The Moment

His last campaign: ten numbers of a pamphlet against the Danish church, nine of them out before he collapsed in the street.

by Søren Kierkegaard368 passages held

Danish, the original language

Original title: Øieblikket Nr. 1–10
First published: 1855(aged 42)
Original language: Danish

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Overview

On the Sunday before Bishop Mynster's funeral in February 1854, Hans Lassen Martensen, the theologian who would succeed him as Bishop of Zealand, preached in his memory and placed him among the true witnesses to the truth, in a line running back to the apostles. Søren Kierkegaard, whose father had been Mynster's parishioner, waited ten months and then, on 18 December, asked in the newspaper Fædrelandet whether that was true. A witness to the truth, he argued, is someone who suffers for it, and Mynster had been a cultivated man who enjoyed the comforts of high office. Twenty more articles followed by late May 1855, and then he started this paper of his own. The first number, sold for 12 skilling, came off the press on 25 May and was reprinted within a week; the ninth appeared on 24 September. Signed with his own name and written in short, sharp pieces, the numbers argue that the Christianity of the New Testament no longer existed in Denmark. A state that counted every child a Christian at birth and employed the clergy as its officials had, on this view, replaced the faith with a comfortable imitation; the reader is told to shun the clergy, whose living depended on keeping it up. The tenth number lay ready in fair copy when he collapsed; he was taken to Frederiks Hospital on 2 October and died there on 11 November. At the burial his nephew Henrik Lund protested against the church burying him, and was fined for it. The tenth number was first printed in 1881, in the last volume of his posthumous papers.

Key concepts

What does Kierkegaard mean by a witness to the truth?

Someone who suffers for the truth: who proclaims it at a cost, in poverty, lowliness or persecution, as the apostles did. The phrase was Martensen's, used in his memorial sermon to place Bishop Mynster in that line. Kierkegaard's point was that a man the truth had made comfortable and honoured could not belong to it.

What was Kierkegaard's attack on the church?

His public campaign against the Danish state church, begun on 18 December 1854 with an article in Fædrelandet and carried on through twenty more articles and then, from 25 May 1855, this paper of his own. It ended only when he collapsed: he was taken to Frederiks Hospital on 2 October and died there on 11 November.

How many numbers of The Moment appeared in his lifetime?

Nine, from 25 May to 24 September 1855; the first, sold for 12 skilling, was reprinted within a week. The tenth lay ready in fair copy when Kierkegaard collapsed, so it never appeared while he lived. It was first printed in 1881, in the last volume of his posthumous papers.

What does The Moment mean by New Testament Christianity?

The faith as the New Testament presents it: a demand to follow Christ in suffering and self-denial, freely chosen by an individual. The Moment sets it against what it saw in Denmark, a population counted Christian at birth and served by clergy who were state officials, and argues that the first had disappeared behind the second.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

What Is a Witness to the Truth?

When Martensen placed the late Bishop Mynster among the true witnesses to the truth, Kierkegaard asked whether that was true. A witness, he argued, is someone who suffers for the truth, not someone it has made comfortable.

Mynster had been his father's pastor, a cultivated man who enjoyed the comforts of high office. Hans Lassen Martensen, who would succeed him as Bishop of Zealand, praised him in a memorial sermon in February 1854 as one of the true witnesses, in a line running back to the apostles. Kierkegaard waited ten months and on 18 December asked in Fædrelandet whether that was true. Twenty more articles followed by late May 1855, and then this paper of his own, signed with his name and written in short, sharp pieces that leave no room for a comfortable reading.

truth
suffering
religious authority
discipleship
authenticity
sincerity
religious commitment
faith
salvation
eternity
divine love
self-denial

Enter a dialogue

A Christian Country Without Christianity

A state that counts every child a Christian at birth and employs the clergy as its officials: has it spread the faith, or replaced it with a comfortable imitation? The Moment argues the second, and tells the reader what to do about it.

The numbers argue that the Christianity of the New Testament no longer existed in Denmark. What existed instead was an arrangement: a whole population Christian by birth, and a clergy whose living depended on keeping that appearance up. Irony carries much of the argument, because the gap between the official claim and the life it covers is itself comic. The reader is told to shun the clergy. Nine numbers appeared between May and September 1855; the tenth lay ready in fair copy when Kierkegaard collapsed, and was first printed in 1881.

religious hypocrisy
hypocrisy
clergy
institutional religion
institutional christianity
nominal christianity
religion and state
clericalism
religious institutions
worldliness
social conformity
conformity
christianity
self-deception
worship
moral responsibility
irony
religion

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 368
distinct concepts: 430
by passages held, corpus-wide: #204

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “clergy” and “religious hypocrisy”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 26 pairings. 81 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
clergy	religious hypocrisy	24
institutional religion	religious hypocrisy	24
christianity	religious hypocrisy	23
christianity	institutional religion	14
christianity	suffering	13
clergy	institutional religion	13
christianity	clergy	12
hypocrisy	religion	11
clergy	religious authority	10
religious authority	religious hypocrisy	8
religious hypocrisy	suffering	6
clergy	religion	5
hypocrisy	religious authority	5
institutional religion	religious authority	4
institutional religion	suffering	4
christianity	hypocrisy	3
christianity	religious authority	3
clergy	hypocrisy	3
clergy	suffering	3
hypocrisy	institutional religion	3
religious authority	suffering	3
hypocrisy	suffering	2
institutional religion	religion	2
religion	suffering	2
religion	religious authority	1
religion	religious hypocrisy	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1841 The Concept of Irony (Om Begrebet Ironi)
Defended in September 1841 — after he had returned Regine Olsen's engagement ring, before the final break with her — this academic dissertation is the last book he signed himself before the pseudonymous books began with Either/Or.
DA
1843 Either/Or (Enten – Eller)
The first of the pseudonymous books: an invented editor presenting two invented authors, whose argument Stages on Life's Way would reopen two years later.
DA
1843 Fear and Trembling (Frygt og Bæven)
Twin of Repetition, published the same October day: both books take up a man who must give up what he loves, one through Abraham and Isaac, the other through an engagement broken off.
DA
1843 Repetition (Gjentagelsen)
A short fiction, subtitled a venture in experimenting psychology: one man's account of a journey back to Berlin, and another man's letters about a love he has fled.
DA
1844 Philosophical Fragments (Philosophiske Smuler)
Johannes Climacus signs his first book here and returns in the far longer Postscript; in its author's lifetime this short thought experiment was little read outside Denmark.
DA
1844 The Concept of Anxiety (Begrebet Angest)
Philosophical Fragments had appeared four days earlier under another pseudonym; this is its companion, and it takes a point of church doctrine, inherited sin, and treats it as a problem in psychology.
DA
1845 Stages on Life's Way (Stadier paa Livets Vei)
Characters from Either/Or and Repetition return here, and the argument moves past the ethical into the religious.
DA
1846 Concluding Unscientific Postscript to "Philosophical Fragments" (Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift)
He meant it to close his authorship and later called it the authorship's turning point; after it, the openly religious writing takes over.
DA
1846 Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age. A Literary Review (En literair Anmeldelse)
After the Postscript's farewell, the first book he published was, in form, a review of a contemporary novel, and he signed it with his own name.
DA
1847 Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (Opbyggelige Taler i forskjellig Aand)
Begun in the spring of 1846, while the satirical weekly The Corsair was still caricaturing him, it opens the run of signed religious books that fills the years after the Postscript.
DA
1847 Works of Love (Kjerlighedens Gjerninger)
Two series of deliberations, a form he set apart from the discourse because it is meant to unsettle a reader rather than console one, published six months after the Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits.
DA
1848 Christian Discourses (Christelige Taler)
The first book of 1848, the year he later called the richest of his authorship and the year he wrote The Sickness unto Death.
DA
1849 The Sickness unto Death (Sygdommen til Døden)
The first of two books signed by Anti-Climacus, with Practice in Christianity following in 1850; Kierkegaard later ranked the pair among the most important things he wrote.
DA
1849 Two Ethical-Religious Essays (Tvende ethisk-religieuse Smaa-Afhandlinger)
A slim pamphlet, the only book under the initials H.H., salvaged from a planned cycle of ethical-religious essays that he gave up in the spring of 1849.
DA
1850 Practice in Christianity (Indøvelse i Christendom)
Kierkegaard judged it the truest of all his books; with The Sickness unto Death it makes up the pair signed by Anti-Climacus.
DA
1851 For Self-Examination (Til Selvprøvelse, Samtiden anbefalet)
The last new title he published before three years of public silence, and the book whose planned second series became Judge for Yourselves!
DA
1855 The Moment (Øieblikket Nr. 1–10) you are here DA
1876 Judge for Yourselves! (Dømmer selv! Til Selvprøvelse Samtiden anbefalet)
Of the books on this shelf, the only one he finished and then chose not to publish; it stands between the signed discourses of 1851 and the open attack on the church of 1854–55.
DA

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