ABSTRACT
The New Testament passages that narrate Jesus’ resurrection or describe the general resurrection of human beings do not figure prominently in any overt way in Kierkegaard’s literature. The theme of resurrection receives much less attention than does the passion of Christ the Savior, or the life and teachings of Christ the prototype. A cursory glance through Kierkegaard’s pages would suggest that Good Friday dramatically upstages Easter. Kierkegaard rarely cites the empty tomb narratives in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and mentions the resurrection story in John with only slightly more frequency. Admittedly, Kierkegaard does occasionally allude to the gospel stories of the epiphanies of the resurrected Christ, but these references function more as illustrations or embellishments of somewhat unrelated points than as substantive themes in their own right. However, this relative lack of direct citation does not mean that the biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection were unimportant to Kierkegaard, or that he was uninterested in biblical teachings about the resurrection of individuals. Frequently Kierkegaard alludes to the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of individuals without basing his remarks on any particular biblical passage; the stories are often tacitly presupposed by his arguments and literary ploys. As we shall see, resurrection is more important to Kierkegaard than it initially seems. The theme informs Kierkegaard’s works in several different ways, all of them vital to his purposes. In fact, Kierkegaard selectively borrows from at least two different strands of theological reflection on the resurrection, but avoids endorsing either one in order to develop the concept in his own unique way. His general aim to simultaneously upbuild and unsettle the reader accounts both for his reticence to expatiate about resurrection and his selective appropriation of reflection about resurrection.
