Kierkegaard on Religion

For Kierkegaard, the faith that people obtain through religion is a crucial element for becoming one's true self, the ultimate emphasis of his existentialism. He defines faith as an individual's firm belief in the existence of God, whether it can be proven by reason or not. Kierkegaard believes that everyone's relationship with God is a solitary, lonely one, that one must face God alone. Affirming and renewing one's faith in God is a repetitive process, through which one continues to explore and examine the self. "Christianity is the single individual, here, the single individual."

As Kierkegaard believes that religion is a personal relationship between an individual and God, and thus extensively criticizes the Christendom (Christianity as a political entity). He views the connection of the Church and the state as harmful as it corrupts the religion itself and forces people to take on the "Christian" entity without knowing what it is to be Christian, with no faith in God. Their relationship with God is passively guided by the clergymen, who gain power as the number of Christians grows; and the "believers" themselves never question why they believe in God in this way and just blindly follow - a "herd mentality". According to Kierkegaard, the Church's doctrine makes people lazy and not motivated to reconsider their relationship with God. They would therefore never reach their true self, and become instead the "mass man".  

I find Kierkegaard's philosophy a powerful perspective to observe religion. Though I am not religious, I believe in the existence of a higher being above that of human, without an exact concept of what it is or what it can do for me. I identify with Kierkegaard's idea that one shall follow a religion by one's own will, realization and faith.