Abstract

The book on Adler is one of the key works in Kierkegaard's thought. By writing it the Danish philosopher was able to verify for himself the religious content of his vocation and the accuracy of his critique against the modern church and society. It presents a profound investigation into the fundamental Christian concepts of "revelation", of "divine authority", and of "apostle". The inquiry shows that Kierkegaard is more of an objectivist than a subjectivist because he pronounced qualitative distinction between what belongs to the immanent order, i.e. to men, and what belongs to the transcendal order, i.e. to God. But The book on Adler is also the result of a profound dialectical and psychological study performed on a certain Adler who pactatively gratified himself whith a revelation. The book, then, gives in details the most obvious proofs of his confusion and gives an account of its real causes : an emotionnal shock, a lack in both a Christian conceptual formation and an ethico-religious education, and the negative influence of Hegelian philosophy. While it sees in Adler the epitome of his era, it makes us understand the continual danger of missing what is essential in religious phenomena.