The Church as the Crowd: Kierkegaard’s Attack on Christendom as his Critique of the Public

This paper analyzes the congruity between Kierkegaard’s late polemical writings against the state church and his earlier writings critiquing “the public” or “the crowd.” Just as the public is everyone and no one at the same time, so blurred lines between church and state in Danish Christendom mean that the church is also made up of everyone and no one, for “we are all Christians” (*The Moment*). In both the church and the public, there is a temptation to lose oneself in the universal instead of stepping into the particularity of a relationship with God. Kierkegaard’s argument holds particular relevance for Christians who have chosen to leave their faith communities due to moral injury or spiritual danger.