Kierkegaard and Faith in a Time of Crisis

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the question of religion and faith has re-emerged with renewed urgency in the context of multiple and overlapping crises: existential disorientation, cultural fragmentation, the erosion of religious institutions, and the destabilization of shared frameworks of meaning. In a world shaped by technological rationality, artificial intelligence, scientific expertise, and political conflict—where religion is often perceived as contributing to division and violence—it is worth asking whether religion still has a place in contemporary societies. Can religious discourse still be meaningfully articulated within the public sphere in pluralistic democracies, or has religion become a residual phenomenon confined to minority communities?

Despite longstanding predictions of its disappearance in modern, scientific, and secular societies, religion has not vanished. Religious beliefs, practices, and spiritualities continue to expand and transform, revealing both their vitality and their ambivalence. Religion can be a source of life, meaning, and community, but also of alienation and conflict. For this reason, reflecting on religion today requires more than descriptive approaches. While sociological and historical analyses are indispensable, they are not sufficient on their own. Religion must also be approached from the perspective of what it ought to be, not only from what it has been or what it currently is.

Within this framework, Søren Kierkegaard’s thought offers a particularly rich and multifaceted resource for rethinking faith and the religious dimension of existence. The religious is not a marginal theme in his authorship but a central and defining concern, spanning both his pseudonymous and signed works. Kierkegaard understood his own project as fundamentally oriented toward the religious, and his writings explore this dimension from a plurality of perspectives.

Faith in Kierkegaard is approached through diverse and complementary lenses. A psychological perspective is developed in works such as The Concept of Anxiety, Fear and Trembling, and The Book on Adler, where the conditions of faith are explored in relation to anxiety, freedom, and inwardness. An epistemological approach emerges in Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, where the problem of truth and the limits of knowledge are brought into relation with the paradox of faith. His spiritual and existential reflections find expression in the Upbuilding Discourses and Practice in Christianity, while ethical dimensions are articulated in Works of Love and Stages on Life’s Way. At the same time, Kierkegaard’s literary and aesthetic writings—such as Either/Or—offer indirect ways of approaching the religious, and his later works, especially The Moment, engage critically with ecclesial and institutional forms of Christianity.

This plurality of approaches reflects the complexity of the religious phenomenon itself and allows for multiple interpretive pathways. Moreover, Kierkegaard’s reflections on figures such as Abraham, Job, the sinful woman, and Socrates, as well as his analyses of paganism and Christendom, challenge rigid distinctions between belief and unbelief. What it means to be religious—or not—emerges in his authorship as a deeply ambiguous and existential question.

This Special Issue aims to explore the relevance of Kierkegaard’s thought for understanding faith and religion in times of crisis, both in his own authorship and in its contemporary reception. It seeks to contribute to current philosophical, theological, and interdisciplinary debates on the role of religion in contemporary societies, particularly in relation to questions of meaning, rationality, public discourse, and human existence in contexts of crisis and transformation. In line with the scope of Religions, this Special Issue welcomes contributions that engage with religious experience, thought, and practice from philosophical, theological, and cultural perspectives.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Kierkegaard’s concept of faith in relation to crisis and existence;
• Faith, anxiety, and despair in existential and cultural contexts;
• Kierkegaard’s critique of Christendom and its relevance for contemporary religious institutions;
• Religion in the public sphere: reason, pluralism, and democracy;
• The ambivalence of religion in light of Kierkegaard’s thought: humanization, conflict, and alienation;
• Kierkegaard in dialogue with contemporary philosophy and theology (e.g., Levinas, Michel Henry, phenomenology, philosophy of religion);
• Ethical and political implications of faith;
• Rethinking religion through Kierkegaardian perspectives;
• Historical and conceptual contexts of Kierkegaard’s thought (e.g., nineteenth-century philosophy);
• Interdisciplinary approaches to religion and faith.

We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate new research on the contemporary relevance of Kierkegaard’s thought and contribute to a deeper understanding of religion and faith as complex dimensions of human existence in a time marked by crisis, plurality, and transformation.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors, or to the Assistant Editor Mrs. Kiki Zhang (kiki.zhang@mdpi.com) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ángel Viñas Vera
Dr. Raquel Carpintero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Kierkegaard
• faith
• religion
• crisis
• subjectivity
• anxiety
• secularization
• pluralism
• philosophy of religion