Søren Kierkegaard (AD 1813-1855) is often considered the founder of existential philosophy. SK’s philosophy outlines three existential “points of view” as three possible “Stages on Life’s Way” (which is also the title of his book about them). They are 1) aesthetic, 2) ethical, and 3) religious.
According to SK, the aesthetic person finds ultimate meaning in relationship to the outside world. The ethical person finds ultimate meaning in moral relationship to self and others. The religious person finds ultimate meaning in the self’s relationship to God.
In his first book Either/Or, SK states the contrast between the aesthetic and the ethical. In his next book Fear and Trembling, SK then states the contrast between the ethical and the religious. In many ways SK’s three stages form a dialectical triad. The aesthetic is the thesis. The ethical is the antithesis. And finally, the religious is the synthesis where relationships to the world and to others are relative to, and determined by, the religious person’s faith-relationship with God.
Although not everything SK wrote was about religion, everything he wrote had a religious purpose. The religious is present from the beginning of his writing as if the plan had always been to reintroduce Christianity into Christendom. It is worth noting that SK’s last published works were a series of pamphlets he wrote criticizing the Laodicean lukewarmness of the Christainty that surrounded him. And it was during SK’s own funeral that an admirer interrupted the liturgy by reading Revelation 3:14-22.
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’” (Revelation 3:14-22 ESV).
~Boethius~