life there is. In other words it suggests that Kierkegaard is a Christian apologist, and to label him this way invalidates his arguments for the offensive nature of Christianity. To be sure, Tietjen distinguishes Kierkegaard from apologetics. My point is simply that we best appreciate Kierkegaard’s subtlety as a Christian thinker when we have the full philosophical picture. Despite these concerns Tietjen’s thesis still stands: Kierkegaard’s ability to clarify what Christian life actually means for an individual indeed makes him a Christian missionary to Christians.

Walter Wietzke
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
River Falls, Wisconsin...

pdf

Share