The caregiver of Copenhagen

Kierkegaard's reeducation of the age of information

pp. 189-221

in: , Exercises in new creation from Paul to Kierkegaard, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter explores Kierkegaard's of critique the forms of life that shape observers—who passively know and are unable to act. Kierkegaard roots this cultural complex in various writing technologies. These technologies of speed and ease obscure the slow violence of the gradual degradation of cities and the slow shaping of selves. Kierkegaard, by contrast, sought to write texts, like Fear and Trembling, that frustrated the expectations of the observer and cultivated attention and responsiveness, and Practice in Christianity, that presented Christ as a path to be followed rather than as a doctrine to be accepted. This pedagogy addresses those who think they are wise to illuminate the injustice of their ways and open alternatives.