ABSTRACT
Christenhed is derived from the title of Jesus, Christ (Xριστός). Xριστός means “anointed one” and is a Greek translation of the transliterated Hebrew term “Messiah.” Its lexical meaning in Danish refers to a people or land that calls itself Christian, understands itself as Christian, and is associated with Christian traditions.1 Christenhed is translated by the English term “Christendom,” and it should not be confused with the Danish term Christendom, which is translated as “Christianity.” Although Kierkegaard uses the term too frequently to examine each use of it, his understanding of it is fairly consistent even as his relationship to Christendom changes. He universally disparages Christendom-which he sees as embodied in his own nineteenth-century Denmark-because it is an illusory expression of Christianity, but he treats it differently in the later polemical writings. Throughout most of his authorship Kierkegaard seems modestly optimistic about the prospect of introducing genuine Christianity into Christendom, but this optimism wanes in his later polemical writings.
