From THE POINT OF VIEW FOR MY WORK AS AN AUTHOR (1859)

On politics and religion.

“The religious is the transfigured reproduction of what a politician—provided he actually loves being a human being and loves human beings (Menneskene)—has thought in his most blissful moment, even if he is inclined to find the religious too lofty and too ideal to be practical.”

Kierkegaard’s posthumously published The Point of View for My Work as an Author contains a brief “Addition” (Bilag) in which he clarifies the relationship between his authorship and the rise of parliamentary democracy. In the above passage, Kierkegaard suggests that the religious aims of his writings should not be confused with political activism. Notably, however, he also implies that religion and politics are not in opposition to one another. Rather, to the extent that the religious point of view is properly understood, it should be seen as a transfiguration—as a higher and more authentic expression—of what politics messily seeks to achieve on earth.