On Kierkegaard's Religious Crisis in 1848

An entry in Kierkegaard’s journal for 1852 reads ‘Then came 1848; that helped. There came a moment when, overwhelmed by blessedness, I dared say to myself: I have understood the highest. Truly this is not granted to many in each generation’ (SKS 24, 529; JP 6, 444). He makes several entries in other journals for 1852 and 1853 about the year 1848 in the same tone (SKS 25, 55, 258; PJ, 546, JP 6, 482). Given this, it seems safe to assume that something happened to Kierkegaard, which allowed him to grasp something significant in 1848. In the following, I will call this event ‘Kierkegaard’s religious crisis in 1848’. It seems that while many researchers have acknowledged the importance of this event, close studies of it have seldom been made. Although his study is rather old, Walter Lowrie made the most rigorous and most representative investigation. Lowrie calls it Kierkegaard’s ‘metamorphosis’, and gives the following interpretation. In 1848 Kierkegaard becomes certain that God has forgiven him his sins in such a way that God has forgotten them, so that Kierkegaard succeeds in breaking out of his fundamental disposition called ‘inclosing reserve [Indesluttethed]’. Although there is some temporary relapse, this metamorphosis happens to Kierkegaard essentially at Easter of 1848 (i.e. SKS 20, 357; JP 5, 443–444). In the following, I will elucidate Kierkegaard’s crisis by analyzing his journal entries in 1848 in chronological order. In other words, my goal here is to make a contribution to Kierkegaard biography based primarily on a reading of his journals. It will become clear that I present a thesis that contradicts Lowrie’s position: Kierkegaard does not succeed in breaking out of inclosing reserve, and the journal entries for Easter of 1848 do not indicate the climax of Kierkegaard’s religious crisis or his metamorphosis. Nevertheless, something surely happens toKierkegaard in 1848, and he does grasp something significant in that year.