Abstract

Who are the real targets of Kierkegaard’s critique of characterizing faith as “the immediate”? A decisive factor in answering this question is the interpretation and dating of the note Pap. I A 273 / Papir 92, in which Kierkegaard equates that which Friedrich Schleiermacher calls ‘religion’ and “the Hegelian dogmaticians” call ‘faith’ with “the first immediate.” In order to make a fair attempt to interpret Kierkegaard’s critique and the crucial expression “the first immediate,” I will sketch out its factual context in Section I of this article. In Section II, I will question to what extent this critique of Friedrich Schleiermacher is justified. Sections III-V will look at the problem of identifying the “Hegelian dogmaticians.” Here I hope to show that it is not Philipp Konrad Marheineke nor Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel but rather Kierkegaard’s contemporaries in Copenhagen, Hans Lassen Martensen and Johan Ludvig Heiberg , who should be considered the particular targets of Kierkegaard’s critique