ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, I spoke of the language of the soul and how the hold of that language may be precarious in our culture. In an effort to make it less so, we may be tempted to advance apologetic claims about the soul which go beyond what we really know. I find such claims not only in the work of contemporary philosophers who are friends of religion, but in philosophers of very different persuasions to whom I am greatly indebted. Such a philosopher is Søren Kierkegaard who, in Wittgenstein’s eyes, was the greatest thinker of the nineteenth century. So if I criticize his Christian apologetics in this and the following chapter, this indebtedness must be borne in mind. It only goes to show how prone we are, when speaking about religion, to say more than we know when we expound its virtues. In this chapter, I want to concentrate on considerations which may be advanced in praise of purity of heart.
