ABSTRACT

The relationship between Henrich (sometimes “Henrik”) Steffens (1773-1845)1 and Søren Kierkegaard is a good example of the substantial revisions regularly called for in the writing of the history of philosophy. A century ago the question to be discussed

1 Kierkegaard scholarship is fortunate that the fullest and most up-to-date treatment of Henrich Steffens’ philosophy of religion has been compiled by a student of Kierkegaard, Helge Hultberg, in three works: Den unge Henrich Steffens, 1773-1811, Copenhagen: Bianco Luno 1973; Den ældre Henrich Steffens, 1811-1845, Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel 1981; and “Steffens und Kierkegaard,” Kierkegaardiana, vol. 10, 1977, pp. 190-9. More recent scholarship is represented in Henrik Steffens-Vermittler zwischen Natur und Geist, ed. by Otto Lorenz and Bernd Henningsen, Berlin: Arno Spitz 1999. Other important resources on Steffens’ philosophy include Jørgen Bukdahl, “Vejen til myten og eventyret,” in Søren Kierkegaard og den menige mand, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel 1996 [1970] (Søren Kierkegaard Selskabets Populære Skrifter, vols. 9-10), pp. 11-21 (English translation: “Henrich Steffens: The Way to Myth and Fairy Tale,” in Søren Kierkegaard and the Common Man, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans 2001, pp. 7-18); Dietrich von Engelhardt, “Henrik Steffens im Spektrum der Naturwissenschaft und Naturphilosophie in der Epoche der Romantik,” in Henrik Steffens-Vermittler zwischen Natur und Geist, ed. by Lorenz and Henningsen, pp. 89-112; Trond Berg Eriksen, “Philosophiebegriff und Wissensvermittlung in Steffens’ Kopenhagener Vorlesungen,” in Henrik Steffens-Vermittler zwischen Natur und Geist, ed. by Lorenz and Henningsen, pp. 11-26; Harald Høffding, “Henrik Steffens,” in Danske Filosofer, Copenhagen: Gyldendal 1909, pp. 40-48; Friedrich Jung, Henrik Steffens und das Problem des Einheit von Vernunft und Offenbarung, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Marburg 1961; Carl Henrik Koch, “Henrich Steffens,” in Den danske idealisme, 1800-1880, Copenhagen: Gyldendal 2004, pp. 31-56; Johnny Kondrup, “Efterskrift,” in Indledning til philosophiske Forelæsninger, Copenhagen: C.A.Reitzel 1996, pp. 59-22; Ingetraut Ludolphy, Henrich Steffens. Sein Verhältnis zu den Lutheranern und sein Anteil an Entstehung und Schicksal der altlutherischen Gemeinde in Breslau, Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1962; Tonny Aagaard Olesen, “Kierkegaards Schelling: Eine historische Einführung,” in Kierkegaard und Schelling: Freiheit, Angst und Wirklichkeit, ed. by Jochem Hennigfeld and Jon Stewart, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2003 (Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series, vol. 8), pp. 1-102, see especially pp. 8-13; pp. 33-43; and Fritz Paul, Henrich Steffens: Naturphilosophie und Universalromantik, Munich: Wilhelm Fink 1973. For a bibliography until 1977 consult Aage Henrich Steffens-en mosaik,

might have been the significance of Kierkegaard for the understanding of Steffens. The classic 1911 edition of the English language Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, offered a longer entry for Steffens than for Kierkegaard, and it described Kierkegaard’s philosophical stance as “a reaction against the speculative thinkers,” whom it listed as Steffens, Niels Treschow (1751-1833), and Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785-1872).2