Mistica, ascesi ed edificazione in Soren Kierkegaard

The purpose of this research is to outline an historical-philological analysis of Kierkegaard’s works in order to show through the texts all the possible suggestions and influences that the Danish philosopher could have received from the Christian mystical tradition and also from Christian ascetism. It extends further showing his negative reactions to philosophical mysticism as well. The methodological task of the dissertation is to establish, whereas it is possible, a level of certainty of proofs based on the concept of “pragmatic objectivity” given by the relation between texts read by Kierkegaard and text written by himself insofar as it delineates a conceptual path and a possible new hermeneutical reading of some points of Kierkegaard’s thought and about his anthropological reflexions based on the relationship between God and the “single individual”. First two sections of my dissertation show the connections and the different kinds of mysticism developed in German-Danish idealism (especially the one developed by Franz Baader, Johann Erdmann and Hans Martensen) and in German pietism (especially in Johann Arndt, Philipp J.Spener and Gerhard Tersteegen), that are the two of the most important channels of Kierkegaard’s philosophical and religious education. It also reveals how the Danish thinker reacted to all these interpretation of mystic and mysticism. This part of the research covers the period of Kierkegaard’s life from 1835 to 1846, that is the time of his studies, his dissertation and his “first authorship”, in which from one hand we can find his refusal to the idea of mysticism as he found it in most of German idealism (with some exceptions), from the other hand he revised pietistic mysticism through the question of self-consciousness on introducing his personal concept of “Upbuilding”. In the third and last section of the work it demonstrates how the most remarkable influences from the classic mystic tradition of Christianity are in what many call Kierkegaard’s “second authorship” (Anden forfatterskab, 1847-1851). In fact, we can see in the works of this period the presence of authors like Tauler, Silesius and Fénelon, joined together by Kierkegaard self in his peculiar conception of anthropology, based on the relation between the presence of God’s image (Guds billede) in the man and the assent made by man self “becoming Christian” before God (For Gud), to Christ as the only Model (Forbillede) for Christianity.