ABSTRACT
In attacking theoretical attempts to supply a rational basis for Christianity, Kierkegaard found an unlikely ally in “the great Infidel,” David Hume (1711-76). Often thought to be an atheist, the Scottish philosopher believed that the existence of God could be neither proven nor disproven by rational argument, and throughout his life he worked carefully to formulate refutations of arguments for the existence of God and other religious dogmas.1 Kierkegaard followed Johann Georg Hamann (1730-88) in welcoming these refutations as “truth in the mouth of the enemy.”2 Writing from a theistic standpoint, Hamann taught that Hume’s skeptical attacks on rational theology accomplished the worthwhile goal of exposing Christianity as something rationally unjustifiable and therefore as something requiring faith. Kierkegaard expresses admiration for Hamann’s response to Hume in two early journal entries from 1836 and then again in Stages on Life’s Way.3
