St. Paul as the Paradigm of a Christian Way of Life: Kierkegaard’s Climacus Writings on Faith/Pistis

Abstract

This article examines how Søren Kierkegaard engages with Classical-Hellenistic-Roman thought to root modern day Christian faith in ethical practice and the pursuit of truth. Kierkegaard challenged Greek and Jewish perspectives on Christianity by advocating a form of scepticism that, arguing against the attainability of ataraxia, embraces faith (pistis) as a conviction that transcends rational understanding (influenced by Aristotle’s Rhetorica and Ethica Nichomachea). He contrasts the Jewish objective rituals with the Christian emphasis on inwardness, urging a life driven by personal faith and truth (influenced by Saint Paul’s works and disputed works such as Acts of the Apostles). Kierkegaard seeks to return to a primordial form of Christianity, as exemplified by St. Paul, where Christianity emerged not in the context of early childhood, but within a complex political milieu marked by deep Jewish spiritualism and Greek scientism. This analysis reveals that Climacus views faith not as mere belief, for example turning the question of Christ’s resurrection into a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but as a deeply personal and passionate commitment to a way of life that confronts life’s inherent challenges, uncertainties, and paradoxes. Interpreting Christianity as a way of life — distinct from Greek and Jewish traditions — has significant implications even today, as Christians reflecting on St. Paul's teachings and Kierkegaard's insights are likely again to become distinct subjects, much like early Christians did in their time.