“Members of One Another”: Towards a Kierkegaardian Ecclesiology

Abstract

Søren Kierkegaard’s theology, notorious for its emphasis on the single individual and her relationship to God, has sometimes given the impression that one should downplay the importance of the corporate body of the Church. Because of his salient emphasis on the individual and her faith, one could be forgiven for thinking Kierkegaard has nothing to teach us about ecclesiology. We disagree. Drawing on the social ontology of Philip Pettit, we argue that because Kierkegaard’s rejection of collectivism has more to do with his affirmation of the individual and their actions before God, holism provides for the possibility of a Kierkegaardian ecclesiology. Such an ecclesiology, we argue, could stress the importance of the single individual before God while giving an account of how the individual’s actions are brought into the body of the Church. Where many ecclesiologies fail to provide a robust account of individual action within the corporate body, a Kierkegaardian ecclesiology can do just that.