„WER SICH SELBST KENNT, DER WEIß, AUF WELCHE SUMME ER LAUTET“. S. KIERKEGAARDS MONETÄRER DISKURS ÜBER DAS ERKENNEN DER RELIGIÖSEN WAHRHEIT
“HE WHO KNOWS HIMSELF, KNOWS TO THE LAST PENNY HOW MUCH HE IS WORTH”. S. KIERKEGAARD’S MONETARY DISCOURSE ON KNOWLEDGE AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH

Summary/Abstract: S. Kierkegaard uses the money metaphor to designate the “bankruptcy” of contemporary theology, as well as the falsification of the self, of Christianity and of its concepts of religious truth during modernity. In Kierkegaard’s journals, pseudonymous works, upbuilding discourses from 1843-1844 and The Moment, the description of false banknotes, worthless coins and inflation is often connected with the problem of trust in God and its loss. When putting these metaphors, as well as the description of the “Christian auditor” who needs to revise the falsified concepts but is a falsifier himself, into their historical context, the impact of the historical-critical method of Bible study and D. F. Strauss’ Life of Jesus becomes evident. This article also differentiates Kierkegaard’s implicit view on indirect communication and aesthetics from the previous and later use of the same monetary imagery (by G. E. Lessing and F. Nietzsche). Even if the economic circuit of dealing with worthless money / falsified concepts seems to be perpetuated to no end, for Kierkegaard it is actually abolished by the logic of the good and perfect gift, which is from above. By acknowledging that he is nothing, man can acquire his entire worth from the hands of God.

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