Kierkegaard and the Relation of Hermeneutics and Cultural Criticism

Hermeneutics and cultural criticism are usually regarded as discrete enterprises by most theologians. However, in Kierkegaard's authorship the exploration of the conditions for an edifying reading of Scripture inspires and informs a very stringent critique of modernity. Although Kierkegaard claimed that apt readings of Scripture are difficult under any circumstances, he was convinced that each culture had its own particular forms of hermeneutic foolishness that impede an upbuilding engagement with Scripture. Because Kierkegaard was most concerned about the unique forms of "inwardness" or "pathos" that a transformative reading of Scripture presupposes, he exposed the ways in which the ethos of modernity discourages the cultivation of those essential passions. Most particularly, he argued that many of the cultural dynamics of the "present age" subvert the development of the habit of critical and sustained self-evaluation that engaged readings of Scripture require. Modernity encourages a deferral of meaning that inhibits decisive appropriations of texts, shifts self-critique to the critique of "others," subverts self-evaluation through the proliferation of distracting stimuli, glamorizes paralyzing doubt, and fosters an illusory interpretive self-reliance. As a result, the meanings of basic Christian concepts are obscured as they are amalgamated with the ideology of the nation, the race, the family, and the marketplace. Without the appropriate forms of pathos, a hermeneutic vacuum ensues and the meaning of the texts is determined by the loudest cultural voices. This simply reinforces the power of the status quo and its various populisms. Consequently, any effort to understand Christian discourse rightly must expose and resist these pernicious cultural impediments.