ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a primary theme in Kierkegaard’s authorship is the connection between truth and subjectivity. Truth is existential, in that one both knows it but also embodies it in one’s life; in short, truth shapes how one develops as a self. Doing so means that existence becomes an art, in which personifying truth within one’s particular daily life becomes a creative process. Worldly artistic projects can help one in this task when rightly understood as a part of self-formation. For instance, in an allegory about a youth from Practice in Christianity, itself an aesthetic production, Kierkegaard stresses the importance of the imagination, will and passion in linking truth and subjectivity. The imagination allows one to become self-conscious about ways of being in the world, thereby creating mental images of subjective possibility. The will then chooses an image, one that becomes actualized within existence through passionate self-interest. As the account of true subjectivity, Christ’s image of service and constant neighbour love must be existentially formative, as it reveals the true possibility for subjectivity. To rightly relate these capacities to Christ is then an act of creative imitation. God is thus ever behind self-formation, as only through divine activity is true subjectivity possible. Visual images can awaken a self to an awareness of subjectivity, as well as communicate possibilities of selfhood. Ultimately, becoming a true subject entails the never-ending practice of creatively actualizing divine love as one’s very existence.
