ABSTRACT
Torsten Bohlin's Sören Kierkegaards etiska åskådning is his doctoral dissertation, defended at Uppsala University's Theological Faculty in May 1918. Bohlin's dissertation consists of ten chapters. In presenting his theological interpretation of Kierkegaard, Bohlin engages in a critical discussion with a German book that advocates a conflicting interpretation, namely, Wilhelm Bauer's Die Ethik Sören Kierkegaards. Bohlin's criticism of Bauer focuses on Bauer's views of Kierkegaard's ideas about the different existential stages. Bohlin regards Bauer's Kierkegaard interpretation as peculiar. Kierkegaard's criterion, Bohlin says, has nothing to do with the two assumptions spoken of by Bauer, but derives instead from Kierkegaard's theological belief-system. In spite of a deep appreciation of Kierkegaard, Bohlin did not consider all aspects of Kierkegaard's ethics to be genuinely religious or even Christian. Bohlin's negative evaluation of allegedly non-religious and non-Christian elements in Kierkegaard's thought did not initially cause much stir, but later on came under heavy criticism.
